Weyer, Johann

Johann Weyer (1515-1588), physician to Duke William of Cleves, was one of the few medical men of his age to speak out against the witch-hunts. Like his contemporaries, Weyer believed in witchcraft and witches he differed from them only in holding that witch-hunters made the diagnosis of witchcraft too often and too readily. He especially attacked the uninformed and unskilled physicians [who] relegate all of the incurable diseases, or all of the diseases the remedy for which they overlook, to witchcraft and concluded that they, the physicians themselves are thus the real malefactors. In short, he did not oppose the witch-hunts themselves, but only their abuses or excesses. ... 

Johann Weyer publishes De Praestigiis Daemonum (The Deceptions of the Devil), in Basel But when the great searcher of hearts, from whom nothing is hidden, shall appear, your wicked deeds shall be revealed, you tyrants, sanguinary judges, butchers, torturers, and ferocious robbers, who have thrown out humanity and do not know mercy. The book is placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. 

Johann Weyer s De Praestigiis Daemonum appears on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum for the last time. 

Johann Weyer, De Praestigiis Daemonum (1563), quoted in Gregory Zilboorg, A History of Medical Psychology, p. 215. 

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