In the sixteenth century, witchcraft was generally thought to be a grave danger. Specific people, a majority of them women, were believed to threaten the world as servants of the Devil. In his De praestigiis daemonum, published in 1563, the Dutch / German physician Johan Wier argued that human beings were unable to perform witchcraft and that the women who were accused were innocent but often deluded by demons into believing that they were guilty. In his plea for tolerance Wier was inspired by his brother Matthias and the spiritualist prophet David Joris. In order to convince his readers he used their prejudices, that he himself rejected, about the power of demons and the intellectual capacities of women.

在 16 世纪，巫术普遍被认为是一种严重的危险。某些特定的人，其中大多数是女性，被认为作为魔鬼的仆人威胁着世界。在1563 年出版的De praestigiis daemonum 中，荷兰/德国医生 Johan Wier 认为人类无法使用巫术，被指控的妇女是无辜的，但经常被恶魔欺骗而相信她们有罪。在他的宽容请求中，维尔受到了他的兄弟马蒂亚斯和唯心主义先知大卫乔里斯的启发。为了说服他的读者，他利用了他们自己所拒绝的关于恶魔的力量和女性智力的偏见。