NEXT, the foregoing truth is proven in terms of the heinousness of the crimes in the case of sorceresses through comparison with other works of magicians and diviners. There are fourteen varieties of superstitious works based on a division of divination into three kinds. The first variety takes place through the open invocation of demons, the second merely through the silent observation of the arrangement or motion of objects like constellations, days, winds and the like, and the third through the observation of some human action for the purpose of inquiring about something hidden. All these kinds have the designation “fortunes.” The varieties of the first kind of divination, the one that takes place through the explicit invocation of demons, are conjuring, divination by dreams, divination by the dead, Pythian divination, divination by earth, divination by water, divination by air, divination by fire and the religious practice of soothsayers (Thomas in Second of Second, Q. 95 [95.3.Co.] and 26, Q. 4, “Igitur” and Q. 5, “Nec mirum”). Next, the varieties of the second kind are horoscope casters, haruspices, augurs, omen watchers, diviners by hand and diviners by shoulder bone. The varieties of the third kind differ according to all those things that have the designation “fortunes” for the purpose of inquiring about something Part I 78A–C hidden, namely divination by the observation of dots, straws and congealed shapes in lead. This is discussed in Thomas (cited above) and 26, Qs. 3 and 4.

All these offenses are surpassed by the crimes of sorceresses, and since this is a conclusion about the more prominent varieties, there is no difficulty about the lesser ones. In the first variety, the one in which some people deceive the human perceptions with certain appearances created through conjuring, so that a physical object is perceived differently by the sense of vision or touch, as was discussed in the foregoing in connection with the method of dazzling the eyes, sorceresses are not content with these deeds.