ABSTRACT
Johann Wier's readers and opponents recognized that the De praestigiis participated in traditional demonological discourse but that he upset the intricate balance between God, the devil and his witches that lay at its heart. The great paradox of Wier's scepticism as set out in the De praestigiis was that it actually assigned more power to the devil than his adversaries ever had. Faced with the wide-spread and all-pervasive action of the devil and his army of followers, Wier sought to unravel the tangled skein and hand the reader the thread that will lead him out of what he calls the labyrinth of incantations. Much like Jean Bodin later, Wier emphasized the importance of a human being knowingly allying themselves with the devil. Wier led an assault on superstition and ignorance by maintaining that witches were not in league with the devil but instead suffered from mental illness and needed medical treatment.
