section_path: Theology/Magic and its practitioners
section_name: Magic and its practitioners
paragraph_text: Magic and its practitioners
  
  Regarding magic, Thomas wrote that:
  
  A mention of witchcraft appears in the Summa Theologicae and concludes that the church does not treat temporary or permanent impotence attributed to a spell any differently to that of natural causes, as far as an impediment to marriage.
  
  Under the canon Episcopi, church doctrine held that witchcraft was not possible and any practitioners of sorcery were deluded and their acts an illusion. Thomas Aquinas was cited in a new doctrine that included the belief in witches. This was a departure from the teachings of his master Albertus Magnus whose doctrine was based in the Episcopi. "To what extent Dominican inquisitors such as Heinrich Kramer really found support in Thomas is irrelevant in this context, thus associating Thomas's name with the whole aspect of witchcraft and the persecution of witches."
  
  The famous 15th-century witch-hunter's manual, the Malleus Maleficarum, also written by a member of the Dominican Order, begins by quoting Thomas Aquinas ("Commentary on Pronouncements" Sent.4.34.I.Co.) refuting the Episcopi and goes on to cite Thomas Aquinas over a hundred times. Promoters of the witch hunts that followed often quoted Thomas more than any other source. "Thomas Aquinas's statements remain essentially theoretical and lack any direct relation to the subsequent persecution of witches."