WITCHCRAFT - DEMONS The witches are supposed to hae the power to cause conflagrations, even at a distance, by means of magical spells, learned of the Devil. Hand-coloured print from Francesco Maria Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum, 1608. This was the most learned and precise of mediaeval witchcraft manuals, and in some respects (because it paid homage to the superstitions of the worst kind) one of the most horrible.