P UBLIKE confederacie is, when there is before hand a compact made betwixt diverse persons; the one to be principall, the rest to be assistants in working of miracles, or rather in cousening and abusing the beholders. As when I tell you in the presence of a multitude what you have thought or doone, or shall doo or thinke, when you and I were thereupon agreed before. And if this be cunninglie and closelie handled, it will induce great admiration to the beholders; speciallie when they are before amazed and abused by some experiments of naturall magike, arythmeticall conclusions, or legierdemaine. Such were, for the most part, the conclusions and devises of Feates: wherein doubt you not, but Jannes and Jambres were expert, active, and readie.
Book 13, Chap. 14: Of publike confederacie, and whereof it consisteth.
From The Discoverie of Witchcraft (Reginald Scot, first edition, 1584), p. 309.