Often, records with spells were not just taken with them or sewn into clothes, but applied to the place that needed to be healed: a woman in labor was tied on her stomach; with bleeding - put on the wound; in case of toothache - in the mouth. Such magical techniques were extremely widespread, but not everyone was approved. Aurelius Augustine (354–430), one of the most influential theologians of the Western Church, complained that some people put the Gospel on their heads to get rid of headaches. And in the 16th century, Johann Weyer, a Dutch doctor, demonologist and critic of witch-hunting, ridiculed those who, in order to cure impotence, tied an amulet in a man's groin, written on a piece of parchment, over which one of the psalms was read seven times.
In order to come into closer contact with the healing text, it could be written on a piece of paper or a piece of cheese, and then eaten, or washed off the parchment with water or wine, and then drunk. Here, religion and magic, the official church cult and (semi-) forbidden magical practices are barely separable and follow the same logic. For centuries, believers, in order to gain the saving power of relics or miraculous images, not only prayed to them, but also touched them with their fingers and lips, and also scraped off dust or paint from them in order to put it in a bag, carry it with them or drink it, dissolving it in water. Figures of saints depicted in miniatures in psalters or chronicles were sometimes carved as amulets, and images of Christ's wounds were applied to the body not only for the sake of spiritual transformation, but also to heal from bodily ailments.