This article examines how privacy allowed agents to explore unsanctioned or controversial kinds of knowledge, as exemplified by August of Saxony’s handwritten book of healing charms (1585). By looking at how Elector August of Saxony (1526–86) selected and eliminated elements of charms for all kinds of afflictions, this article analyzes how popular knowledge could be transformed in private to fit the personal beliefs and scholarly convictions of privileged practitioners. This analysis enables an understanding of how popular knowledge was transformed and translated by people in power in times of religious and political turmoil.