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Malleus Maleficarum

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The Malleus Maleficarum(Latin for "The Hammer of Witches", or "Hexenhammer" in German) is a famous treatise on witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, and was first published in Germany in 1487. The main purpose of the Malleus was to systematically refute all arguments against the reality of witchcraft, refute those who expressed even the slightest skepticism about its reality, to prove that witches were more often women than men, and to educate magistrates on the procedures that could find them out and convict them.

Genesis

The Malleus Maleficarum was published in 1487 by Heinrich Kramer (Latinized Institoris) and Jacob Sprenger. However, most modern scholars believe that Jacob Sprenger contributed little if anything to the work besides his illustrious name. Sprenger and Kramer were both Dominican friars and Inquisitors.

In 1484, Kramer had tried to prosecute witchcraft in the bishopric of Trent but was blocked by local ecclesiastical authorities. Kramer requested papal support and attained it via the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, which recognized the existence of witches and gave full papal approval for the Inquisition to prosecute witchcraft. However, after local authorities still blocked his attempts, Kramer directed his energies to the composition of the Malleus. He drew on earlier sources like the Johannes Nider's treatise Formicarius, written 1435/37. Kramer used the papal bull as the preface for the Malleus, giving the false impression that Innocent VIII had endorsed the Malleus when in fact the bull had endorsed Kramer as an inquisitor and not his (then unwritten) work.

Kramer and Sprenger submitted the Malleus Maleficarum to the University of Cologne’s Faculty of Theology on May 9, 1487, hoping for its endorsement. Instead, the faculty condemned it as both unethical and illegal. Nevertheless, Kramer inserted an endorsement from the University into subsequent editions. The Catholic Church banned the book in 1490, placing it on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

Despite this, it became the handbook for witch-hunters and Inquisitors throughout Late Medieval Europe. Between the years 1487 and 1520, the work was published thirteen times. It was again published between the years of 1574 to 1669 a total of sixteen times. The papal bull and endorsements which appear at the beginning of the book contributed to its popularity by giving the illusion that it had been granted approval.

The Malleus marked an important turn in the approach to witchcraft. The reality of witchcraft had been denied by the church in earlier centuries but now became accepted as a real and dangerous heresy.

Contents

The Malleus Maleficarum asserts that three elements are necessary for witchcraft: the evil-intentioned witch, the help of the Devil, and the Permission of God. The treatise is divided up into three sections. The first section refutes critics who denied the reality of witchcraft, thereby hindering its prosecution. The second section describes the actual forms of witchcraft and its remedies. The third section is to assist judges confronting and combating witchcraft. However, each of these three sections has the prevailing themes of what is witchcraft and who is a witch. The Malleus Maleficarum can hardly be called an original text, for it heavily relies upon earlier works such as Visconti, Torquemada and, most famously, Johannes Nider's Formicarius (1435).

Section I

Section I argues that because the Devil exists and has the power to do astounding things, witches exist to help, if done through the aid of the Devil and with the permission of God. The Devil’s power is greatest where human sexuality is concerned, for it was believed that women were more sexual than men. Loose women had sex with the Devil, thus paving their way to become witches. To quote the Malleus “all witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable.”

Section II

In section II of the Malleus Maleficarum, the authors turn to matters of practice by discussing actual cases. This section first discusses the powers of witches, and then goes into recruitment strategies. It is mostly witches as opposed to the Devil who do the recruiting, by making something go wrong in the life of a respectable matron that makes her consult the knowledge of a witch, or by introducing young maidens to tempting young devils. This section also details how witches cast spells and remedies that can be taken to prevent witchcraft or help those that have been affected by it.

Section III

Section III is the legal part of the Malleus that describes how to prosecute a witch. The arguments are clearly laid for the lay magistrates prosecuting witches. Institoris and Sprenger offer a step-by-step guide to the conduct of a witch trial, from the method of initiating the process and assembling accusations, to the interrogation (including torture) of witnesses, and the formal charging of the accused. Women who did not cry during their trial were automatically believed to be witches.

Major themes

Misogyny runs rampant in the Malleus Maleficarum. The treatise singled out women as specifically inclined for witchcraft, because they were susceptible to demonic temptations through their manifold weaknesses. It was believed that they were weaker in faith and were more carnal than men. Most of the women accused as witches had strong personalities and were known to defy convention by overstepping the lines of proper female decorum. After the publication of the Malleus, most of those who were prosecuted as witches were women. Indeed, the very title of the Malleus Maleficarum is feminine, alluding to the idea that it was women who were the evil-doers. Otherwise, it would be the Malleus Maleficorum (the masculine form of the Latin noun maleficus or malefica, 'witch'), which would mean The Hammer of (Male) Witches. It should be noted that in Latin the feminine "Maleficarum" would only be used for women while the masculine "Maleficorum" could be used for either sex.

The Malleus Maleficarum accuses witches of infanticide, cannibalism, casting evil spells to harm their enemies, and having the power to steal men’s penises. It goes on to give accounts of witches committing these crimes.

The Malleus Maleficarum was heavily influenced by humanistic ideologies. The ancient subjects of astronomy, philosophy, and medicine were being reintroduced to the West at this time, as well as a plethora of ancient texts being rediscovered and studied. The Malleus often makes reference to the Bible and Aristotelian thought, and it is also heavily influenced by the philosophical tenets of Neo-Platonism. It also mentions astrology and astronomy, which had recently been reintroduced to the West by the ancient works of Pythagoras.

Reasons for popularity

The Malleus Maleficarum was able to spread throughout Europe so rapidly in the late fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century due to the innovation of the printing press in the middle of the fifteenth century by Johannes Gutenberg. That printing should have been invented thirty years before the first publication of the Malleus, which instigated the fervor of witch hunting, and, in the words of Russell, "the swift propagation of the witch hysteria by the press was the first evidence that Gutenberg had not liberated man from original sin. The Malleus is also heavily influenced by the subjects of divination, astrology, and healing rituals the Church inherited from antiquity.

The late fifteenth century was also a period of religious turmoil, for the Protestant Reformation was but a few decades in the future. The Malleus Maleficarum and the witch craze that ensued took advantage of the increasing intolerance of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Europe, where the Protestant and Catholic camps each zealously strove to maintain the purity of faith.

Consequences

Between 1487 and 1520, twenty editions of the Malleus were published, and another sixteen editions were published between 1574 to 1669. Popular accounts suggest that the extensive publishing of the Malleus Maleficarum in 1487 launched centuries of witch-hunts in Europe. Estimations of deaths have varied widely, however the more commonly accepted estimates are between 40,000 and 100,000 people, mostly women, because they were accused as witches. However, this attributes (at the low end of these estimates) to this one book 1500% of the currently accepted scholarly estimate of the total death toll of all the witch trials in Europe between 1450 and 1700. Also, as some researchers have noted, the fact that the Malleus was popular does not imply that it accurately reflected or influenced actual practice; one researcher compared it to confusing a "television docu-drama" with "actual court proceedings." Estimates about the impact of the Malleus should thus be weighed accordingly.

Notes

References

  • Ankarloo, Bengt (ed.); Stuart Clark (ed.) (2002). Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 3: The Middle Ages. University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Bailey, Michael D. (2003). Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy, and Reform in the Late Middle Ages. Pennsylvania State University Press.
  • Broedel, Hans Peter (2004). The Malleus Maleficarum and the Construction of Witchcraft: Theology and Popular Belief. Manchester University Press.
  • Flint, Valerie. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe. Princeton University Press. Princeton, NJ. 1991
  • Hamilton, Alastair (2007). "Review of Malleus Maleficarum edited and translated by Christopher S. Mackay and two other books". Heythrop Journal 48 (3): 477-479.
    (payment required)
  • Henningsen, Gustav. The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition. University of Nevada Press. Reno, NV. 1980
  • Institoris, Heinrich; Jakob Sprenger (1520). Malleus maleficarum, maleficas, & earum haeresim, ut phramea potentissima conterens. Coloniae: Excudebat Ioannes Gymnicus.

This is the edition held by the University of Sydney Library.

  • Kieckhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. 2000
  • Mackay, Christopher S. (2006). Malleus Maleficarum (2 volumes). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521859778. (bibrec) (editor's home page)

Volume 1 is the Latin text of the first edition of 1486-7 with annotations and an introduction. Volume 2 is an English translation with explanatory notes.

  • Maxwell-Stewart, P.G. (2001). Witchcraft in Europe and the New World. New York: Palgrave.
  • Ruickbie, Leo (2004). Witchcraft Out of the Shadows. London: Robert Hale.

  • Russell, Jeffrey Burton (1972 repr. 1984). Witchcraft in the Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0801492890. (bibrec)
  • Summers, Montague (1948 repr. 1971). The Malleus Maleficarum of Kramer and Sprenger. Dover Publications. ISBN 0486228029.
  • Thurston, Robert W. (2006). "The world, the flesh and the devil". History Today 56 (11): 51-57. (payment required for full text)
  • Trevor-Roper, H.R. (1967). The European Witch-Craze: of the sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and Other Essays. New York: Harper Collins.

External links

A disclaimer says: "Please note that we at the Malleus Maleficarum Online project are not scholars or experts on the subject."



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