MALLEUS MALEFICARUM

The '''Malleus Maleficarum'''^[2](Latin for "The Hammer of Witches", or "Hexenhammer" in German) is one of the most famous medieval treatises on witches. It was written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, and was first published in Germany in 1487.^[3]
It was the culmination of a long medieval tradition of treatises on witchcraft, the most famous being the ''Formicarius'' by Johannes Nider in 1435-1437.^[4] 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.^[5]

Contents

Genesis

Contents

Major themes

Reasons for popularity in the Late Middle Ages

Consequences

Notes

References

External links

Genesis

The '''Malleus Maleficarum''' was written by Heinrich Kramer (Latinized Heinrich Institoris) and Jacob Sprenger in 1486. However, most modern scholars believe that Jacob Sprenger contributed little, if anything to the work besides his illustrious name.^[6] Sprenger and Kramer were both members of the Dominican Order and were Inquisitors for the Catholic Church’s inquisition against heretics. Heresy in this sense was an error in understanding and of faith in the Catholic religion, ultimately discernible by God alone.^[7]
On December 5, 1484 Pope Innocent VIII had issued the ''Summis desiderantes affectibus'', or the famous "witch-bull", to Institoris and Sprenger in response to their asking for explicit authority to prosecute witchcraft.^[8] This papal bull would be used as the preface for the'' Malleus Maleficarum''. The ''Summis desiderantes affectibus'' recognized the existence of witches and gave full papal approval for the Inquisition against witches and gave permission to do whatever necessary to get rid of them, thus opening the door for the bloody witch hunts that ensued for centuries.
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 (History of the ''Malleus Maleficarum'' by Jenny Gibbons). 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.

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 ^[9]. 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) ^[10].
'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 ^[11]. 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 ^[12]. 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 ^[12]. 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 ^[14].
'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 of witnesses, the formal charging of the accused ^[15]. Women who did not cry during their trial were automatically believed to be witches ^[16].

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 ^[17]. Most of the women accused as witches had strong personalities and were known to defy convention by overstepping the lines of proper female decorum ^[18]. After the publication of the ''Malleus'', most of those who were prosecuted as witches were women ^[19]. Indeed, the very title of the ''Malleus Maleficarum'' is feminine, which alludes to the fact that it was women who were the evildoers. Otherwise, it would be the ''Malleus Maleficorum'', the masculinized version of the Latin noun ''maleficium''.
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, Aristotelian thought, and is heavily influenced by the philosophies of Neo-Platonism ^[20]. It also mentions astrology and astronomy, which had recently been reintroduced to the West by the ancient works of Pythagoras ^[21].

Reasons for popularity in the Late Middle Ages

The ''Malleus Maleficarum'' was able to spread throughout Europe so rapidly in the late fifteenth and 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." ^[22] The ''Malleus'' is also heavily influenced by the subjects of divination, astrology, and healing rituals the Church inherited from antiquity ^[23].
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 ^[24].

Consequences

In between 1487 and 1520, twenty editions of the ''Malleus'' were published, and another sixteen editions were published between 1574 to 1669 ^[25]. Popular accounts suggest that the extensive publishing of the ''Malleus Maleficarum'' in 1487 launched centuries of witch-hunts in Europe, in which www.malleusmaleficarum.org [3] estimates that between 600,000 to 9,000,000 people (mostly women) were killed 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

1. The English translation is from this note to Summers' 1928 introduction.
2. Translator Montague Summers consistently uses "the Malleus Maleficarum" (or simply "the Malleus") in his 1928 and 1948 introductions. [1] [2]
3. Jolly (2002), 239
4. Bailey (2003), 30
5. Jolly, 240
6. Russell (1972), 230
7. Broedel (2003), 20
8. Russell, 229
9. Russell, 232
10. Russell, 279
11. Broedel, 22
12. Broedel, 30
13. Broedel, 30
14. Mackay, 214
15. Broedel, 34
16. Mackay, 502
17. Bailey, 49
18. Bailey, 51
19. Russell, 145
20. Kieckhefer (2000), 145
21. Kieckhefer, 146
22. Russell, 234
23. Jolly, 77
24. Henningsen (1980), 15
25. Russell, 79

References

★ Bailey, Michael David. ''Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy, and Reform in the Late Middle Ages''. Pennsylvania State University Press. University Park, PA. 2003

★ Boredel, Hans Peter. ''The Malleus Maleficarum: and the construction of Witchcraft, Theology and Popular Belief''. Manchester University Press. New York, NY. 2003

★ Flint, Valerie. ''The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe''. Princeton University Press. Princeton, NJ. 1991

★ Review of ''Malleus Maleficarum'' edited and translated by Christopher S. Mackay and two other books, , Alastair, Hamilton, Heythrop Journal, 2007
(payment required)

★ Henningsen, Gustav. ''The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition.'' University of Nevada Press. Reno, NV. 1980

★ Malleus maleficarum, maleficas, & earum haeresim, ut phramea potentissima conterens, , Heinrich, Institoris, Excudebat Ioannes Gymnicus, 1520,
:This is the edition held by the University of Sydney Library. [4]

★ Jolly, Karen Louise. ''Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Middle Ages''. University of Pennsylvania Press. Philadelphia, PA. 2002

★ Kieckhefer, Richard. ''Magic in the Middle Ages''. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. 2000

★ Malleus Maleficarum (2 volumes), , Christopher S., Mackay, Cambridge University Press, 2006, 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.

★ Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, , Jeffrey Burton, Russell, Cornell University Press, 1972 repr. 1984, ISBN 0801492890 (bibrec)

★ The Malleus Maleficarum of Kramer and Sprenger, , Montague, Summers, Dover Publications, 1948 repr. 1971, ISBN 0486228029

★ The world, the flesh and the devil, , Robert W., Thurston, History Today, 2006 (payment required for full text)

External links

★ ''Malleus Maleficarum'' - Online version of Latin text and scanned pages of Malleus Maleficarum published in 1580.

★ ''Malleus Maleficarum'' - Full text of the 1928 English translation by Montague Summers. His 1948 introduction is also included.
:A disclaimer says: "Please note that we at the Malleus Maleficarum Online project are ''not'' scholars or experts on the subject."