THE MALLEUS MALEFICARUM
of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger
Unabridged online republication of the 1928 edition. Introduction to the 1948 edition is also included.
Translation, notes, and two introductions by Montague Summers. A Bull of Innocent VIII.
(For the actual Malleus text, and additional commentary, see the .pdf link at the bottom of this post.)
Introduction to the HTML online edition by "Wicasta Lovelace" which clarifies her purpose in resurrecting this ancient text:
The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer), first
published in 1486, is arguably one of the most infamous
books ever written, due primarily to its position and regard
during the Middle Ages. It served as a guidebook for
Inquisitors during the Inquisition, and was designed to aid
them in the identification, prosecution, and dispatching of
Witches. It set forth, as well, many of the modern
misconceptions and fears concerning witches and the
influence of witchcraft. The questions, definitions, and
accusations it set forth in regard to witches, which were
reinforced by its use during the Inquisition, came to be
widely regarded as irrefutable truth. Those beliefs are held
even today by a majority of Christians in regard to
practitioners of the modern “revived” religion of
Witchcraft, or Wicca. And while the Malleus itself is
largely unknown in modern times, its effects have proved
long lasting.
At the time of the writing of The Malleus
Maleficarum, there were many voices within the Christian
community (scholars and theologians) who doubted the
existence of witches and largely regarded such belief as mere superstition. The authors of the
Malleus addressed those voices in no uncertain terms, stating: “Whether the Belief that there are
such Beings as Witches is so Essential a Part of the Catholic Faith that Obstinacy to maintain the
Opposite Opinion manifestly savours of Heresy.” The immediate, and lasting, popularity of the
Malleus essentially silenced those voices. It made very real the threat of one being branded a
heretic, simply by virtue of one's questioning of the existence of witches and, thus, the validity of
the Inquisition. It set into the general Christian consciousness, for all time, a belief in the existence
of witches as a real and valid threat to the Christian world. It is a belief which is held to this day.
It must be noted that during the Inquisition, few, if any, real, verifiable, witches were ever
discovered or tried. Often the very accusation was enough to see one branded a witch, tried by the
Inquisitors' Court, and burned alive at the stake. Estimates of the death toll during the Inquisition
worldwide range from 600,000 to as high as 9,000,000 (over its 250 year long course); either is a
chilling number when one realizes that nearly all of the accused were women, and consisted
primarily of outcasts and other suspicious persons. Old women. Midwives. Jєωs. Poets. Gypsies.
Anyone who did not fit within the contemporary view of pieous Christians were suspect, and
easily branded "Witch". Usually to devastating effect.
It must also be noted that the crime of Witchcraft was not the only crime of which one could
be accused during the Inquisition. By questioning any part of Catholic belief, one could be branded
a heretic. Scientists were branded heretics by virtue of repudiating certain tenets of Christian belief
(most notably Galileo, whose theories on the nature of planets and gravitational fields was initially
branded heretical). Writers who challenged the Church were arrested for heresy (sometimes
formerly accepted writers whose works had become unpopular). Anyone who questioned the
validity of any part of Catholic belief did so at their own risk. The Malleus Maleficarum played an
important role in bringing such Canonical law into being, as often the charge of heresy carried
along with it suspicions of witchcraft.
It must be remembered that the Malleus is a work of its time. Science had only just begun to
make any real advances. At that time nearly any unexplainable illness or malady would often be
attributed to magic, and thus the activity of witches. It was a way for ordinary people to make
sense of the world around them. The Malleus drew upon those beliefs, and, by its very existence,
reinforced them and brought them into the codified belief system of the Catholic Church. In many
ways, it could be said that it helped to validate the Inquisition itself.
While the Malleus itself cannot be blamed for the Inquisition or the horrors inflicted upon
mankind by the Inquisitors, it certainly played an important role. Thus has it been said that The
Malleus Maleficarum is one of the most blood-soaked works in human history, in that its very
existence reinforced and validated Catholic beliefs which led to the prosecution, torture, and
murder, of tens of thousands of innocent people.
The lasting effect of the Malleus upon the world can only be measured in the lives of the
hundreds of thousands of men, women, and even children, who suffered, and died, at the hands of
the Inquisitors during the Inquisition. At the height of its popularity, The Malleus Maleficarum
was surpassed in public notoriety only by The Bible. Its effects were even felt in the New World,
where the last gasp of the Inquisition was felt in the English settlements in America (most notably
in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials).
It is beyond the scope of this article to adequately examine the role of the Malleus in world
history, or its lasting effects. At the very least, The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer)
offers to us an intriguing glimpse into the Medieval mind, and perhaps gives us a taste of what it
might have been like to have lived in those times.
- Wicasta Lovelace
Topic: Malleus Maleficarum and commentary (Read 9565 times)