The , usually translated as the Hammer of Witches,In his translation of the , Christopher S. Mackay explains the terminology at length sorcerer is used to preserve the relationship of the Latin terminology. "'' = act of sorcery (literally an act of 'evil-doing'), while '' = female performers of sorcery (evil deeds) and '' = male performer of evil deeds; sorcery, sorceress, and sorcerer." is the best known treatise about witchcraft. It was written by German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinized name ) and first published in the German city of Speyer in 1486. Some characterize the book as a compendium of preexisting demonological literature of the 15th century, as opposed to an original work.
Kramer presented his text as an official position of the Catholic Church. The book was condemned by top theologians of the Inquisition at the Faculty of Cologne for recommending illegal procedures and for inconsistencies with existing Catholic demonological doctrines. However, Kramer received praise for his work by Pope Innocent VIII in the papal bull .Britannica: "In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued the bull , in which he deplored the spread of witchcraft in Germany and authorized Sprenger and Kraemer to extirpate it." Kramer was not disciplined by the Church and even enjoyed considerable prestige thereafter.
The classifies sorcery as heresy, a severe crime at the time, and recommends that secular courts prosecute it accordingly. The suggests torture to get confessions and death as the only certain way to end the "evils of witchcraft". When it was published, heretics were often sentenced to be burned alive at the stake, and the suggested the same for "witches". Despite its condemnation by some members of the church, the was very popular.
Jacob Sprenger was credited as a coauthor from 1519 onward, although his role in the text and authorial relationship with Kramer is subject to debate.
The book was later revived by royal courts during the Renaissance, which contributed to the increasingly brutal prosecution of witchcraft during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Background
Witchcraft had long been forbidden by the Church, whose viewpoint on the subject was explained in the Canon Episcopi. Written in about AD 900, this described witchcraft and magic as delusions and that those who believed in such things "had been seduced by the Devil in dreams and visions". However, in the same period supernatural intervention was accepted in European Christian culture in the form of ordeals later used during witch trials.
It is an element of Christian doctrine that demons may be cast out by appropriate sacramental exorcisms. For example, the Malleus lists exorcism as one of the five ways to overcome the attacks of incubi.Kramer, Heinrich and Sprenger, James (1486), Summers, Montague (translator – 1928), The Malleus Maleficarum, Part 2, Chapter 1 , The Remedies prescribed by the Holy Church against Incubus and Succubus Devils, at sacred-texts.com Prayer and transubstantiation are traditionally not considered magical rites.
In 1484 clergyman Heinrich Kramer made one of the first attempts at prosecuting alleged witches in the Tyrol region. It was not a success: he was expelled from the city of Innsbruck and dismissed by the local bishop as "senile and crazy". According to Diarmaid MacCulloch, writing the book was Kramer's act of self-justification and revenge. Ankarloo and Clark claim that Kramer's purpose in writing the book was to explain his own views on witchcraft, systematically refute arguments claiming that witchcraft did not exist, discredit those who expressed skepticism about its reality, claim that those who practised witchcraft were more often women than men, and to convince magistrates to use Kramer's recommended procedures for finding and convicting witches.
Some scholars have suggested that following the failed efforts in Tyrol, Kramer requested explicit authority from the Pope to prosecute witchcraft. Kramer received a papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus in 1484. It gave full papal approval for the Inquisition to prosecute what was deemed to be witchcraft in general and also gave individual authorizations to Kramer and Dominican Friar Jacob Sprenger specifically.Russell, 229 Other scholars have disputed the idea that Sprenger was working with Kramer, arguing that the evidence shows that Sprenger was actually a persistent opponent of Kramer, even going so far as to ban him from Dominican convents within Sprenger's jurisdiction while also banning him from preaching. In the words of Wolfgang Behringer:
Sprenger had tried to suppress Kramer's activities in every possible way. He forbade the convents of his province to host him, he forbade Kramer to preach, and even tried to interfere directly in the affairs of Kramer's Séléstat convent... The same day Sprenger became successor to Jacob Strubach as provincial superior (October 19, 1487), he obtained permission from his general, Joaquino Turriani, to lash out adversus m[agistrum] Henricum Institoris inquisitorem (English: against Master Heinrich Kramer, inquisitor).Behringer, Wolfgang. Malleus Maleficarum pp 2–3.
The preface also includes an alleged unanimous approbation from the University of Cologne's Faculty of Theology. Nevertheless, many historians have argued that it is well established by sources outside the Malleus that the university's theology faculty condemned the book for unethical procedures and for contradicting Catholic theology on a number of important points: "just for good measure Institoris forged a document granting their apparently unanimous approbation."Jolly, Karen et al., Witchcraft and Magic In Europe, p. 115 (2002)
The book became the handbook for secular courts throughout Renaissance Europe, but was not used by the Inquisition, which "denied any authority to the Malleus" in the words of historian Wolfgang Behringer.Behringer, Wolfgang. Malleus Maleficarum, p. 7.
In modern times, the book has often been viewed as a typical inquisitorial manual, a perception that many historians have refuted. According to Jenny Gibbons:
Before 1400 it was rare for anyone to be prosecuted for witchcraft, but the increasingly common prosecution of heresy and failure to fully defeat these heretics paved the way for later criminal prosecution of witchcraft. By the 15th century belief in witches was widely accepted in European society. Previously, those convicted of witchcraft typically suffered penalties no more harsh than public penances such as a day in the stocks, but their prosecution became more brutal following the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum, as witchcraft became widely accepted as a real and dangerous phenomenon. The most severe prosecutions took place between the years 1560 and 1630, largely ending in Europe around 1780.
Particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries an intense debate on the nature of witches preoccupied demonologists across Europe and they published many printed sermons, books and tracts. The Catholic Church played an important role in shaping of debate on demonology, but the discourse was not much affected by the Reformation. Martin Luther was also convinced about the reality and evil of witches, and facilitated development of Protestant demonology.
Catholic and Protestant demonologies were similar in their basic beliefs about witches and most writers agreed on the severity of the crime of witchcraft. It was accepted by both Catholic and Protestant legislatures and witch-hunting was undeniably sponsored by both Protestant and Catholic governments. Witches became heretics to Christianity and witchcraft became the greatest of crimes and sins. Within continental and Roman Law witchcraft was the crimen exceptum, a crime so foul that all normal legal procedures were superseded.
During the Age of Enlightenment, belief in the powers of witches to harm began to die out in the West. For the post-Enlightenment Christians, the disbelief was based on a belief in rationalism and empiricism.
Summary of contents
The Malleus Maleficarum consists of the following parts: Justification (introduction, Latin Apologia auctoris) Papal bull Approbation by professors of theology at University of Cologne Table of contents Main text in three sections
Justification (Apologia auctoris)
In this part it is briefly explained that prevalence of sorcery which is a method of Satan's final assault motivated authors to write the Malleus Maleficarum: [...] [ Lucifer ] attacks through these heresies at that time in particular, when the evening of the world declines towards its setting and the evil of men swells up, since he knows in great anger, as John bears witness in the Book of Apocalypse [12:12], that he has little time remaining. Hence, he has also caused a certain unusual heretical perversity to grow up in the land of the Lord – a Heresy, I say, of Sorceresses, since it is to be designated by the particular sex over which he is known to have power. [...] In the midst of these evils, we Inquisitors, Jacobus Sprenger together with the very dear associate [Institoris] delegated by the Apostolic See for the extermination of so destructive a heresy [...] we will bring everything to the desired conclusion. [...] naming the treatise the "Hammer for Sorceresses," we are undertaking the task of compiling the work for an associate [presumably, an ecclesiastic] [...]
Papal bull
Copies of the Malleus Maleficarum contain a reproduction of a papal bull known as Summis desiderantes affectibus that is addressed to Heinrich Institoris and Jakob Sprenger. According to it, Pope Innocent VIII acknowledges that sorceresses are real and harmful through their involvement in the acts of Satan.
According to the date on the document, the papal bull had been issued in 1484, two years before the Malleus Maleficarum was finished. Therefore, it is not an endorsement of a specific final text of the Malleus. Instead, its inclusion implicitly legitimizes the handbook by providing general confirmation of the reality of witchcraft and full authority to Sprenger and Institoris in their preachings and proceedings:
Approbation
This part of the Malleus is titled "The Approbation of The Following Treatise and The Signatures Thereunto of The Doctors of The Illustrious University of Cologne Follows in The Form of A Public Document" and contains unanimous approval of the Malleus Maleficarum by all the Doctors of the Theological Faculty of the University of Cologne signed by them personally. The proceedings are attested by notary public Arnold Kolich of Euskirchen, a sworn cleric of Cologne with inclusion of confirmatory testimony by present witnesses Johannes Vorda of Mecheln a sworn beadle, Nicholas Cuper de Venrath the sworn notary of Curia of Cologne and Christian Wintzen of Euskirchen a cleric of the Diocese of Cologne.
Text of approbation mentions that during proceedings Institoris had a letter from Maximilian, the newly crowned King of the Romans and son of Emperor Frederick III, which is summarized in the approbation: "[... Maximilian I] takes these Inquisitors under his complete protection, ordering and commanding each and every subject of the Roman Empire to render all favor and assistance to these Inquisitors and otherwise to act in the manner that is more fully contained and included in the letter." Apparently, in early December 1486, Kramer actually went to Brussels, the Burgundian capital, hoping to obtain a privilege from the future Emperor (Kramer did not dare to involve Frederick III, whom he had offended previously), but the answer must have been so unfavorable that it could not be inserted into the foreword.
The approbation consists of a preamble and is followed by a resolution in two parts.
Preamble