The hammer of witches: a complete translation of the Malleus Maleficarum [Reprinted with corrections 2014] 9780521747875, 0521747872

Table of contents :
Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Introduction......Page 13
Authors......Page 14
Purpose of the work......Page 18
Composition and publication of the work......Page 19
Bull......Page 20
Approbation......Page 21
Part 2......Page 22
Separate publication of the bull and approbation......Page 23
Outline of the work......Page 24
Sources......Page 28
Disputed questions......Page 29
Satanism......Page 31
Elaborated theory of sorcery as described in the Malleus......Page 33
Role of omnipotent God in sorcery......Page 36
Role of women in sorcery......Page 37
Inquisition......Page 39
Torture in the “inquisitorial” method of investigation......Page 40
Contemporary magical practices......Page 42
Overall assessment of the malleus......Page 43
Malleus as evidence for contemporary practices......Page 49
Suggestions for further reading......Page 51
(b) Sources not from canon law......Page 54
(c) Citations of canon law......Page 64
(d) Outlining of the disputed questions......Page 67
(e) Remarks on certain words in the translation......Page 68
(f) Difficulties with grammatical gender......Page 70
The Hammer of Witches......Page 71
Part one......Page 73
Part two......Page 75
Part three......Page 77
Author’s justification of the “hammer for sorceresses”......Page 81
The text of the apostolic bull against the heresy of sorceresses, together with the approbation and subscription of the doctors of the beneficent university of cologne concerning the following treatise, begins with good fortune......Page 83
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......Page 86
Part I......Page 101
Question one......Page 103
Question two......Page 117
Question three of part one......Page 133
Question four: by which demons such practices are carried out......Page 145
There is, therefore, a question about the influences of the heavenly bodies, in which three other errors are refuted, and this is question five......Page 151
Next, that such effects cannot be caused through expressions and words with the co-operation of the virtue of the stars, either......Page 166
There follows a discussion of sorceresses subordinating themselves to demons (it is question six according to the enumeration)......Page 171
What sort of women are more often found to be superstitious and sorceresses......Page 183
The question concerning whether sorceresses can turn the minds of men to love or hatred (being the seventh in order)......Page 185
The manner of propounding the foregoing discussion about the love felt for a mistress in sermons to the congregation......Page 192
The responses to the arguments follow......Page 195
Question eight: whether sorceresses can impede the faculty to procreate (the sexual act), | which is the kind of sorcery mentioned in the bull......Page 199
Incidentally, some doubtful points are explained......Page 201
Question nine: whether sorceresses work on male members through the illusion of conjuring as if these limbs were completely pulled out of the body......Page 206
How sorcery can be distinguished from a natural defect......Page 211
Solutions to the arguments......Page 212
Tenth question: whether sorceresses work on humans by turning them into the shapes of beasts through the art of conjuring......Page 213
Solutions to the arguments......Page 218
What view should be held about wolves, who on occasion snatch people and children from cradles and eat them; whether this too is made to appear by sorceresses through the art of conjuring......Page 221
Question eleven: that in various ways midwife sorceresses kill the fetuses in the womb and cause miscarriages, and when they do not do this, they offer the new-borns to demons......Page 223
Regarding divine permission, it is explained that God could not have bestowed on a creature the quality of being without sin by nature......Page 231
An explanation is given regarding the two forms of divine permission justly granted by god, as a result of which the works of sorcerers are justly permitted, namely the devil’s sinning as the originator of every evil and also the fall of the first…......Page 234
Solutions to the arguments......Page 237
It is explained that the sins of the sorcerers are more serious than those of the evil angels and of the first ancestors, and consequently many innocent people are now suffering losses and being affected by sorcery because of the sins of sorcerers…......Page 239
That sorceresses deserve the most serious | penalties compared to all the criminals in the world......Page 246
Question fifteen: it is explained that on account of the sins of sorceresses, innocent people are often affected by sorcery, though sometimes this is also because of their own sins......Page 248
Question sixteen: | the foregoing truth is specifically explained by comparing the works of sorceresses to other varieties of superstition......Page 254
The seventeenth question is in explanation of the fourteenth, comparing the seriousness of the crime to any sins on the part of demons......Page 259
The solutions to the arguments also explain the truth through comparison......Page 261
There follows the method of preaching against the five arguments of laymen, by which various among them imagine that they prove that god does not permit such power to the devil and sorceresses in connection with inflicting such acts of sorcery......Page 262
Part II......Page 271
Part two of the work begins......Page 273
Chapter One......Page 287
Chapter Two......Page 293
For an explanation of the way they do homage a few things should be noticed......Page 299
Chapter Three......Page 304
Chapter Four......Page 314
How sorceresses practice carnal acts with incubus demons in the present day, and how they are increased in number as a result of these acts......Page 319
Whether the incubus demon always releases a seed when he accosts the sorceress......Page 322
Whether at one time rather than another, and similarly about the place......Page 323
Whether visibly both from the point of view of the sorceress and in terms of the by-standers......Page 325
That incubus demons harass not merely women begotten from their filthy acts or those offered up by midwives but any women at all without distinction, with greater or lesser sexual pleasure......Page 326
Chapter Five......Page 327
Chapter Six......Page 332
Chapter Seven......Page 335
Chapter Eight......Page 342
Chapter Nine......Page 346
Chapter Ten......Page 355
Chapter Eleven......Page 365
Chapter Twelve......Page 373
Chapter Thirteen......Page 378
Chapter Fourteen......Page 387
Chapter Fifteen......Page 392
The three methods by which men and not women are found to be tainted with acts of sorcery (in three chapters, the first concerning archer sorcerers)......Page 398
There follows basic division two of the present part two, which concerns the methods of removing and curing acts of sorcery, with an introductory difficulty......Page 410
Chapter One......Page 425
Chapter Two......Page 433
Chapter Three......Page 438
Chapter Four......Page 443
Chapter Five......Page 447
Chapter Six......Page 455
Chapter Seven......Page 474
Chapter Eight......Page 482
Remedy when someone vows himself entirely to a demon out of regard for temporal advantage......Page 485
Part III......Page 487
Part three of the entire work follows, which concerns the methods of exterminating them or at least punishing them through due justice in the ecclesiastical and civil court. it will have thirty-five questions, with a general introductory one added…......Page 489
Question one: the method of initiating the proceedings......Page 514
Question two: the number of witnesses......Page 520
Question three......Page 522
Question four: the status of the witnesses......Page 523
Question five: whether mortal enemies are allowed to give testimony......Page 524
Part two: how the proceedings | are to be continued (question six), and how the witnesses are to be examined in the presence of four other persons, and the two ways in which the denounced woman is to be questioned......Page 525
List of questions for the witnesses......Page 527
List of general questions concerning a sorceress or sorcerer (Step One)......Page 529
List of specific questions concerning these same people......Page 531
Question seven, in which various doubts are explained about the previous lists of questions and negative answers, whether the denounced woman should be imprisoned, and when she should be considered to be manifestly caught in the heresy of sorceresses…......Page 533
Question eight (which is related to the preceding one): whether she should be imprisoned and the method of arrest (and the judge’s third step)......Page 536
Question nine: what should be done after the arrest, and whether the names of those giving depositions should be made known to her (step four)......Page 538
Question ten: how lines of defense are to be granted along with the assignment of an advocate (step five)......Page 541
Question eleven: what the advocate will do when the names of the witnesses are not revealed to him (step six)......Page 544
Question twelve follows on the same topic, further explaining how mortal enmity is to be investigated (step seven)......Page 548
Question fourteen, concerning the things that the judge has to consider before setting out the list of questions in the prison and torture chamber (step nine)......Page 553
Question fifteen: the method of sentencing the denounced woman to questioning under torture, how she is to be questioned in this way on the first day, and whether the judge can promise to spare her life (step ten)......Page 556
Question fifteen, concerning the continuation of the torture and the stratagems and signs by which the judge can recognize a sorceress, and how he ought to forearm himself against their acts of sorcery, and how they should be shaved, and the…......Page 560
Question sixteen: the time and method two of questioning (step twelve), concerning the final stratagems to be observed by the judge......Page 568
Question seventeen: the vulgar form of purgation, and especially the examination by glowing iron, to which sorceresses appeal......Page 572
Question eighteen: the definitive sentence as such, and how it should be passed......Page 577
Question nineteen: how many methods create a suspicion that results in the passing of sentence......Page 580
Question twenty: method one of passing sentence......Page 588
Question twenty-one: method two of passing sentence on a denounced woman who merely has a bad reputation......Page 591
Question twenty-two: method three of passing sentence on a woman with a bad reputation who is to be exposed to questioning under torture......Page 595
Question twenty-three: method four of passing sentence on a denounced woman who is lightly suspected......Page 599
Question twenty-four: method five of sentencing a woman vehemently suspected......Page 602
Question twenty-five: method six of passing sentence on a denounced woman who is violently suspected......Page 607
Question twenty-six: the method of passing sentence on a denounced woman who is suspected and has a bad reputation......Page 614
Question twenty-seven: the method of passing sentence on a woman who has confessed heresy but is penitent......Page 618
Question twenty-eight: the method of passing sentence on a woman who has confessed heresy but is relapsed, though repentant......Page 623
Question twenty-nine: the method of passing sentence on a woman who has confessed heresy but is impenitent and yet not relapsed......Page 628
Question thirty: the woman who has confessed heresy and relapsed and is impenitent......Page 630
Question thirty-one: the person who is convicted and caught, but denies everything......Page 633
Question thirty-two: the person who is convicted but who is a fugitive or contumaciously absents himself......Page 638
Question thirty-three: how to pass sentence on a person denounced by another sorceress who has been or is to be burned to ashes......Page 645
Question thirty-four: the method of passing sentence on a sorceress who breaks acts of sorcery, and on sorceress midwives and sorcerer archers......Page 652
Question thirty-five of this last part: the methods of sentencing any sorcerers who lodge frivolous or unjust appeals......Page 660

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THE HAMMER OF WITCHES

The Malleus Maleficarum, first published in 1486, is the standard medieval text on witchcraft and it remained in print throughout the early modern period. Its descriptions of the evil acts of witches and the ways to exterminate them continue to contribute to our knowledge of early modern law, religion and society. Mackay’s highly acclaimed translation, based on his extensive research and detailed analysis of the Latin text, is the only complete English version available, and the most reliable. Now available in a single volume, this key text is at last accessible to students and scholars of medieval history and literature. With detailed explanatory notes and a guide to further reading, this volume offers a unique insight into the fifteenth-century mind and its sense of sin, punishment and retribution. C h r i stopher S. M ac kay is Professor in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta. He is the author of, among many books and articles, Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History (Cambridge University Press, 2005).

THE HAMMER OF WITCHES A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum CHRISTOPHER S. MACKAY

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