The Hammer of Witches : A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum

My interest in this work developed after a course I took on the history of witch craft and the witch hysteria. This is a translation of The Maleus Maleficarum which was first published c. 1486. Translator Christopher S. Mackay provides readers with insights into this 15th century treatise on witchcraft. As stated in the introduction, the book's primary objective is to provide readers with insights into this work, with reference to how the work was perceived by those of its time and also its ramifications in the years since its publication. The focus here is on the intellectual context and cultural/historical background of the work. Having never read other translations of this work, my review is based purely on this work. I found the detailed outline provided in the Introduction to be useful in making sense of how the material is organized. The translator also provides suggestions for further reading and useful maps. Personally, I found this text to be accessible and readable and the price makes this a value buy for those interested in the subject. Cover 1 Half-title 3 Title 5 Copyright 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 Introduction 13 Authors 14 Purpose of the work 18 Composition and publication of the work 19 Justification 20 Bull 20 Approbation 21 Part 1 22 Part 2 22 Part 3 23 Separate publication of the bull and approbation 23 Outline of the work 24 Sources 28 Disputed questions 29 Intellectual context 31 Satanism 31 Elaborated theory of sorcery as described in the Malleus 33 Role of omnipotent God in sorcery 36 Role of women in sorcery 37 Historical background 39 Inquisition 39 Torture in the “inquisitorial” method of investigation 40 Contemporary magical practices 42 Overall assessment of the malleus 43 Malleus as evidence for contemporary practices 49 Suggestions for further reading 51 Notes on the translation 54 (a) Method of making references to the text 54 (b) Sources not from canon law 54 (c) Citations of canon law 64 (d) Outlining of the disputed questions 67 (e) Remarks on certain words in the translation 68 (f) Difficulties with grammatical gender 70 The Hammer of Witches 71 Structure of the text 73 Part one 73 Part two 75 Part three 77 Author’s justification of the “hammer for sorceresses” 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 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 86 Part I 101 Question one 103 Question two 117 Question three of part one 133 Question four: by which demons such practices are carried out 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 151 Next, that such effects cannot be caused through expressions and words with the co-operation of the virtue of the stars, either 166 There follows a discussion of sorceresses subordinating themselves to demons (it is question six according to the enumeration) 171 What sort of women are more often found to be superstitious and sorceresses 183 The question concerning whether sorceresses can turn the minds of men to love or hatred (being the seventh in order) 185 The manner of propounding the foregoing discussion about the love felt for a mistress in sermons to the congregation 192 The responses to the arguments follow 195 Question eight: whether sorceresses can impede the faculty to procreate (the sexual act), | which is the kind of sorcery mentioned in the bull 199 Incidentally, some doubtful points are explained 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 206 How sorcery can be distinguished from a natural defect 211 Solutions to the arguments 212 Tenth question: whether sorceresses work on humans by turning them into the shapes of beasts through the art of conjuring 213 Solutions to the arguments 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 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 223 Regarding divine permission, it is explained that God could not have bestowed on a creature the quality of being without sin by nature 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... 234 Solutions to the arguments 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... 239 That sorceresses deserve the most serious | penalties compared to all the criminals in the world 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 248 Question sixteen: | the foregoing truth is specifically explained by comparing the works of sorceresses to other varieties of superstition 254 The seventeenth question is in explanation of the fourteenth, comparing the seriousness of the crime to any sins on the part of demons 259 The solutions to the arguments also explain the truth through comparison 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 262 Part II 271 Part two of the work begins 273 On the different methods by which demons allure and entice the innocent through sorceresses to increase this form of breaking the faith 287 Chapter One 287 There follows a discussion of the method of making a sacrilegious avowal 293 Chapter Two 293 For an explanation of the way they do homage a few things should be noticed 299 On the method by which they are transferred in location from place to place 304 Chapter Three 304 There follows a discussion of the method by which they subordinate themselves to incubus demons 314 Chapter Four 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 319 Whether the incubus demon always releases a seed when he accosts the sorceress 322 Whether at one time rather than another, and similarly about the place 323 Whether visibly both from the point of view of the sorceress and in terms of the by-standers 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 326 The general way in which sorceresses practice their acts of sorcery through the sacraments of the church and on the way in which they impede the force of procreation or produce any other defects in any creations, except for the heavenly bodies 327 Chapter Five 327 The method by which they impede the force of procreation 332 Chapter Six 332 The way in which they take away male members 335 Chapter Seven 335 The methods by which they change humans into the shapes of wild beasts 342 Chapter Eight 342 How demons exist inside bodies and heads without causing harm when they work changes involving conjuring 346 Chapter Nine 346 The method by which demons sometimes inhabit humans in substance through the workings of sorceresses 355 Chapter Ten 355 The method by which they can inflict every kind of illness (in general terms about the more serious illnesses) 365 Chapter Eleven 365 The method by which they inflict other quite similar illnesses in particular on humans 373 Chapter Twelve 373 The method by which midwife sorceresses inflict greater losses when they either kill babies or offer them to demons by dedicating them with a curse 378 Chapter Thirteen 378 There follows a discussion of the method by which sorceresses inflict various forms of harm on domestic animals 387 Chapter Fourteen 387 The method by which they stir up hailstorms and rainstorms and also make lightning strike humans and domestic animals 392 Chapter Fifteen 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) 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 410 Ecclesiastical remedy against incubus and succubus demons 425 Chapter One 425 Remedies for those who are affected with sorcery in the power of procreation 433 Chapter Two 433 Remedies for people affected by sorcery in terms of irregular love or hatred 438 Chapter Three 438 Remedies for those from whom the male member has been removed through the magical art and for the instances when humans are transformed into animals 443 Chapter Four 443 Remedies for those under siege as a result of sorcery 447 Chapter Five 447 Remedies through lawful exorcisms of the church against any illnesses inflicted by sorceresses, and the method of exorcizing people affected by sorcery 455 Chapter Six 455 Remedies against hailstorms and for domestic animals affected by sorcery 474 Chapter Seven 474 Certain hidden remedies against certain hidden vexations on the part of demons 482 Chapter Eight 482 Remedy when someone vows himself entirely to a demon out of regard for temporal advantage 485 Part III 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... 489 Question one: the method of initiating the proceedings 514 Question two: the number of witnesses 520 Question three 522 Question four: the status of the witnesses 523 Question five: whether mortal enemies are allowed to give testimony 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 525 List of questions for the witnesses 527 List of general questions concerning a sorceress or sorcerer (Step One) 529 List of specific questions concerning these same people 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... 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) 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) 538 Question ten: how lines of defense are to be granted along with the assignment of an advocate (step five) 541 Question eleven: what the advocate will do when the names of the witnesses are not revealed to him (step six) 544 Question twelve follows on the same topic, further explaining how mortal enmity is to be investigated (step seven) 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) 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) 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... 560 Question sixteen: the time and method two of questioning (step twelve), concerning the final stratagems to be observed by the judge 568 Part Three of this last part of the work follows: how these proceedings involving the Faith are to be brought to a proper end by means of the definitive sentence 572 Question seventeen: the vulgar form of purgation, and especially the examination by glowing iron, to which sorceresses appeal 572 Question eighteen: the definitive sentence as such, and how it should be passed 577 Question nineteen: how many methods create a suspicion that results in the passing of sentence 580 Question twenty: method one of passing sentence 588 Question twenty-one: method two of passing sentence on a denounced woman who merely has a bad reputation 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 595 Question twenty-three: method four of passing sentence on a denounced woman who is lightly suspected 599 Question twenty-four: method five of sentencing a woman vehemently suspected 602 Question twenty-five: method six of passing sentence on a denounced woman who is violently suspected 607 Question twenty-six: the method of passing sentence on a denounced woman who is suspected and has a bad reputation 614 Question twenty-seven: the method of passing sentence on a woman who has confessed heresy but is penitent 618 Question twenty-eight: the method of passing sentence on a woman who has confessed heresy but is relapsed, though repentant 623 Question twenty-nine: the method of passing sentence on a woman who has confessed heresy but is impenitent and yet not relapsed 628 Question thirty: the woman who has confessed heresy and relapsed and is impenitent 630 Question thirty-one: the person who is convicted and caught, but denies everything 633 Question thirty-two: the person who is convicted but who is a fugitive or contumaciously absents himself 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 645 Question thirty-four: the method of passing sentence on a sorceress who breaks acts of sorcery, and on sorceress midwives and sorcerer archers 652 Question thirty-five of this last part: the methods of sentencing any sorcerers who lodge frivolous or unjust appeals 660 The Malleus Maleficarum, first published in 1486–7, 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. The Malleus Maleficarum, first published in 1486-7, 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. This highly acclaimed translation, based on the translator's extensive research and detailed analysis of the Latin text, is the only complete English version available, and the most reliable. 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.