- The Malleus Maleficarum (Latin for "The Hammer of Witches", or "Der Hexenhammer" in German) is a famous treatise on witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, an Inquisitor of the Catholic Church, and was first published in Germany in 1487.
- 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. The treatise is divided up into three sections. The first section tries to refute critics who deny 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 and, most famously, Johannes Nider's Formicarius (1435).
- Because the work deals with women as witches, some believe and claim that the Malleus Maleficarum is a work of misogyny. The treatise describes how women become inclined for witchcraft, claiming 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. Michael Bailey claims that most of the women accused as witches had strong personalities and were known to defy convention by overstepping the lines of proper female decorum.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Well recently I saw on TV the movie ''The Da Vinci Code'' an adaptation of Dan's Brown book. I know that it has passed a lot of time since it was written but that's not the point! Somewhere in the movie the ''Malleus Maleficarum'' came up! I was thrilled and really keen on it! So I decided to search a little bit more about it and I discovered that it was nothing more than ''The Witches Hammer''! I love everything about Middle Age and every medieval clothes, fashion or books. The whole witch thing, in my opinion, is really interesting and fascinating if you look through it. In order to let you know more I suggest reading the following:
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