Malleus Maleficarum

[Anonymous]

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.

http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/

 

[Anonymous]

The Montague Summers translation?

 

[Jerry_B]

It was also the only book read on the subject by Matthew Hopkins, and I think it also inspired James I (or II, can't remember which one) to write his book on demonology/witchcraft.

 

[Anonymous]

Malleus Malifecarum

Well, if Alb doesn't mind, I think I'll scuttle across to the Charles Fort Memorial Online Library and deposit a copy of the URL.

 

[carole]

And here was I, thinking we were going to play Mallet's Mallet in Latin . . .

Carole

 

[Pete Younger]

1968 second impression, translation.

and lovely it is too.

Found it when I was 14 yrs old. 16 yrs later and I still have it

It has a pennethorne hughes introduction.

The book itself served the pope of that time well. with it he managed to kill a hell of a lot of people. Always good to make up the evidence yourself in a war on evil.

Not trying to bring the war on iraq to this thread too are you ?

 

[Anonymous]

I haven't read it. I've read about it and I know a little of Montague Summers who wrote the translation. I'd like to know more. Both about the context - and about the translation.

So far I'm finding it difficult to understand Summers' original introduction, which was written in 1927. The reason I am trying to read it -- because I'm trying to understand why he translated it. Here the book is decribed as a

is a work of benighted ignorance, warped logic and execrable inhumanity

Does anyone have a opinion about it. Or fancy writing a review?

Well, if Alb doesn't mind, I think I'll scuttle across to the Charles Fort Memorial Online Library and deposit a copy of the URL.

Timble's post on that excellent thread mentions the book. And it has been referenced on other threads. I figured it might merit its own.

 

[escargot]

I got my latest copy in Oxfam last year just when I needed it to quote from.

Paperback, nowt special.

You're better off reading it on the 'net really.

 

[Jerry_B]

I read MM many moons ago - don't really remember it being nothing but fantasy, and not as interesting as, say, 'Demonolatry' (can't remember the author).

 

[phi23]

Didn't James I write his own witch hunting manual?

 

[Jerry_B]

Sort of - he read MM and further muddied the water on the whole subject by adding yet more inventions to the whole witch mythology of the time.

 

[phi23]

After doing a bit of googling I've found the book I'm thinking of. Its in three parts and is called Daemonologie, "a wide-ranging discussion of witchcraft, necromancy, possession, demons, were-wolves, fairies and ghosts, in the form of a Socratic dialogue."

http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/kjd/

 

[Pete Younger]

you will keep following me around wont you?


no...I was just making a topical comment. uncanny isn't it?


I think you ought to leave your dislike for certain posters behind before you log on next time....

unless in future you have anything constructive to add?

How could I possibly dislike someone I have never met ?
disagreeing is not the same as disliking.

 

[maximus otter]

How the Malleus maleficarum fueled the witch trial craze

Between 1400 and 1775, a significant upsurge of witch trials swept across early-modern Europe, resulting in the execution of an estimated 40,000–60,000 accused witches. Historians and social scientists have long studied this period in hopes of learning more about how large-scale social changes occur. Some have pointed to the invention of the printing press and the publication of witch-hunting manuals—most notably the highly influential Malleus maleficarum—as a major factor, making it easier for the witch-hunting hysteria to spread across the continent.

The abrupt emergence of the craze and its rapid spread, resulting in a pronounced shift in social behaviors—namely, the often brutal persecution of suspected witches—is consistent with a theory of social change dubbed "ideational diffusion," according to a new paper published in the journal Theory and Society. There is the introduction of new ideas, reinforced by social networks, that eventually take root and lead to widespread behavioral changes in a society.

Cities where witch trials did and did not take place in Central Europe, 1400–1679, as well as those with printed copies of the Malleus Maleficarum. Credit: K. Doten-Snitker et al., 2024

[The] authors turned to trade routes to determine which cities were more central and thus more likely to be focal points of new ideas and information. "The places that are more central in these trade networks have more stuff passing through and are more likely to come into contact with new ideas from multiple directions—specifically ideas about witchcraft," said Doten-Snitker. Then they looked at which of 553 cities in Central Europe held their first witch trials, and when, as well as those where the Malleus maleficarum and similar manuals had been published.

They found that each new published edition of the Malleus maleficarum corresponded with a subsequent increase in witch trials. But that wasn't the only contributing factor; trends in neighboring cities also influenced the increase, resulting in a slow-moving ripple effect that spread across the continent.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/10/how-the-malleus-maleficarum-fueled-the-witch-trial-craze/

maximus otter

 

[Earthly oddity]

I read the Montague Summers version in the early-mid 1990s. Can't remember very much though to be honest.

 

[Frideswide]

... consistent with a theory of social change dubbed "ideational diffusion," according to a new paper published in the journal Theory and Society. There is the introduction of new ideas, reinforced by social networks, that eventually take root and lead to widespread behavioral changes in a society.

I say! cracking find @maximus otter

 

[Kondoru]

Thats interesting.

 

[Mr Bleak]

Found Sigmund Freud's view of the 'Malleus Maleficarum' . Interesting.
Freud 1897 letter