the hammer of witches

sopi_brian · the hammer of witches

Malleus Maleficarum (1486)

This is the best known of the witch-hunt manuals. Written in Latin, i prefer the latin edition over the english one because translations seem to take away from the original but if you cannot read latin,english versions are available.the Malleus was first submitted to the University of Cologne on May 9th, 1487. The title is translated as "The Hammer of Witches". Written by James Sprenger and Henry Kramer , the Malleus remained in use for three hundred years. It had tremendous influence in the witch trials in England and on the continent. This translation is in the public domain.

The Malleus was used as a judicial case-book for the detection and persecution of witches, specifying rules of evidence and the canonical procedures by which suspected witches were tortured and put to death. Thousands upon thousands of people (primarily women) were judically murdered,slaughtered,drowned,eyes ripped from thier sockets,tortured slowly,and disemboweled as a result of the procedures described in this book, for no reason than a strange birthmark, living alone, mental illness, cultivation of medicinal herbs, or simply because they were falsely accused (often for financial gain by the accuser). The Malleus serves as a horrible warning about what happens when intolerence takes over a society.

Amanda

[color=violet]Its really to bad when the wrong people get into power isnt it? Something that is repeated throut history. We were supposed to learn from those mistakes and stop doing thinks like that. The sad thing is even today, it is going on. Nice book!

Audrey

That was a very disturbing era in humankind. Ignorance & intolerence were certainly rampant in those days. Great post!