Malleus Maleficarum: a guide for witch hunters

In the 11th and 12th centuries, there came to exist within the Holy Roman Church a sect that believed in Dualism. Albi, France was the birthplace of this new belief and the members became known to the Church as Albigenses and heretics.

The Albigenses believed there were two gods constantly at war against one another. The ‘good’ god of the New Testament and the ‘bad’ god of the Old Testament, also identified as Satan. Included in the Dualism doctrine was the opinion that the Catholic Church, with its power and enormous wealth, was an agent of the devil. Similar sects sprang up throughout Europe: the Cathari of Greece, the Paulicans of Thrace, and the Bogomils of Bulgaria. As the sects gathered wider acceptance, the Catholic Church began to view them as more than merely a nuisance.

During the eradication of the Dualism sects, the Holy Roman Church – which had previously regarded witches as merely misguided non-threats - turned its eyes more ominously toward the prosecution of sorcery. The belief in Dualism had all but been eradicated; the Church had exhausted most of the money collected from forfeitures and the Inquisitors were looking for other ‘dangers’ to Christianity. As a result, in 1320, Pope Paul XXII, formally sanctioned the arrest, torture, and execution of those who, “…made a pact with hell.” Wealthy women were often targeted for the possessions they would forfeit as convicted witches.

By 1484, the persecution of witches had become so widespread that Pope Innocent XIII issued a declaration - Summis Desiderantes - that granted two Dominican monk Inquisitors authorization to publish a manual on the proper methods of identifying and prosecuting witches. Three years later Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger unveiled ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ – Hammer of Witches. For the next two hundred and fifty years, this book would instigate the deaths of thousands of innocent people and make belief in the devil mandatory for Christians. Anyone, by denying the existence of Satan, also denied God. This order would effectively stifle the words of any would-be defender of an accused witch.

Heinrich Kramer entered the Order of St. Dominic as a child. In the following years, his devotion to the Order and his intelligence earned him some of the highest honors of the Dominicans: Preacher-General and Master of Sacred Theology. In 1474 he was appointed Inquisitor for Bohemia and Moravia.

James Sprenger’s career was no less distinguished. As a young man he was admitted to the Dominican house and quickly rose to levels of prominence by his fervent adherence to the strict laws of the Order. He excelled in his appointment as Prior and Regent of Studies of the Cologne Convent and in a few years was appointed Inquisitor Extraordinary for the Provinces of Mainz, Trèves, and Cologne.

Kramer and Sprenger were passionate about their calling to rid the Christian world of witches. When ordered by Pope Innocence XIII to create a book of instructions, they lost no time compiling all the fears and superstitions of the era. For added authenticity, they used the Pope’s Bull – Summis Desiderantes – as the introduction for their manual.

The Malleus Maleficarum was organized into three parts: part one explained the concomitants of witchcraft – the three things that must work together to manifest true sorcery. They were the devil, the witch, and the permission of God. Since God was omnipotent and more powerful than Satan, nothing could be done without His consent. The Malleus explained, “…God in His justice permits a creature naturally sinful to perpetrate witchcraft and other horrid crimes…”

Part one was broken into eighteen ‘questions’ debated by the authors. These questions discussed the manner in which women were seduced by evil, why there was such an increase in witchcraft, and the type of sorcery a witch could perform. But perhaps the most horrifying question in Part One asks whether children can be conceived by the union of mortal woman and devil. The affirmative answer led to the torture and extinction of many young lives.

Part Two dealt with how witches were able to accomplish their dark deeds and the methods to be used to “…[annul] and [dissolve]” them. Divided into two ‘questions’, each separated into many chapters, the Malleus described how women will turn to the devil, then seduce young girls into their profession. It encouraged violence toward women by men who had found themselves ‘bewitched'. The culpability of an accused witch was explored. Because of the grave punishment of death, a woman could not be convicted of sorcery on eyewitness testimony alone; she must confess.

The third and last part of the Malleus Maeficarum detailed the judicial proceedings when dealing with witchcraft and heresy. It was divided into three ‘Heads"’ which were in turn divided into ‘questions’. The first ‘Head’ concerned the testimony of witnesses; whether some people such as perjurers, criminals, evil doers, and servants could testify against a suspected witch. The authors determined those witnesses would be accepted if they had repented of their sins.

The second ‘Head’ consisted of eleven actions to be taken by the court against the accused. Beginning with how the trial should proceed, whether or not the accused should be imprisoned before the trial, the appointment of an Advocate for the accused, methods for extracting the confession, and finally the eleventh action which gave the judge power to subject the prisoner to another round of torture.

The authors attempted to convey their concern that the prisoner should receive a fair trial, but in actuality, someone accused of witchcraft had very little hope. They were mercilessly tortured and mutilated. If the prisoner didn’t die, they soon confessed and begged relief through death. The Malleus then advised the judge to take the prisoner away from the torture devices and have them confess again, to be certain that the confession had not been a result of the torture. The Advocate, appointed by the judge, had no power to launch a true defense. Nor would he even try, for any defense put forward would place the Advocate in fear of being accused of sorcery in accordance with Part one of the Malleus.

The third ‘Head’ was once again broken into ‘questions’ that advised a judge on the method of handing down a sentence. If, for instance, a judge had promised the prisoner her life in exchange for a confession (permissible under the second ‘Head’) then he must keep his word and step aside to allow an alternate judge to pronounce the sentence of death.

During the influence of the Malleus Maleficarum, estimates of the death toll range from six hundred thousand to over nine million.