Malleus Maleficarum

For nearly three centuries Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches' Hammer) was the professional manual for witch hunters. This work by two of the most famous Inquisitors of the age is still a document of the force of that era's beliefs. Under a Papal Bull, Kramer and Sprenger exposed the heresy of those who did not believe in witches and set forth the proper order of the world with devils, witches, and the will of God.

Contemporary cases illustrate methods by which witches attempt to control and subvert the world: How and why women roast their first-born male child; the confession of how to rase a tempest by a washwoman suspended "hardly clear of the ground" by her thumbs; methods of making a formal pact with the Devil; and many others.

Formal rules for initiating a process of justice are set down: how it should be conducted and the method of pronouncing sentence; when to use the trial by the red-hot iron; how the prosecutor should protect himself; how the body is to be shaved and searched for tokens and amulets, includuing those sewn under the skin. As Summers says, it was the casebook on every magistrate's desk.

Montague Summers has given a very sympathetic translation. His two introductions are filled with examples of witchcraft and the historical importance of Malleus Maleficarum. This famous document should interest the historian, the student of witchcraft and the occult, and the psychologist interested in the medieval mind as it was confronted with various forces which could only be explained by dark and sinister powers.

Format: Paperback, 278 pages
ISBN: 9780486228020
Publisher: Dover Occult
Published: 1 October, 1978
Weight: 568 g
Dimensions: 253 x 169 x 17 mm

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