The Teachings of The Malleus Maleficarum

Heinrich Kramer's creation of 'The Witch' | Charles Zika's 'The Appearance of Witchcraft'

An Essay by Molly Lynch | January 19

“Evils which are performed by witches exceed all other sin which God has ever permitted to be done” (Kramer, 1487)

1485 - Helena Scheuberin, an Austrian woman stands on trial, accused of having used magic to murder a noble knight. During Helena’s proceedings, six other women were accused and put on trial for sorcery. Several witnesses gave testimonies that were later revealed to be acts of prejudice and personal hostility towards the accused. The trial was overseen in part by Dominican Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer, who travelled to Germany to personally investigate the witches. Kramer sought out to identify the behaviours and actions of the accused as signs of association with Satan. However, the authorities rejected his findings, and

Scheuberin and the other six women were freed with some receiving penance as a sentence. Kramer and his efforts were dismissed, leaving him dissatisfied, he stayed in Germany to further his investigations until he was commanded to leave. Upon his arrival in Cologne he began writing a treatise on witchcraft, a text that would later turn into the instructional guide for identifying witches. Condemned today for recommending unethical procedures, this text would go on to become The Malleus Maleficarum and it was the second best selling book after the Bible for over two hundred years.

Published in 1487 written by Heinrich Kramer, The Malleus Maleficarum which translates to ‘The Hammer of the Witches’ was written directly after the acting pope at the time - Pope Innocent VIII acknowledged the existence of witches. Ironically, many of Kramer’s sources of evidence affirming the weakness or wickedness of women are pagan writers, including Cicero, Homer, and Socrates and to a degree he was inspired by the works of Jerome, Augustine and Thomas of Aquinas.

In his treatise, Kramer sought to discredit any doubts that witchcraft existed. Acting as the quintessential handbook used in the European witch hunts, it provided a list of symptoms of witchcraft as well as telling the reader how to identify possible witches, tests to perform and suggested punishments for example burning, hanging or beheading. Through doing so, the text aims to prove woman’s susceptibility to darkness because of their weakness and inferiority to the man, there were also outlined procedures for law authoritarians to follow in order to find and convict witches.

“ A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads. ” (The Bible, Leviticus. 20:27)

Even though Kramer’s idea concerning the relationship between demonology and magical practitioners is an intrinsic element in the text, its is not the most enduring. The Malleus Maleficarum is still used as a mechanism in promoting the role of the witch as predominantly female. There is a feminine genitive plural within the title in the Latin ‘malefica’ ‘maleficarum’. The title therefore translates to ‘Hammer of (Female) Witches’. Every example of witchcraft specified by Kramer within the text was anecdotal and always specified women who had cast or used an enchantment. Written as a discussion, Kramer proposes and answers questions in three distinct chapters; each of which is derivative and built upon the last.

Kramer addresses the connections between witchcraft, heresy, and demonology early in his work. Chapter one sets out to address the reality and adequacy of witchcraft. Part one, question two of The Malleus Maleficarum is focused on whether witches and demons have the ability to ‘effect’ magic by themselves or whether they come hand in hand. Kramer asserts “it is always necessary for the demons to co-operate with sorcerers” Kramer, 1487.

Kramer, an extreme misogynist, had some leeway gentrifying the witch as he did in fact recognise that some witches are men. The second chapter of the book addressed a relationship between male demons (demon: masculine singular) and male witches (malefico: masculine singular). However, only a small section of the book is dedicated to this, most of the text focuses on female witches. He goes on to claim that women are either “all good or all evil” — woman’s innate superstitiousness causes them to be “weak in their faith” and a much more easy target for the devil The second chapter also described the methodology of the witch and how ‘she’ achieves her aims, and the harm ‘she’ does. Chapter three details recommended punishments for those convicted or suspected of practising witchcraft.

Theorists such as Stuart Clark believe the label misogynistic is problematic. In his book Thinking With Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe 1997 he argues that, rather than gender bias, the cause is more likely related to the binary nature of classification derived and sustained from the ancient world. Although it is “by its nature an example of misogyny” its intent isn't malicious Clark, 1997. Clark outlines the idea that it would have been an impossible concept for early modern theorists to consider male witches, and that associations with female witches would be the only reason for them to be targeted. An observation that I myself do not wholeheartedly agree with.

Kramer seemed to have had a level of distrust towards women and spoke freely with his judgements. He had obsessions with sexual purity of women which he specifies when discussing their “inherent evil nature” Kramer, 1487. He alleged “lust is at the heart of all witchcraft” therefore an accusation against a witch is also an allegation of sexuality Kramer, 1487. The stigmatisation of female sexuality has pulsed through our visual rhetoric for centuries, a matter that will be discussed later on in this piece.

The Creation of the witch

“There is a good principle that created order, light and man and a bad principle that created chaos, darkness and woman” — (Pythagoras, 570 – c. 495 BC)

In order to contextualise the image of the witch, we must understand that the derivatives are multi-faceted. I begin by outlining the creation of the witch in Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum and theology. I then go on to discuss the feminisation of the witch and the role of witches in society. All of which have informed not only the way in which we see the witch, but how we came to see the witch in such a light.

Defining witchcraft for witch hunters, Kramer conceptualised an image of witchcraft practitioners through his descriptive characteristics and behaviours outlined in The Malleus Maleficarum. An image resulting from pre-existing ideas of magic taken from Christianity, folklore and academia. However, this presented no advancements in the Early European ideas of witches. What Kramer did do in The Malleus Maleficarum to quote R.J. Thurston is that he “presented the witch stereotype in a complete and well-organised fashion” Thurston, 2001. The text helped typecast disability, age, poverty and unattractiveness as symptoms for witchcraft. This influence has endured through centuries of slander and persecution of women. Most notably, Kramer’s witch has appeared within some of the most prominent depictions of witches in our culture, from the Brothers Grimm to various witches within Disney and even Harry Potter stories.

Maleficent is a fictional character who appears in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty 1959. She is one of the most recognisable figures of witchcraft in film, an embodiment of manipulation and evil. Her character was developed by the Brothers Grimm’s retelling of the story Little Briar Rose 1697 written by Charles Perrault. Her image has endured through copious reiterations and retellings. Maleficent is an adjective which means ‘doing harm or evil’ she is cunning, manipulative, green skinned and sinister.

Theology and the witch

Theological efforts to grossly exaggerate the image of witches and their behaviours were precise and detailed. Eve was tempted by the serpent and ate the apple burdening womankind with a life of penance for their inherent evil ways. Tales of deceptiveness, infant murder, bestiality, aerial bodies and male castration have loomed over cunning women for centuries like a cloud, one which could darken over and strike at any minute. In The Malleus Maleficarum, Kramer asserts that midwives are even more bestial than actual animals. This is exemplified by Hans Baldung Grein in The Three Fates 1513 in which three grotesquely depicted witches are holding a life line, which could be construed as the umbilical cord, symbolising the power of the midwife. Midwifery was deemed untrustworthy, with such control over the handling of new life and aiding of the mothers pain came suspicious observation from male doctors. Most of whom were concerned that the midwives would offer the newborn to the devil, if not mutilate and devour the infant themselves. Christina Larner observed these behaviours in her book Enemies of God 1981. She suggested that men viewed “a woman’s life-bearing and menstruating capacities as mysterious and dangerous” if not controlled (by men) Larner, 1981.

“Those who are indisputably witches are accustomed, against the inclination of every animal (at least with the exception of the wolf) to devour and feast on young children” Kramer, 1487

Theorists Brian Levack and Stuart Clark have contributed to the conversation of gendering witchcraft. Levack’s The Witch-hunt in Early Modern Europe 1987 and Clark’s Languages of Witchcraft: Narrative, Ideology and Meaning in Early Modern Culture 2000 suggest that Kramer’s focus was more “directed at bringing publicity to female witches to brand them as heretics” Clark, 2000, whilst still acknowledging the existence of male witches. This is evidenced in a passage in The Malleus Maleficarum.

“Everything is governed by carnal lusting, which is insatiable in them {women} ... for intelligent men it appears to be reasonably unsurprising that more women than men are found to be tainted with the Heresy of female witches. Hence, and consequently, it should be called the Heresy not of male witches, but of female witches, to name it after the predominant element” Kramer, 1487.

In her Journal “The Witch "She"/The Historian "He": Gender and the Historiography of the European Witch- Hunts” 1995 Elspeth Whitney “remains clear that the witch was seen as someone inverting not only the natural order, but specifically the image of the ‘good woman’”. Whitney, 1995. The Virgin Mary is Christianity’s idea of the perfect woman she bears a child without having sex. Therefore women who had sex for pleasure without the purpose of conceiving a child defied these ideals. Lyndal Roper theorised that the witch craze stems from obsessions over motherhood and idealism. The witch has sex but she does not bear children “If she were to conceive, she would kill the baby and ground the corpse into powder, using it to enhance her own power” Roper, 2004. The witch therefore takes on the anti-Madonna role, she is anti- mother and the antithesis of the Virgin Mary.

Charles Zika - The Appearance of Witchcraft and society

“By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.” — (Bible Book of Revelation 18:23)

The study of witchcraft re-emerged in the 1970s as a very important element in early modern scholarship. With historians such as Alan Macfarlane, E.William Monter and H.C. Midelfort being the first to dedicate their studies to this field. They applied a regional approach to areas in Germany, testing how well geographically focused investigations show that the witch trials were controlled by social forces and populace. Here I will focus primarily on the research of Charles Zika, Lyndal Roper and Mary Daly.

In his book The Appearance of Witchcraft 2013, Charles Zika examines the witch as a powerful figure in the European imagination. His study investigates the hidden elements in the visual image of the witch in Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Europe. He surveys the development of the witch as a visual subject, with attributes derived from traditional medieval images of magic exploring visual codes, such as broomsticks and hooked noses. Demonstrating the influence of iconography, Zika explores themes of feminine power and sexuality, morality and punishment, superstitions outside of Christianity and male fantasy encompassing the appearance of witchcraft from the early modern world. Zika’s approach is relevant to this discussion, his observations mirror the concurrent reform of how we look at generated images of the witch. The discussion of iconography is not limited - Zika suggests exploring the “broader cultural meanings of the visual subject and interplay between the image and major cultural trends of the time such as Confessionalization” Zika, 2013, an act of social-discipling in which one’s own interpretative theology is correct and sufficient. Confessionalization was supported by monarchs and rulers after the Protestant Reformation of the early sixteenth century, because it brought more control over territories, churches could then enforce “ a stricter regime of religious obedience” Zika, 2013. This translates through imagery from this time as theologians had more control over small communities. As a result, the iconographic idiom was based off a distinct set of associations. Consequently, in closed off highly monitored communities, the discourse would eventually be so heavily influenced that the image of the witch would not have evolved much over a large period of time. Zika himself notes that some imagery and visual representations of the witch are absent for almost a century.

In German speaking countries, there was an increased fascination with witchcraft in the sixteenth century heralded by The Malleus Maleficarum. Language and etymology is fundamental when contextualising the artists intentions with works as heavily loaded as Hans Baldung Grien’s The Three Fates 1513. Fates or Moirai in Greek is a term for measuring, spinning and cutting the thread of life, a scene depicted in the figure. The Latin word fata is in English the term for ‘fairy’ - a myth or mysterious women who can control human destiny. Hesiod 700 BC describes in his poem Theogony (8th-7th century BC) three Fates who have control over birth, marriage and death. As aforementioned, associations with medicine and maternity often caused suspicions towards women. The three figures or Fates in the image are also nude, suggesting that they are witches, as witches were often depicted nude or exposed in works of that time.

The traditional roles of women enabled them to be more susceptible to accusation. Cooking, cleaning, healing and midwifery are all aided by particular knowledge of concocting, not to mention the degree of power this gave them over those around them. Jules Michelet, French historian and author of Satanism and Witchcraft 1862, wrote about the evolution of the women’s health movement. He notes that “for a thousand years, people had one healer and one only, the sorcerer, if her cures failed they abused her and called her a witch” Michelet, 1862. Medicine has always been a part of the history and heritage of women. Ehrenreich and English in their book Witches, Midwives and Nurses 1972 encouraged women to “[reclaim] healing roles” Ehrenreich and English, 1972 in attempt to scrap ancient stigmas.

As to why non-conformity was deemed so suspicious is discussed through the research findings of Mary Daly in her book Gyn/ ecology 1978 and later works from authors such as Lyndal Roper with Witch craze 2004. Daly proposed that women who survived marriage (widowers) or who rejected marriage, rejected maternity and were past fertility “asserted independence or deliberately deviated from patriarchy” Daly, 1978. Roper agreed with Daly in that “social status correlated with reproductive potential, therefore old women were regarded with revulsion, sexually and socially” Roper, 2004. Roper’s idea that men fear women as sexual beings ties in with the aforementioned notion of the ‘perfect woman’ in Catholicism. Larner, Clark and Roper all agree that the witch was someone whom authorities and neighbours viewed as socially deviant.