Malleus Maleficarum & The Witch-Hunt

Slideshow from various woodcut illustrations from the Malleus Maleficarum related texts and posters during the Witch Hunt periods.

Exodus 22:18 "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

In the Hebrew translation witch refers to the term m'khashephah (f) m'khasheph (m), meaning someone who practices magic "magic worker" though aggressively or abusively often times leading the practitioner into the misfortune or even to harm others. An evil spellcaster.

Illustrations and their descriptions in order of appearance:
1 - Malleus Maleficarum edict paper.
2 - Farmer using sorcery on his crops (above). Riders in illuminated horse heading for a church - a secret congregation - or a sabbat. (below)
3 - Witches brewing for a storm.
4 - Supposedly practicing levitation trick.
5 - Another Malleus Maleficarum document showing demons and witches in a ritual ."Procession of Magicians".
6 - Renouncing one's faith.
7 - Torturing and interrogation (cracking of the legs, crocodiles flapl above). Sitting on a "fire chair" (below)
8 - Poster regarding a witch.
9 - Witch cutting off a demon's ear.
10 - Execution of the witches in Chelmsford. England 17th century.
11 - Scandinavian superstition: A witch sinking ships with magic spells.
12 - Mass burning of witches, including protestants.
13 - Matthew Hopkins' witch finder advertisement. Shows a witch's household with her familiars.
14 - Possiby a torture chamber or Hell.
15 - Riding a demon-wolf (left). Magician and witch starting a flight (right).
16 - Women in the fire-execution.
17 - Adoring the Devil in goat form. 1693.
18 - Adoring the Devil by anal kiss.
19 - Hanging.
20 - Witches riding with a demon or the Devil.
21 - Cutting out a hand.
22 - The English witch "Mother Shipton".
22 - Lumbago - Shot of a Witch.
23 - Water-test knowing whether the suspect has a form of union with the Devil.
24 - Water torture.
25 - Riding the Devil.
26 - Seduction by the Devil.
27 - Torture chamber.
28 - Stealing milk with an axe.
29 - # Centre and left: a group of female witches listen to the Devil preaching a sermon in North Berwick church at Hallowe'en 1590, with John Fian, schoolmaster of Haddington, acting as their clerk.
#Top left: a ship is sunk by witchcraft. The witches were accused of raising the storms that troubled the voyage of James's bride, Anne of Denmark, to Scotland, though in fact none of her ships were sunk. The pamphlet describes the sinking of a ferryboat in the Forth, and elsewhere in the trials some of the witches were accused of having sunk a ship, the Grace of God, at North Berwick.
# Top right: witches stirring a cauldron—a stock image rather than a scene directly from the pamphlet.
# Right and bottom right: a pedlar who discovers witches in Tranent is magically transported to a merchant's wine-cellar in Bordeaux.
30 - Witches with a fiend a familiar or a demon-wolf.
31 - Likely an execution of were wolfes. Bedburg 1589.
32 - A suspected witch on trial. Likely in Salem.

Important Note on the Malleus:

Malleus Maleficarum was never officially approved by the church, it was used remotely by local courts in towns. Local courts happen to be the worst courts, they were unprofessional and treated their cases hurriedly. This caused 90% convicted witches to their deaths.

Malleus was even shunned by the Inquisitors and its author, Kramer, was heavily criticized and kept an eye on. Ironically, it was the secular judiciary not the Inquisitorial body that resorted to the Malleus.

http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/
http://histor.ws/hexen/eng/index.htm

Category:

Education

Tags:

• witch
• malleus
• maleficarum
• witch-hunt
• hexenhammer
• hunter
• matthew
• hopkins
• matthewhopkins
• woodcut
• sorcerer
• sorcery
• witchhunter
• christianity
• witchcraft
• wicca
• paganism
• heathen
• catholicism
• inquisition
• order
• ost
• index
• librorum
• prohibitorum
• witchfinder
• occult
• orgies
• cult
• darkness
• evil
• collaboration
• faction
• ritual
• congregation
• supernatural
• paranormal
• black
• arts
• necromancy

[eibon81]

emmthreejonny; I suppose you could include ANY reppresive Dogma really, be it Religous, Political......Man's inhumanity to man is quite horrible and I think somthing like the Malleus helps to highlight certain aspects of predjudice and discrimination. What's the old saying? Those that ignore History are Doomed to repeat it....

[emmthreejonny]

@eibon81 That's true. Mallues Maleficarum was never officially approved by the church, it was used remotely by local courts in towns. Local courts happen to be the worst courts, they were unprofessional and treated their cases hurriedly. This caused 90% convicted witches to their deaths.

Malleus was even shunned by the Inquisitors and its author, Kramer, was heavily criticized and kept an eye on. Ironically, it was the secular judiciary not the Inquisitorial body that resorted to the Malleus.

[borarp]

True face of christianity

[emmthreejonny]

@borarp Absolutely not.

[Nonametral]

this is so, so sad :( it makes me want to cry... To think that most of them were only women who were a little bit out of the ordinary... They were just society outcasts just like most of us now...

[eibon81]

300warrior300: Kramer was insane? They were probably ALL insane! I personally believe that all the outrageous things people were accused of were the products of the Inquisitor's twisted minds and repressed sexuality....Oscullum Obscenum, anyone? Either that or they were ripped to the tits on mushrooms......

[300warrior300]

@borarp Absolutely not.

[300warrior300]

@eibon81 I don't think there malluas was predjudiced or discriminive. The malleus was based on lies and madness. Kramer was insane, he wasn't discriminating, because there is no witchcraft cult, poor fellow probably thought he was doing a service to humanity, helping to defeat a huge diabolical conspiracy,the whole witchcraft episode is rather bizarre.

[eibon81]

This is fact people.....there is no greater kingdom given to bloodshed than that of Christ. Mind you, the Nazi's were not much better....

[TheThreeWeavers]

@emmthreejonny

It's a quotation from the prophecies of the great Merlin. The 'race' (although not really a race of such) relates to those of the heathen of Britain . Witches included.

[TheThreeWeavers]

'The cult of religion shall be destroyed completely, and the ruin of the churches shall be clear for all to see. The race that is oppressed shall prevail in the end, for it will resist the savagery of the invaders.'

[Jeorney]

I thought Malleus Maleficarum was a coded medieval eupherism for penis, after all, it does mean "Hammer of the Witches" :D