Hunting Witches in Print, Part Three – “All Right, That’s It: No More Mr. Nice Inquisitor!”
29 January 2007 by Eve
The Story Thus Far: German Inquisitor Johannes Nider wrote Formicarius (“The Ant Hill”), the second major work on European witchcraft, in 1435 CE (see Hunting Witches in Print, Part Two – “Can They REALLY Fly?”)…
(Note of Caution: I found it really tough to find Internet sources that even attempted to be unbiased, and fewer with clear primary source references; a book I was unable to get a hold of and which might answer some questions is The Malleus Maleficarum and the Construction of Witchcraft by Hans Peter Broedel.)
By this time, an Alsatian boy named Heinrich Kramer had probably turned about five years old in Schlettstadtt, whose local Dominican chapter house he would later join at a very young age. The chapter soon appointed him prior despite his youth and before 1474, he had become Inquisitor for the Tyrol region and Salzburg in Austria; and Bohemia and Moravia in today’s Czech Republic. Rome recognized him for his eloquent sermons and zeal, and the Archbishop of Salzburg made him his right-hand man.
Born one to two years after Nider published his treatise, Jacob Sprenger also entered the Dominican order in his place of birth, Basel, Switzerland. Around 1475, Pope Sixtus IV named him General Inquisitor of Germany, and before he became Inquisitor Extraordinary of Mainz, Treves, and Cologne, Germany in 1481, he attained the position of Dean at the prestigious Faculty of Theology in the University of Cologne.
Unlike his fellow Dominican Kramer, he appears to have shown very little if any interest at all in witchcraft…
Whatever the true nature of the relationship between the two contemporaries, on December 5, 1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued the bull entitled Summis desiderantes, in which he clearly stated that he had received reports of men and women engaging in witchcraft in parts of Germany. He pointed out that despite their papal authority to oversee these cases, Sprenger and Kramer (referred to by the Latinized version of his name, “Institoris”) had encountered opposition from clergy and laity in these areas because their letters of deputation didn’t specifically mention these suspects. Innocent gave the two Inquisitors full jurisdiction over any instance of reported sorcery in these regions and ordered local Roman Catholic Church officials to facilitate their efforts.
Kramer for one seems to have begun writing a treatise on witchcraft at about this time, and in 1485 he directed a trial of no less than 57 witchcraft suspects in the Austrian city of Innsbruck. However, his insistence on the details of the defendants’ sexual activities soon drove the Bishop of Innsbruck to close the trial down, declaring that the Devil was in the Inquisitor, not the witches!
Kramer bounced back from this setback with a vengeance: on May 9, 1487 he submitted to Sprenger’s Faculty of Theology a compilation of his witchcraft manuscript; popular current beliefs and practices; and generous helpings of both Nicholas Eymerich’s Directorium Inquisitorum (1376) and Formicarius (though to be fair, he did credit Nider by name). He entitled his book Malleus Maleficarum, a.k.a. The Witches’ Hammer, Hammer of the Witches, or my favorite, the German Hexenhammer.
Having hoped for the Faculty’s approval, he quite possibly falsified the letter of endorsement from four professors included as a preface along with the papal bull in subsequent editions. At any rate, his manual got published 13 times between 1487 and 1520, a runaway literary success for that era outselling all other publications except for the Bible.
All editions after 1519 credit Sprenger himself with co-authoring the Malleus, but his current Wikipedia entry based on Montague Summers’ Introduction to the Malleus Maleficarum (1928 Edition) claims that he “used his powerful position whenever he could to make Kramer’s life and work as difficult as possible.” These don’t sound like the actions of a collaborator, but historian Jenny Gibbons asserts that he had co-written the work at the Pope’s insistence, only to fall out with Kramer over the Faculty’s denunciation of the book and the older theologian’s forgery of their approval. Sources seem to agree that the Inquisition (perhaps the Spanish) condemned the Malleus, Kramer, or both in 1490, and that the Church listed the book on its Index of Forbidden Works (although I couldn’t find a date).
Still, Gibbons’ claim that the Alsatian monk’s peers did not respect him suffers in light of his later professional achievements and his handbook’s continuing success. The younger Sprenger died “suddenly” in 1494, but in 1495 Kramer obeyed a summons to deliver some very popular lectures in Venice, and in 1500 he received authorization to officially oppose the Waldensians and Picards. At the time of his 1505 death, he appeared to be still a Catholic and Church official in good standing, and his Malleus was still going strong – with or without Church support.
So after all this history and the ongoing debates over its origins, what does the blasted book actually say?
Next: Hunting Witches in Print, Part Four – “They Can Make My WHAT Disappear!?”
29 January 2007, on 9:49 pm
Did you happen to catch the special on witchcraft today on the Tyra Banks show? Disgraceful.
30 January 2007, on 1:32 am
“She’s…REALLY BACK!”
Yeah, as I mentioned in one my silly comments to your return from Spain..
In effect: “Bring on the Witches!” Of course…”Nobody suspects…”
Besides not being able, these days, to think of the subject without the Python’s “Holy Grail”, Witch trial scene…your scholarly search for various medieval books…and the references, thereof…brought to mind an old question about the time frame of the printing press. I wasn’t sure of the juxtaposition of its invention
to all those rather ‘graphic heavy’ texts. In other words, without the printing press, those devious, industrious, monks would have a hard time selling any large number of their insidious little master…
pieces!
Of course, as are “our wonts” [Huh?]…I went googling for the invention of the Printing Press…and at the very top of the list was this interesting page:
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story039.htm
In connection with all this I remembered a line from…and it took more ‘googling’ to [sortof] refresh my vague memory of the Faustus tale ["Ain't Google wonderful?"]…yes…it was Christopher Marlowe’s:
“The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus” which had a line containing “Fair Wittenburg”…my bad memory of the play…was confusing Gutenburg with Wittenburg. I also realize that this Elizabethan reference is getting way ahead of your time frame.
While I’m at it, however; here’s THAT little reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tragical_History_of_Doctor_Faustus
Of course, one can go on and on with relational memory links…yeah…again, an example: the original “Bedazzled” film! [Based on the Faust 'Legend']
Sorry, Eve; for the interruption…should I…or perhaps…”May I?”…stay after class?
Ummm…What might you be wearing, by the way?
S-s-s-sorry!
30 January 2007, on 11:17 am
What does the blasted book actually say?
I want to know!
You probalby know this, but you can get a hold of that elusive book here.
30 January 2007, on 12:22 pm
An online version of the Malleus Maleficarum can be seen at
http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/
The estimates of the number of people convicted and killed for the supposed crime of witchcraft range from 600,000 to 9 million. Nazism is condemned for its murder of millions of Jews, yet the Catholic church and Christianity, in general, continues to conduct business as usual with a holocaust of similar proportions resting on its shoulders.
30 January 2007, on 3:39 pm
Thanks Lynda, for that link.
As Wicasta Lovelace, on the Site points out:
“It set into the general Christian consciousness, for all time, a belief in the existence of witches as a real and valid threat to the Christian world. It is a belief which is held to this day.”…
“nearly all of the accused were women, and consisted primarily of outcasts and other suspicious persons.”…
“Scientists were branded heretics by virtue of repudiating certain tenets of Christian belief (most notably Galileo…)”…
“The Malleus Maleficarum was surpassed in public notoriety only by The Bible. Its effects were even felt in the New World, where the last gasp of the Inquisition was felt in the English settlements in America”
So…in today’s, still very delusional world…we have a ‘modern’ Pope, who’s a former Inquisitor of the Catholic Church.
“YIKES!”…and in the ‘Here & Now’, we atheist ‘heretics’ [Infidels]…as we all know…are being targeted in today’s society by all the Right Wingnuts and “Dominionist” extremists who are intent on creating Xtian Theocracies…with strict adherance to Biblical laws…in coutries like the US, Canada, etc. On the other ‘front’, of course, there’s the threat from Islam. In essence, we…and all other ‘Infidels’ are in danger of being caught in ‘the squeeze’ between both factions!
OK…something…strangely related?…or not!…
This Nation article “DC Marchers Challenge Congress to End War” by John Nichols has, in my opinion, some very interesting follow-up COMMENTS…with additional article links…relating to ‘claims’ of a huge amount of ‘under the radar’ stuff that’s been going on with the current US administration. If true, of course…only time will tell…it sure “looks & walks like a duck”…and If it ain’t, like, neo-fascism, I don’t know what is!
I realize that there’s a lot of ‘conspiracy theory’ stuff floating around these days; but putting together the blatant news of the day with some of the stats in this article, makes one wonder…exactly what we’re heading for in the, possibly, very near future.
For those interested, here’s the link to the Nation article; again, check the comments!:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=161056
31 January 2007, on 9:52 pm
Eve
Thanks for this. I think it is so primitive that these people have resorted to torture and burning other people. And then I remember that our country has slid backwards and those days are not so far away. It does make sense from the idea that it is a xian habit to torture and mutilate others for the simple reason that the other people are not xian.
1 February 2007, on 10:50 am
Although this issue of the religious treatment of witches is not necessarily a women’s rights issue it has some connection. In Quebec, Canada one community is making a stand to protect immigrant women from culturally condoned stoning, burning, mutilation, etc. It’s a good move.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6316151.stm
1 February 2007, on 5:55 pm
Julie, I missed that; I’ll have to try to watch it somewhere else or catch a rerun. What did she do with the subject?
Zipi, Lynda, indeed, various translations of the Malleus are available around the Web, although one expert (darn, name escapes me at the moment) warns that not all of them are “trustworthy” (I guess they’ve been slanted one way or another). Several sources mentioned Broedel’s recent introduction and translation (linked to in the post), so it seems he’s done a respectable job of it.
Lynda, the defense of xianity for the witch hunts I’ve personally seen most often employed is a variation of the No True Scotsman (TM) and tends to go basically like this (please humor me; this is a pet peeve of mine!):
Catholic: The Great European Witch Hunts were by and large a Protestant Renaissance phenomenon.
Protestant: Wait a minute; first of all, witch hunting started before the Protestant Reformation in the Middle Ages, when practically every xian was at least nominally Catholic.
Freethinker: True, but you can’t deny that the frenzy reached its peak under the Protestant Reformation.
Protestant: Yes, but the witch hunting was mostly carried out by secular/civic courts, not the church; it was not a religious phenomenon.
Freethinker: Give me a break! There was no cut-and-dried separation of church and state in those days; religion and government were pretty much incestuously intertwined at pretty much every level. The witch hunters and finders were xians; the authorities who prosecuted and executed the victims were xians; even the victims were xians (see Salem)!
Protestant: But they weren’t True Xians (TM)…
Freethinker: Aha! No True Scotsman–
Protestant: OK, OK, let’s say for the sake of argument they were xians; they still weren’t church officials. They were secular/civic authorities–
Freethinker: –often also church leaders and if not, used to consulting church officials and leaders on affairs of state such as these. And in Salem at least, the church - Protestant - was the government and vice versa.
Catholic: Yeah, you go, Freethinker!
Freethinker: And as for you, don’t forget that the three most influential books on witchcraft, including the one that arguably had the most impact on attitudes and thinking about witches, were all written by Catholic Church officials, two of whom were Inquisitors, none of whom were ever excommunicated or kicked out of the Church!
1 February 2007, on 6:17 pm
jimmer, what scares me most about xians in particular (as well as muslims, come to think about it) is that the more emphasis and importance they place on the “spiritual” and afterlife, the less they place on the here and now, including the living, breathing, hurting people right in front of them. If you think that some souls are “innocent,” then you justify killing them because they go to a heavenly reward; if you think most souls are “damned,” then you justify killing them because you’re doing god’s work and sending them to their just rewards.
If you think a person’s “soul” or some abstract notion of “good” as defined by you is more important than their sensations, feelings, and emotions, then you justify ignoring their immediate physical needs - or torturing them for the sake of the “truth” or “right.”
Lynda, great story! Moderate or True Muslims (TM) need to own the fact that the extreme, negative views of their religion are the ones most publicly disseminated about and associated with Islam, and that to counteract these views, they need to provide positive examples and images to replace them. Either that, or simply accept that as long as they do none of the things being banned, they are free to live as they wish.
In other words, if none of these practices exist in their community, then why should they have a problem following rules banning them? I don’t molest children no matter what people who hate non-theists think or say, so I don’t mind abiding by the rules outlawing child molestation; in fact, if I know about or witness it, I’m empowered/motivated to report and fight against it! Surely these regulations could be seen and adopted as a means of proving the stereotypes wrong?
I mean, who in their right mind would object to a law stating quite clearly that burning, stoning, or circumcising women is wrong? And if they’re not in their right mind and they do object to it, then what are they doing trying to live in a already-established-existent community that doesn’t? It almost makes me suspect that the muslims who object don’t want these practices made openly illegal, because they want to make sure that members of their community who do subscribe to these practices cannot be held accountable for them to anyone else but their own closed little society.
Just like those xians who don’t want anyone interfering in the way they “raise up their young ‘uns…” You know, those who follow the “spare the rod and spoil the child” creed?
This story also reminds me of something I heard in Barcelona over the holidays; a muslim imam (not sure if in Brazil or Spain) had recently circulated a book he wrote on how to beat your wife without leaving any marks or physical evidence on her to be recorded and collected by authorities. He had written and printed it in reaction to a wave of muslim women flocking to government services to report and prosecute the domestic abuse they had experienced - which, of course, is illegal in that country but tolerated and indeed expected in the imam’s particular community. Fortunately, some of the outcry against his book also came from moderate muslims…
1 February 2007, on 7:37 pm
Boy, am I verbose today!
ChuckA, interesting point about the invention of the printing press; both a blessing and a curse, I guess - but ultimately just a very powerful tool…
4 February 2007, on 2:36 am
Eve: I just ran across a post that says “witches” are still being persecuted!
From EbonMusings, at DaylightAtheism, Witch Hysteria Is Alive and Well
From the article, it seems that these people are merely being exiled, rather than killed as was the custom of past ages. This may be a marginal improvement at best, but at least it offers the hope that this injustice can be corrected and these innocent people returned to their families. Unfortunately, despite some citizens of the country speaking out against these harmful superstitions, there seems to be no reason to expect that such a thing will happen any time soon.
The rest of it is available by linking to his site.
It’s fucking 2007 and this shit is still happening???
5 February 2007, on 4:23 pm
Alas, Naomi, it is; I read that same story, and there are similar reports from other parts of Africa. Apparently with its long and still continuing history of shamanistic belief systems, this kind of hysteria remains alive and kicking.
Here in the US, I see an almost-parallel situation occurring with theists and non-theists, though mostly in print; we’re being targeted - even persecuted! - as “unpatriotic,” “unAmerican,” and/or “terrorist-supporting/enabling.” It reminds me uncannily of how early and medieval xians first started targeting xians they didn’t agree with as “heretics,” a definition that was expanded to include what were later more openly called “witches.” When catholics, for example, argue that their church mostly concentrated on “heretics,” not “witches,” I point out to them that their own writings on the subject consistently and traditionally conflate the two as far back as - well, pretty far back (I don’t have the exact reference at my fingertips).
How long before we non-theists and freethinkers become openly and publicly labelled as outright “terrorists/enemies of America” - and hunted/persecuted as such? The McCarthyist “witch hunts” were not that long ago at all…
9 February 2007, on 8:56 pm
[...] Hunting Witches in Print, Part Four – “They Can Make My WHAT Disappear!?” By Eve The Story Thus Far: In 1487 CE, Alsatian Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer publishes Malleus Maleficarum (“Hammer of the Witches”), the third and biggest of the “Big Three” books on European witchcraft (see Hunting Witches in Print, Part Three – “All Right, That’s It; No More Mr. Nice Inquisitor!”)… [...]