Malleus Maleficarum
treatise on the prosecution of witches
The Malleus Maleficarum, usually translated as the Hammer of Witches, is a famous treatise about witchcraft. When it was published, heretics were often sentenced to be burned alive at the stake, and the Malleus suggested the same for "witches". The book was later revived by royal courts during the Renaissance, and contributed to the increasingly brutal prosecution of witchcraft during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Quotes
edit- When the implements are ready, the judge should, in his own person and through other good men who are zealots for the Faith, advise the person to be questioned under torture to confess the truth freely. If he is unwilling, the judge should order the assistants to tie him to the strappado or fasten him to other implements. They should obey without joy, as if they are upset. Afterwards, he should be released at the request of certain people, dragged to the side, and again advised. In this advice, he should be informed that he will not be executed.
- Christopher S. Mackay: The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, pp. 545–546
- Fourth, the step consists of other kinds of torture devices being laid out before him if the person questioned under torture is unwilling to make an appropriate confession, and in his being told that he will have to endure them if he does not confess the truth. If even this cannot bring him to feel terror or tell the truth, then sentence to a second or third day of questioning under torture will be passed in his presence in the following manner (as a continuation and not a repetition of the torture, since it cannot be repeated unless new indications come to light). "We, the aforementioned judge (as above), assign to you such-and-such a day for the continuation of the questioning under torture, so that the truth should come from your own mouth." The whole should be put into the protocol by the notary.
- Christopher S. Mackay: The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, pp. 547–548
- If the judge's aim is to investigate whether she is enveloped in the sorcery of silence, he should note whether she can cry when standing in his presence or being exposed to torture. The ancient accounts of trustworthy men and the teaching of our own experience have demonstrated that this is the most certain sign, so that even if she is urged and compelled with conjurations to cry, if she is a sorceress she does not have this ability (to shed tears).
- Christopher S. Mackay: The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, p. 549
- The following or a similar method of conjuring her to genuine tears if she is innocent and of restraining false tears can be followed by the judge (or priest) in the sentence. Putting a hand over the head of the denounced man (woman), he says, "I conjure you by the loving tears shed on the Cross for the salvation of this world by Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the most passionate tears of His mother, the Most Glorious Virgin Mary, which were sprinkled over His wounds at eventide, and by all the tears shed here in this world by all the Saints and the Elect of God, from whose eyes He has now wiped every tear, that you should shed tears to the extent that you are innocent, but not at all if you are guilty. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." (Sign of the Cross.) "Amen."
- Christopher S. Mackay: The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, pp. 549–550
- "We, (Name), by God's mercy Bishop of Such-and-Such city (or judge in the lands subject to the rule of Lord Such-and-Such), note, after a careful examination of the merits of the proceeding conducted by us against you, Such-and-Such of Such-and-Such place and of Such-and-Such diocese, that you are inconsistent in your confessions and that there are nonetheless many indications that are sufficient for exposing you to questioning under torture, and therefore, in order for the truth to be had from your own mouth and for you to cease from then on offending the ears of the judges, as an interlocutory measure we declare, judge and sentence that on the present day at such-and-such hour you should be subjected to questioning under torture."
- Christopher S. Mackay: The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, pp. 583–584
- When the sentence has been passed, the assistants should promptly get themselves ready for questioning the denounced person under torture, and while they are doing so, the bishop (or judge) should, both in his own person and through other good men who are zealots for the Faith, urge the person to be questioned to make a free confession, even promising to spare his life if necessary, as was discussed above. But if even this method cannot bring him to feel terror or tell the truth, they will be able to assign a second or third day for continuing the torture, but not for repeating it, because torture ought not to be repeated except when new indications against him turn up, in which case they can repeat it. Continuation, on the other hand, is not prohibited.
- Christopher S. Mackay: The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, p. 585
- "Since we desired with all our heart, as we still do, to bring you back to the Unity of the Holy Church and to remove this heretical depravity from your bowels, we employed our efforts to make you save your soul and escape the death of your body and that of your soul in Hell, applying various appropriate methods to make you convert to salvation, but you, being given over to a reprehensible frame of mind through being simultaneous led and led astray by an evil spirit, preferred to be tortured with the savage and everlasting torments in Hell, and to be consumed in body by the flames here rather than to adopt saner counsel, veering back from damnable and baneful errors and flying to the embrace and mercy of Holy Mother Church."
- Christopher S. Mackay: The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, p. 620
Quotes about the Malleus Maleficarum
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- The Malleus is a work that rouses strong, often emotional reactions, and these may take a multiplicity of forms. Since at least the nineteenth century, it has been viewed by many as an example of medieval ignorance and superstition, being associated with the later witch hunting of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries that seemed to have been instigated by it. For those who view as innocent victims the large numbers of men and (predominantly) women who were burned alive for crimes that are now considered to be completely bereft of substance, the work epitomized everything that was wrong with what was thought to be a medieval mentality.
- Christopher S. Mackay: Introduction to The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, pp. 31–32
- Robert Langdon: The Catholic Inquisition soon publishes what may be the most blood-soaked book in human history.
Sir Leigh Teabing: The Malleus Maleficarum.
[He throws the book at Langdon, who catches it]
Robert Langdon: The Witches' Hammer.
Sir Leigh Teabing: It instructed the clergy on how to locate, torture and kill all free-thinking women.
Robert Langdon: In three centuries of witch-hunts, 50,000 women are captured, burned alive at the stake.
Sir Leigh Teabing: Oh, at least that. Some say millions.
