This 16th-century woodcut shows some witches happily gathering ’round a pair of devils. Crimes commonly thought to have been committed by witches included murder of children, cannibalism, and carnal acts with Satan (#Q-Anonfortheages). Many trial records go into minute detail about subjects we would consider crazy, like the accused witches’ sexual intercourse with demons, marks of the devil on witches’ bodies, and accounts of witches flying or transforming into animals. The 1500s and 1600s marked the peak of the Early Modern witch trials, which resulted in over 40,000 executions of alleged witches, mainly women. Of any single book that influenced these trials, the _Malleus Maleficarum_, or “Hammer of Witches” is to blame.
Published in 1486 and written by Heinrich Kramer, the _Malleus Maleficarum_ was enormously important in galvanizing momentum for the great increase in the belief that witches were working for Satan and needed to be stopped. Because the threat was so serious, Kramer argued, torture needed to be used to procure testimony. After all, witches were deceitful and tense times called for harsh measures.
When we read the _Malleus Maleficarum_, we find Kramer’s confirmation biases against women everywhere. For instance — and the actual list of Problems With Women is much longer than my abbreviation: women are credulous and thus open to Satan, women are weak, women are feeble in body and mind compared to men (they are “intellectually like children”). A woman is “a liar by nature,” with a voice “like the song of the Sirens, who with their sweet melody entice the passers-by and kill them.” Women are much more insatiable in their carnal lust than men. In fact, a woman is “more bitter than death.” And that, dear readers, is why Kramer pushed forward the idea that the overwhelming majority of witches were female.
The _Malleus Maleficarum_ might have been partially influenced by Kramer’s interactions with a woman named Helena Scheuberin from the town of Innsbruck who was accused of witchcraft. She hadn’t been going to Kramer’s sermons, and had cursed at Kramer on the street, saying “fie on you, bad monk, may the falling evil take you.” (#Old-timeyincels)
Source(s): _Malleus Maleficarum_ by Kramer cited in _Witchcraft in Europe 400-1700_, edited by Kors and Peter’s, 2nd ed, Univ Penn Press, 2001. Wikipedia. _Compendium Maleficarum_, 1508, Milan, wood cut (Wikimedia commons).
