Malleus Maleficarum
Inquisitorial prosecution guide
Malleus Maleficarum is a 1486 treatise on witchcraft, written by two German Dominican friars.
The title is Latin for "Hammer of Witches." The book argued for the reality of witchcraft and provided guidelines for identifying, interrogating, and prosecuting witches.
It became influential during the European witch trials of the early modern period, lending theological and procedural authority to the persecution of accused witches, most of them women.
- tortureDeliberate infliction of suffering
- diabolismWorship of evil spirits
- sorceryPractice of dark magic
- InquisitionChurch tribunal against heretics
- papal bullSealed pontifical decree
misogyny · heresy · persecution · printing press · demonology · execution · feminist critique · pact with the devil · black magic · confession · scapegoating · hexes · jurisprudence · Catholic Church · familiars · moral panic · tribunal · superstition
- witch huntswitch trials, witch hunt, witch hunts, Salem witch trials, Salem trials
- Grimoiresgrimoire, spellbook, Red Dragon, Book of Shadows
- medieval textsmanuscripts, Gutenberg Bible, breviary, codices, missals
Malleus Maleficarumexoneration
Official clearing of blame
presumption of innocence · habeas corpus · acquittal · due process · apologia
Malleus Maleficarumscientific method
Structured process for investigation
skeptical inquiry · rationalism · empiricism · debunking · David Hume
Malleus MaleficarumSimone de Beauvoir