Review (PDF) The Malleus Maleficarum
Also known as "The Witch Hammer," The Malleus Maleficarum was a handbook for hunting and punishing witches-written by Inquisitors HEINRICH KRAMER (c. 1430-1505), an Alsatian clergyman, and JAMES SPRENGER (c. 1436-1494), a Swiss monk-to assist the Inquisition and Church in exterminating undesirables. Mostly a compilation of superstition and folklore, the book was taken very seriously at the time it was written in the 15th century and became a kind of spiritual law book used by judges to determine the guilt of the accused. While some of the articles covered in "The Witch Hammer" are humorous to modern audiences, they were a matter of life and death in the mid-1400's. Anyone interested in religion, the Inquisition, or the witch hunts that ravaged Europe will find this 1928 translation, by MONTAGUE SUMMERS (1880-1948), an unbelievable and enlightening read.
Hardcover: 292 pages
Publisher: Cosimo Classics (December 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 160520062X
ISBN-13: 978-1605200620
Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.7 x 10 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,136,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #266 in Books > History > World > Religious > New Age, Mythology & Occult #473 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Religions, Practices & Sacred Texts > Demonology & Satanism #1815 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Occult & Paranormal > Occultism
Rating the MALLEUS MALEFICARUM is an exercise is frustration. One cannot "enjoy" this book; like MEIN KAMPF, one reads it for its historical importance. This book should form a part of every thinking person's library as a warning beacon, if for no other reason that it is a seminal textbook on the inhumanity of humanity.First written in 1484 by the Friars Kramer and Sprenger, (and reprinted endlessly), the MALLEUS was immediately given the imprimatur of the Holy See as the most important work on witchcraft, to date. And so it remains.The MALLEUS MALEFICARUM is a compendium of fifteenth century paranoias, all the more frightening for its totalitarian modernity. ("Anything that is done for the benefit of the State is Good.") In form, it is a "how to" guide on recognizing, capturing, torturing, and executing witches. In substance, it is a diatribe against women, heretics, independent thinkers, romantic lovers, the sensitive passions, human sexuality, and compassion."Vanity of vanities" indeed. In writing the MALLEUS, Kramer and Spenger claimed to be doing "God's work"; these men, and those who followed them worshiped only their own arrogance. Read it and Be Afraid, my friends.Forming a portion of every working law library for 300 years, there is no estimate of how many women and men were put to death through the mechanism of this benighted book. Some historians estimate that the numbers may run into the millions.The text is rife with "caselaw" examples of witchcraft, some of which are clearly delusional and some downright silly, or would be, if they hadn't ended in gruesome deaths for the accused.
The Malleus Maleficarum The Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger (Dover Occult) The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum Malleus Maleficarum Malleus Monstrorum: Creatures, Gods, & Forbidden Knowledge (Call of Cthulhu Horror Roleplaying) (Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying)
