The Malleus Maleficarum, Or The Hammer Against Witches

Early modern England saw a great purge of sin from witches, sin, and the devil himself. And while this encompassed a whole myriad of sin for many who lived in the time, some religions, like Protestant Reformers, had a belief that focused more onto very specific elements of the devil’s reach. Early beliefs of these ideals stemmed from lack of confidence and a need to drive negative aspects of life, which religion failed to deal with, into a tangible figure, or at least one that could be mentally connected to. It was technically possible for anyone to be embody these negative aspects in the following widespread holocaust but the purging of sin and all of its accompanying evil characteristics were not so much a purge of witchcraft, but the attempt

The Malleus Maleficarum, or the Hammer Against Witches, was a handbook used as guidelines for all trials concerning devilry and sorcery. The title though, already implies a specific stereotype as the term ‘witch’ in itself is the feminine form of the word. This handbook published by Kramer and Sprenger in 1486 fully educating a whole two centuries worth of people and was extremely widespread in its influence. This influence was for the condemnation and immediate justice of female witches around the world, many of which were religious in nature. Men were exempt from these vicious attacks due to their sinless lifestyles. Indeed, the actual attack on a woman’s character and feebleness in the area of temptation predates even her existence. The theory goes that since God present himself in the masculine form, “God’s incarnation as a member of the male sex gives men relative immunity to such evil” (Clark, 123), men are directly descended from God. The argument for which is that if God created Man, who created Woman? As woman is seen to have been created from the rib of Adam, she is created from a holy creature and thus is also immune from evil. But having been formed by the bent rib of Adam, women are just in their existence, prone to evil as the bent rib symbolizes contrary direction and deviation from the light, versus the normal skeletal attributes of any human, man or woman. So to

As seen with the story of Adam and Eve, Eve is the one who waivers in her religion. Eve is the one who is easily manipulated. Eve is the one who does wrong. Eve is woman, Eve is to blame. Thus, three generations of a civilization knew little woman in their life and even fewer who could be compared to the strength of mind of men. The lack of education that women received in comparison to men at the time was not taken into consideration, nor the hierarchy of the sexes which makes it difficult to speak out against those seen as smarter than you. They were vulnerable to accusations, in part, because - seen as weaker vessels, dependent, evil, or sexually voracious - they were believed to be more susceptible to the wiles of Satan (Thomas, 568). Puritans denied women the opportunity to participate in church or government (Friday, 7) due to these undesirable characteristics of mind. This is mirrored in every religion as “Women are seen as easily manipulated, that is they are light minded, fickle, feeble in intelligence, quick to waiver in religion, and cursed with sexual desires so insatiable that they even lust for intercourse with the devil.” (Clark,