Archive | March, 2012

War On Contraception Is War Against Women

By on March 14, 2012 in Malleus In Culture

March 12, 2012 4:44 PM Letter to the editor, JDNews.com. The Republican war on women’s health culminated, in 2011, with nearly 1,000 anti-abortion bills in state legislatures and continual attacks on the federal level — especially against Planned Parenthood. Criminalizing contraception has always been a goal. The war against women is rooted in [...]

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Village Plans Scotland’s First Official Memorial To Witches

By on March 14, 2012 in Witch Hunts In The News

The 1,600 citizens of a Scottish village called Pittenweem, Fife, are taking part in a controversial “referendum” on whether they want a memorial to witches who were tortured and killed by vengeful mobs in the early 18th Century and where such a memorial should be. At least 26 “witches” were tortured and 18 [...]

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Mary Magdalene by Peter Paul Reubens

Introduction to Online Edition

By on March 1, 2012 in Ancillary Text

The Malleus Maleficarum (Latin for “The Hammer of Witches”, or “Hexenhammer” in German) is one of the most famous medieval treatises on witches. It was written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, and was first published in Germany in 1487. Its main purpose was to challenge all arguments against the existence of witchcraft and to instruct magistrates on how to identify, interrogate and convict witches.

Some modern scholars believe that Jacob Sprenger contributed little if anything to the work besides his name, but the evidence to support this is weak. Both men were members of the Dominican Order and Inquisitors for the Catholic Church. They submitted the Malleus Maleficarum to the University of Cologne’s Faculty of Theology on May 9, 1487, seeking its endorsement.

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