ABOUT US - The Malleus Maleficarum

About us? The Malleus Maleficarum online project was started by Wicasta Lovelace. The full text of the Malleus Maleficarum was transcribed by Wicasta and Christie Jury in the hopes of expanding general knowledge of the work. The transcription project was began in 1998, and was completed in 2000.

Neither Wicasta nor Christie claim to be experts on the subject of the Malleus Maleficarum, and have never presented themselves as such. Their hope was simply to make the work available on the Internet as a reference resource.

COPYRIGHTS: The text of the Malleus Maleficarum as published by Rev. Montague Summers in 1928 (the basis of the work here) is in the Public Domain. While our original files, such as online introductions, HTML web-coding, and all material pertaining specifically to this web site, are protected by U.S. copyright law, the text of the Malleus Maleficarum is not. If you wish to copy excerpts of the Malleus Maleficarum itself or even the work in its entirety, you do not have to contact us for permission to do so. However, if you wish to copy our introductions, blog posts, or other related articles, please contact us first. Copyrights on those items will be protected. But, again, the text of Malleus Maleficarum itself is in the Public Domain, and you do not need our permission to use it as you see fit.

Please Note: This web site is not affiliated with the Catholic Church in any way, shape or form. In fact, both Wicasta and Christie are Pagan. This web site is made available as a reference for a historical artifact, nothing more. We are certainly not responsible in any way, shape or form for the Malleus Maleficarum itself or any of the harm that came from it. In the end, if anyone wants to lodge a formal complaint about the Malleus Maleficarum or the Catholic Church in general, the appropriate place to do so would be the official Vatican web site – http://www.vatican.va/ – which could properly be considered the official web site of all Catholics. Recriminations about The Burning Times or the Malleus Maleficarum are misplaced here. You’re preaching to the choir.

“The Malleus Maleficarum” was

written by

translated by

Montague Summers

transcribed by

coded for web site publication by

Wicasta Lovelace

downloads by

Wicasta Lovelace – Kindle and e-Book versions
Ian Patton – English version PDF
Fredy Nuñez Munarriz – Spanish version PDF

“Thanks” are due to

Richard Brent – for providing invaluable assistance in nailing down some of the mythology and misinformation surrounding the Malleus Maleficarum, especially in regard to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, and the Letter of Approbation. Richard insisted that the Malleus had not been included on the original 1559 publication of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum and provided links to reference sources that, in my mind, settled the issue of whether the Malleus was placed on the list of prohibited books, as well as whether or not the Letter of Approbation was a forgery.

Antonio Benvenuti – for first pointing out to me in February of 2008 that the Index Librorum Prohibitorum was not published until 1559. Quite frankly, I ignored it for some time as a semantic argument, assuming, like most people, that if the Malleus wasn’t placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1490, as is often alleged, that it was placed on the Index at some point in the following centuries. Seven months later, Richard Brent was almost solely responsible for convincing me otherwise, once and for all, but I would be remiss if i didn’t mention Antonio and credit his original, if unsubstantiated, assertion.

Dr. Christopher S. Mackay – for providing a modern scholarly translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, free of Rev. Montague Summers’ inherent prejudices in favor of the subject matter and many mistakes made during his 1928 translation (which is posted in its entirety on this web site). Thanks, as well, to Dr. Mackay for laying to rest during an interview with Morehead’s Musings the long-held belief in many circles that the Letter of Approbation that was included with the Malleus was a forgery (Dr. Mackay believes that it was not).