While we’ve made it possible for users to post comments on individual pages, we’d appreciate it if general comments were made here. If you make an inappropriate comment on an individual page, we’ll most likely move it here instead of approving it where you originally posted it.
Our idea of an inappropriate comment would be posting a general comment about the work as a whole on an individual chapter. We also frown on treatises about Christianity, Paganism, or any topic that’s largely unrelated to the post you’re commenting upon.
As for limitations of comments, we do moderate comments. We have no choice. We will approve most comments if they’re made in the right place, but we will not approve comments that are full of hate, profanity or are otherwise generally offensive.
Other than that, have at it. Thanks for your comments.
~ Wicasta Lovelace
I wanted to say thank you to the owners of this site, not just for the hard work put into the translation of the text and then offering it for free, but for also archiving modern/current hostilities and violence towards witches and witchcraft.
What you’ve done is make this subject sit closer to home for many people. You highlight how real it was in the past, just as it is today.
Even though I found most or even all of the content here on this site to be deeply disturbing, I believe that is is very important to be reminded how much work we still have yet to do. Worldwide, religious persecution, violence and general lack of acceptance are norm, in some places even encouraged. Is is sad and discouraging.
Thanks again, for all the work you have done and continue to do.
Hi, I would like to ask you for some professional advise. It seems that you are specialized in anything about the malleus maleficarum. I just purchased a 1535 edition from Jehan Petit and I wanted to know if you know anything more about this edition, because I can not find anything online and it seems that no copy is listed on Worldcat. Do you have any idea or info on this edition ?
Regards
Gunther Ceusters
Where is the passage with the priest who is now believed to have had Tourette’s syndrome?
I believe you may be talking about Part II, Question I, Chapter X (Of the Method by which Devils through the Operations of Witches sometimes actually possess men), in which “a certain Bohemian from the town of Dachov brought his only son, a secular priest, to Rome to be delivered, because he was possessed”.
Hi and thank you for sharing this book. I have just put my 1968 edition for sale on eBay and I still wanted the book. As I have an eReader now I have downloaded the PDF version from your site. Again, thank you very much.
I am in fact grateful to the holder of this web site who has
shared this enormous article at at this place.
Hello. I am here today to make a glorious thank you to Wicasta bringing such a glorious book to life in this, this, internet based form. It is quite the lovely tool for my fellow witch theologists who love to dwell in the past…. and the present. Some may say I am a delusional lunatic as Wicasta calls himself but I believe they just don’t see the fascination in the idea of black magic and all of the wicked, sick, persecutions they had on witches in the medieval times. Recently I have been studying the Malleus Maleficarum very closely as I see it to a key of those medieval peoples’ point of views towards the supernatural and superstition. I have become as might say completely engulfed in a sea of tremulous obsession with these ideals and have been paying very close attention to subjects I know as well as those mentioned in articles about Papa New Guinea on this very website. I am a witch man. A witch man indeed. My most recent suspect is none other than the local neighborhood hairdresser. Currently I am at the edge of the forest behind her very dark looking house hiding in a shed with quite odd engravings all over the walls. There appears to be one of John Lennon, and then to my surprise another of John Lennon, but this time hanging by his feet upside down (decapitated of course. I just finished inspecting a cast iron pot in the back corner, a fairly large one too, quite capable of brewing large quantities of particular concoctions. I smelt and tasted a strong sense of mac and cheese. Mac and cheese and slug juice. With a hint of franklins red hot hot sauce. Oh no… I may have been too loud. I MUST go, the retched cat suspects. Until next time…. I suggest learning morse code…
That still may have been too loud for the cat – Thank you Wicasta for all your work, and god bless all those wrongly persecuted witches around the world
Where is the Latin version of the text? I see the link but get a 404 error. What gives?
Thanks for pointing that out, KCR. Apparently the Downloads directory was re-named somehow during our recent upgrades. I’ve corrected the problem. Should be able to download at will now. Thanks.
How is Christianity even still alive?…..wow……
That my acceptance of people that believe what I believe, are not of Jesus! That I am going to some made up place that sounds a lot like Texas in the summer. They say that I worship the devil. I and most of the pagans I know, don’t even believe in the devil. They say that I do animal, or worse yet human sacrifice. Obviously, they have yet to read their own bible where their christian god not only says that is ok, but is encouraged. My version of going to church consists of going into the woods and sitting under a tree. The main tenet of many pagan religions is Do what thou wilt, as it harm none. What non-pagans don’t understand is that means, physically, psychologically, or emotionally. I even thank my vegetables for giving of their energy to nourish my body. Sounds silly, but at least I can see my vegetables. All I am trying to say is lets stop judging others, jumping at imagined boogie men, and trying to say that I don’t deserve to live because I don’t believe what you believe. Changing someone’s mind with a bullet just rules by fear. Maybe you could ask me my beliefs and maybe I could ask you about yours. They are both valid. They are only beliefs. They are like opinions, everyone has them. To many plepoe have died because of their beliefs. Isn’t it time to stop the hatred and fear? Namaste
There are still witch hunters in Ireland- multi dimensional trackers.,,under the guise of social workers and probation officers.
These people died because of organized religion, and people keep dieing because of it today.
davez :
“…Rest In Peace to the poor souls who fell to this torture they will be blessed by our tears and those of Christ”.
————————-
You confuse me. This was done in Jesus name. And the Holy Trinity!
Thanks so much for having this, Innocent VIII’s Bull, AND the Approbation Letter all free to read! It’s so hard to find reliable websites on the matter, and thanks to you my entire history class is able to reference Kramer and Sprenger’s work with ease. A big, big thank you from Bennington College.
Exodus 22:18 was the infamous verse that gave man the false sense of entitlement to kill witches. What sort of filthy, barbaric dog would condone such a thing? (Yes, the authors of Leviticus were primitive even relative to their respective time period. Vastly outdone by the Chinese, Indians, Greeks, Egyptians, and Sumerians) He was just a superstitious nut who was probably afraid of a remote viewer exposing his corrupt nature.
My dear Raven,
I beg to differ with you.As this is being done today,and the law is not calling them serial killers.The people who are surposed to protect you from this type of torture,are the very ones condoning it.Read any of the bills that give FEMA their power.Look at the inhumanities being carried out by your government,on those poor lost souls being detained at the Guantanmo detention centers.You only have to be accused,or suspected and off you go.And while using torture,these same organisations are the first to condemn others for doing it too.It’s no wonder we are one of the most hated countries on the planet.We are governed by a group of no morals,two faced,lying,money hungry hyppocrits.
This was the “patriot act “of that time.once you are brought in for questioning,it’s all over for you.off to the fema camp you go.unless of course you have been singled out for termination
i would like to obtain a free copy of witches hammer
Hey guys.
I’m planing on an art work and probably a jwel series on witch craft and I heard that the original print in latin of the book as some interesting symbols and witch craft designs and/or pantagrams in it.
Do you know of anyplace where I could find a scanning ot the entire thing?
thanks in advance
Before reading the Malleus, I was only vaguely aware of the intense sexual fixation of most of the literature regarding witchcraft. The sheer number of pages devoted to proving that witches and devils could (given divine permission) cast an illusion so that to all but the most pious observer the victim’s “member” had been removed is staggering. In fact I think a particularly interesting line of study would be into why exactly in relation to the theories of witchcraft of the time so much more time was spent on procreation as opposed to say agriculture. There were sections devoted to witches causing harm to crops (especially through hail storms and the transportation of a portion of the crop from a victim’s field to another’s who had contracted with the witch or devil in question) but the ration is something like 4 or 5:1 sexuality to agriculture sections.
Instead of the Malleus Maleficarum, in the current era we have the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, aka the DSM IV, to keep people in line. If you or your loved ones in any way go against the norm you may be labeled as some kind of mental case and forced onto drugs that exacerbate rather than ameliorate your alleged condition.
Conversely, if you are “normal,” if you feel pain or compassion for others, you may be labeled a mental case and forced onto drugs that exacerbate rather than ameliorate your “condition.” You may be told you have some kind of “chemical imbalance.” No test exists that can quantify this allegation; in fact the notion of a “chemical imbalance” rests on an imaginary foundation.
Psychiatry’s links to the witch hunt are more ominous, however. The first 200,000 victims of the Nazi holocaust were psychiatric inmates. This was preceded in N. America by psychiatry’s push for eugenics policies that were aimed at the poor and underclasses, the so-called retarded, the social misfits, et al. These policies continued post-WW2 in the form of tests on prisoners, psychiatric patients and so-called retards in institutions. Now, thanks to psychiatry and the DSM-IV, everyone can be classified as suffering from some kind of “disorder” or “syndrome” and sentenced to a life of forced drugging by the state. Mm-hmm.
Unfortunatley this happened, and will happen again, just waiting for the person with enough power.
There is always a “witch Hunt” based on beliefs, race, gender, or whatever that person of power chooses. its been a while, so hold tight guys, I am sure it is coming soon.
Just wonder who will be the target next
Well looks like it could have been written backwards. I mean starting with an answer and then going back to explain the reasons that’s why it smells of bullshit right away. Rest In Peace to the poor souls who fell to this torture they will be blessed by our tears and those of Christ.
Just goes to show you how Evil the Christian church really was / is.
I think any organized religion is a clear and present danger to all humanity and will eventually result in the end of human existence.
Yes, if there were such a thing as “evil,” certainly the Christian Church would be the “leader” of all that is “evil.” But in fact, the whole problem exists in the belief in “evil.” It is the concept of evil, a concept of an enemy of an equally bizarre concept, “God,” that is what is really to account for the horror recorded in The Witches Hammer. As long as man believes in evil, there will be horrors like this! http://eglennposton.wordpress.com
yah this website is really helpful, thanks, hopefully i get a good mark on my paper.
Is it possible that the sample of population and biased case studies, these prejudiced authors have isolated to extrapolate their bizarre theory of sex-linked psychopathic antisocial behavior, could have suffered low self esteem? (or alienation, social degradation, indeed PTSD reactive form?)
There is certain clinical evidence of this in their own observations. I even dare to suggest why their sample population had such significant low self esteem and depression.
Let this not happen in our world today. All people are equal. Condemnation by gender is the demonic, because it divides. Women, men and children all host holy souls that deserve respect.
Omg this website helped me Ace mi paper Thanks
Para los curas pollerudos y resto de ignorantes que creen en ésta fabricación llamada Cristianismo, especialmente el Catolicismo. Hasta cuando siguen insistiendo en ésta estupidez. De milagro que los Israelitas y/o Judíos son amigos míos, si yo no fuera Gentil les tendría mucho miedo.
witches are evil and they have to be taken seriously. im sure the church abused its powers and persecuted people unjustly. but i do know that witches can commit horrible atrocities for which they should be punished
yes…and women have been tortured since….a shame on us!
Thanks for posting this. I’m using it as a source in my research paper.
Where is the text of the book?
Thank you for putting this on the internet. Other websites formatting are harder to read.
I recently read the 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade, which had some awful and horrific tortures described, especially in the last fourth month of libertinage.
It is no secret that de Sade wrote this in anger at both Church and aristocracy, but I just wonder if he got some of his ideas for the horrific torture and murder scenes at the back of the book from something like the Malleus – something which, by its association with the Church, would make the invective more damning to those traditionally in power. After all, Poe in The Pit and the Pendulum imagined a horrific from of death, which is not far from the same type of thing in 120 Days.
So, did de Sade get his ideas from Malleus or something similar from the same time?
I really appreciate your efforts in putting this very important historical work online. The cruelty and extermination done to women under the auspices of religion rivals the holocaust of WWII. Only this was done over such a period of time that its effects permeated every part of the “christian” world, and probably into those outside of that perameter.
I found your site using Google as I was researching Witch Hunters for my own edification (possibly as a basis for an historical novel)
Jack L (aka The Jackal)
witch hunter robin -> wiki -> this web site.
how did i end up here from watching anime in only about 4-5 clicks? oh well, it is kind of interesting though i never knew some old friar made a book like this. i have a hard time understanding the way its written, i really only read part two because it seemed the most interesting, but so far it sounds something like this:
its basically a guy saying that devils are having sex with wemon (mostly), and then some crazy things happen, and then people get lepresy and hailstorms happen, wow what a good read, i wish the guy that wrote this was still alive so i could slap him silly.
also, an interesting note, wiki says this book has 36 editions in total… wow.
o.m.g, i haven’t stopped crying…i’m so lost for words.
i’m mad, upset, i want to scream.
how can humans do this to others, what i really think is, it was an excuse for dirty old church men to get there rocks off, if they tried it today, the law would call them serial killers. i’ve never been soooooooooo pissed off.
i would like to thank the people who have put it on the web though. it really needed to be put on the public forum, thank you again. i will pass the addy on to all witches i know.
raven )0(
Hi. I read your comment, and just wanted to say “thank you” for actually taking a deep and thoughtful look into what bigotry is involved with religious thought. But when you said that you had effectively dismissed what this work had communicated to you as “the work of dirty old men” in the monastery, as if there were “evil” men behind this, I wanted to point out a blog of mine that tries to deal with this phenomenon (it is truly a phenomenon more than a black hole in physics is a phenomenon!): http://eglennposton.wordpress.com . I try to point out that things we usually dismiss as “evil” are in fact inclinations evolution itself left us with, and that only by recognizing this fact full on, can we hope to “get past” bigotry, which is so prevalent in the world today!