Malleus Maleficarum, The Hammer of the Witches

From Wikipedia:

The Malleus Maleficarum was written by Heinrich Kramer (Latinized Heinrich Institoris) and Jacob Sprenger in 1486. However, most modern scholars believe that Jacob Sprenger contributed little, if anything to the work besides his illustrious name (Russell 1972, page 230). Sprenger and Kramer were both members of the Dominican Order and were Inquisitors for the Catholic Church’s inquisition against heretics. Heresy in this sense was an error in understanding and of faith in the Catholic religion, ultimately discernible by God alone (Broedel 2003, page 20).

On December 5, 1484 Pope Innocent VIII had issued the Summis desiderantes affectibus, or the famous “witch-bull,” to Institoris and Spregner in response to their asking for explicit authority to prosecute witchcraft (Russell, 229). This papal bull would be used as the preface for the Malleus Maleficarum. The Summis desiderantes affectibus recognized the existence of witches and gave full papal approval for the Inquisition against witches and gave permission to do whatever necessary to get rid of them, thus opening the door for the bloody witch hunts that ensued for centuries.

Kramer and Sprenger submitted the Malleus Maleficarum to the University of Cologne’s Faculty of Theology on May 9, 1487, hoping for its endorsement. Instead, the faculty condemned it as both unethical and illegal (History of the Malleus Maleficarum by Jenny Gibbons). Nervertheless, Kramer inserted an endorsement from the University into subsequent editions. The Catholic Church banned the book in 1490, placing it on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

Despite this, however, it became the handbook for witch-hunters and Inquisitors throughout Late Medieval Europe. Between the years 1487 and 1520, the work was published thirteen times. It was again published between the years of 1574 to 1669 a total of sixteen times. The papal bull and endorsements which appear at the beginning of the book contributed to its popularity by giving the illusion that it had been granted approval.

The Malleus Maleficarum asserts that three elements are necessary for witchraft: the evil-intentioned witch, the help of the Devil, and the Permission of God (Russell 232). The treatise is divided up into three sections. The first section refutes critics who denied the reality of witchcraft, thereby hindering its persecution. The second section describes the actual forms of witchcraft and its remedies. The third section is to assist judges confronting and combating witchcraft. However, each of these three sections has the prevailing themes of what is witchcraft and who is a witch. The Malleus Maleficarum can hardly be called an original text, for it heavily relies upon earlier works such as Visconti, Torquemada and, most famously, Johannes Nider's Formicarius (1435) (Russell, 279).

Contents

Section I
Section I argues that because the devil exists and has the power to do astounding things, witches exist to help, if done through the aid of the devil and with the permission of God (Broedel, 22). The Devil’s power is greatest where human sexuality is concerned, for it was believed that women were more sexual than men. Loose women had sex with the Devil, thus paving their way to become witches. To quote the Malleus “all witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable.”

Section II
In section II of the Malleus Maleficarum, the authors turn to matters of practice by discussing actual cases. This section first discusses the powers of witches, and then goes into recruitment strategies (Broedel, 30). It is mostly witches as opposed to the devil who does the recruiting, by making something go wrong in the life of a respectable matron that makes her consult the knowledge of a witch, or by introducing young maidens to tempting young devils (Ibid, 30). This section also details how witches cast spells and remedies that can be taken to prevent witchcraft or help those that have been affected by it (MacKay, 214).

Section III
Section III is the legal part of the Malleus that describes how to prosecute a witch. The arguments are clearly laid for the lay magistrates prosecuting witches. Institoris and Sprenger offer a step by step guide to the conduct of a witch trial, from the method of initiating the process and assembling accusations, to the interrogation of witnesses, the formal charging of the accused (Broedel, 34). Women who did not cry during their trial were automatically believed to be witches (MacKay, 502).
(Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum)

The Ars Goetia

From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_Goetia

The Ars Goetia refers to the first section of King Solomon's grimoire, and contains descriptions of the seventy-two demons that Solomon is said to have evoked and confined in a bronze vessel sealed by magic symbols, and that he obliged to work for him. It gives instructions on constructing a similar bronze vessel, and using the proper magic formulae to safely call up those demons. The operation given is complex, and includes much detail. The Ars Goetia differs from other goetic texts[citation needed] in that the entities summoned are to be compelled into obedience, rather than asked for favors.

It deals with the evocation of all classes of spirits, evil, indifferent and good; its opening Rites are those of Paimon, Orias, Astaroth and the whole cohort of Infernus. The second part, or Theurgia Goëtia, deals with the spirits of the cardinal points and their inferiors. These are mixed natures, some good and some evil.[1]

The Ars Goetia assigns a rank and a title of nobility to each member of the infernal hierarchy, and gives the demons' 'signs they have to pay allegiance to', or seals. The lists of entities in the Ars Goetia correspond (to high but varying degree, often according to edition) with those in the Steganographia of Trithemius, circa 1500, and Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum an appendix appearing in later editions of his De Praestigiis Daemonum, of 1563.

A revised English edition of the Ars Goetia was published in 1904 by magician Aleister Crowley, and it serves as a key component of his popular and highly influential system of magick. It has since become a relatively well-known book of magic (arguably, the most popular of the grimoires) and has even been featured in places like the graphic novel Promethea by Alan Moore or James Blish's novel Black Easter.

What is a Grimoire?

Grimoire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A grimoire (IPA [grɪˈmwɑr]) is a book describing magical beliefs and practices, written between the late-medieval period and the 18th century. Such books contain astrological correspondences, lists of angels and demons, directions on casting charms and spells, on mixing medicines, summoning unearthly entities, and making talismans. "Magical" books in almost any context, especially books of magical spells, are also called grimoires.

The word grimoire is from the Old French gramaire, and is from the same root as the words grammar and glamour. This is partly because, in the mid-late Middle Ages, Latin "grammars" (books on Latin syntax and diction) were foundational to school and university education, as controlled by the Church — while to the illiterate majority, non-ecclesiastical books were suspect as magic. But "grammar" also denoted, to literate and illiterate alike, a book of basic instruction. A grammar is a description of a set of symbols and how to combine them to create well-formed sentences. A Grimoire is, appropriately enough, a description of a set of magickal symbols and how to combine them properly.

Notable historical grimoires include:

* The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage
* Liber Juratis, or, the Sworn Book of Honorius
* The Black Pullet
* The Greater Key of Solomon
* The Lemegeton, or, the Lesser Key of Solomon
* Le Grand Grimoire, The Grand Grimoire

In the late 19th century, several of these texts (including the Abra-Melin text and the Keys of Solomon) were reclaimed by para-Masonic magical organizations such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Ordo Templi Orientis. Aleister Crowley, a prime mover of both groups, then served as a vector for a number of modern movements, including Wicca, Satanism, and Chaos Magic.

A cottage industry has existed since the 19th century in selling false or carelessly-translated grimoires (many original texts are in French or Latin, and are quite rare), although faithful editions are available for most of the above titles.

A modern grimoire is the Necronomicon, named after a fictional book of magic in the stories of author H.P. Lovecraft, and inspired by Sumerian mythology and the Ars Goetia, a section in the Lesser Key of Solomon which concerns the summoning of demons.

The Voynich manuscript may also be a grimoire, although its text has never been deciphered, and it may be a centuries-old hoax.

Books of spells ('magical papyri') are also known from ancient times and are sometimes called grimoires by modern scholars. Most were rescued from the sands of Egypt and are written in Ancient Greek and Demotic Egyptian.