Malleus Maleficarum

All over the world, from Ancient to present times, cultures have embraced the universal idea of magic. Through the use of texts originating from cultures and places all around the world, the theme of magic prevails, with variations within the cultures to differ the beliefs of magic, as well as similarities and recurring concepts to connect the theme of magic. A recurring concept in the subject of magic is the evil factor. The use of sorcery and magic leads to either the removing or blocking of…

They were involved because they represented power and wealth in society, and because they were seen as controlled by nature and people. According to the Medieval witch hunting manual, The Malleus Maleficarum, “the universal purpose of nature” included “man’s life and property should be kept intact” (69), so if something happened to man’s property, it was an act against nature, or the fault of witchcraft. Marxism came into the equation when people…

When it comes to folktales and scary legends people tend to not believe in them now a day. Back in the ancient time people had the belief of witchcraft. The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. Although it is believed that the witch hunt of 1692 started in Salem Village, in reality it first occurred in Charlestown. First of all, the witch hunt of 1692 started long ago in…

desired to find and uncover the ‘communists” hiding in the United States. This was an ongoing subject of quandary and chaos for many years. Most people have heard of the witch hunts and trials that took place in Europe long ago. They used the Malleus Maleficarum to identify witches by having a set of standards and anybody who didn’t meet those was most often executed as a witch. Imagine a modern day witch hunt. This was what McCarthyism was considered. He instituted a fearful hunt for the…

Stephen Wilson, The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual and Magic in Pre-Modern Europe (London and New York: Hambledon and London, 2000) – Quintano Downes, Ursinus College Throughout all forms of life during the early modern century it was a universal belief that there was a force in all things around us. Both animate and inanimate had a source of power, and had influences on the world around us. Although there might have other beings of power God ruled above all other powers from heaven, and…

Three Sovereigns for Sarah What I find interesting about this movie is the mere fact it did not touch on the European witch trials, which preceded the Salem witch trials in an attempt tried to minimize the atrocities committed during the witch hunts. In the movie, Three Sovereigns for Sarah, the most contributing factors of the Salem Witch Trials were King James, lack of education, and lack or respect for women. To put it briefly, the British senate passed a law that made…

For a logical response to Jerome’s androcentric criticism of women practicing free will and control over their own bodies, one could look to Beverly Harrison, a professor of Christian Ethics. Harrison defends women’s rights to their own bodies, stating that abortion could be considered not only “morally justifiable,” but “a moral good, because it is not rational to treat a newly fertilized ovum as though it had the same value as an existent, pregnant, female person.“ She goes on to say,…

Roman civilization is well known for their expansion of an empire and their acts of war against surrounding cities. Christopher Mackay describes the wars that Rome fought in to gain their dominance. One war that Mackay talks about is the war that Rome fought against themselves between the military and the political systems. He brings the history of Rome to life by starting in the early stages of just a city in the Italian peninsula and ending with the fall of once the greatest empire in the…

The tens of thousands of people who were persecuted for being witches during the witch hunts showed the world how fear and the right motive can cause people to turn on their own neighbors. After the Malleus Maleficarum and the catholic church’s persecution of heretics witch hunts began to grow more prevalent even spreading to the americas. Usually targeting women who were single, were in a low economic class, and unable to properly fight the accusations they became a easy target to condemn to…

and bid me serve him.’ The devil tries to tempt her repeatedly, assuming the forms of rats, a hog and a great dog, and offering her gifts. This does appear to be therefore the kind of devil-driven magic that had been written about since the Malleus Maleficarum, where men and women were tempted into making a formal pact with the devil. Bridget Bishop also makes reference to this kind of magic when she claims that ‘Anne Putnam saith that she calls the devil her God.’ It alludes to the kind of…