Essay: Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger’s Malleus Maleficarum

The document presented features several extracts from Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger’s Malleus Maleficarum. Written in 1487, the Malleus was not an original benefactor to supernatural controversy, although it aimed to convey the ominous situation witchcraft was creating. The 1480s was a time of particular turmoil as a mortality crisis advanced across Europe, catalysed by widespread crop failure and disease epidemics. The turbulence caused by natural disaster, amalgamated with the demonic heresy that Kramer highlights, encouraged the ever growing fear of a looming Apocalypse. Consequently, this period witnessed an increase in witchcraft accusations, accelerated by books such as the Malleus.
Throughout the Malleus, Kramer zealously emphasises the heretical context surrounding witchcraft. He states: “Those who…induce others to perform… evil wonders are called witches,” adding “such persons are plainly heretics.” Indeed, heresy during the 15th century was greatly condemned for contradicting orthodox practice. The belief that everything originated from divine providence suggested those living “contrary to the true faith” were symbols of wickedness. Consequently, as Malcolm Gaskill highlights, “…witchcraft and magic became linked to…heresy.” The significance of religious dissidence has been associated with witchcraft for many centuries across Europe. Notably, the Greeks and Romans denounced religious misbelief, expressing great trepidation over unconventional principles. Similarly, in the Malleus, a parallel can be drawn between earlier classical disquietude and Kramer’s assault on individuals who engaged with demons. The 15th century saw a transformation in the general perception of witchcraft from simply a crime of deleterious magic. Rather, it emerged with diabolic connotations, based on the assumption witches were guilty of recanting their faith to Satan: “witchcraft arose from this foul connection…with the Devil.” True Christians retained the idea that God endured a pre-eminent position, and the Devil existed to lure sinners into temptation to spread destruction among the Christian community. Significantly, Kramer drew upon earlier accounts from German Dominican, Johannes Nider. Nider’s major achievement was his Formicarius (1437), which altered the conventional understanding of witches to one with a demoniacal backdrop. Inevitably, the fact Kramer depicts witches to be deserving of the title heretic demonstrates the negative and criminal-like implications he wanted to apply to them.
Yet, Kramer’s denunciation on heresy does not conclude simply with an attack on witches themselves. Question One addresses the issue of those who deny the existence of witchcraft: an act Kramer deems heretical in itself. He remarks: “the errors held by each one of these persons…,” regarding those who discredit witchcraft as “…plainly heretical.” Kramer’s strong convictions are achieved through his consistent referral to “holy scripture” and notable religious figureheads like “St.Thomas” Aquinas. Given religion was central to early modern belief, appealing to readers through the mention of pious doctrine allowed Kramer to effectively silence any resistance to his judgement. Alan Kors emphasises that Kramer made “disbelief, scepticism, or doubt concerning the very reality of witchcraft heretical in itself.” However, it is poignant that while Kramer had intentions to prevent the spread of witchcraft, his desire to stifle critics is also traceable to his background in Tyrol. In 1485, Kramer was present at the interrogation of Helena Scheuberin who was suspected of performing sorcery. However, the trial saw hostility between himself and the Bishop of Brixen over how a witch should be identified. In light of this disputation, Diarmaid MacCulloch expresses the Malleus Maleficarum was written by Kramer as an “act of self justification and revenge” against Brixen. Nevertheless, such a clash was not atypical and mirrored the far-reaching friction in European circles of authority during this time. Thus, while the bitterness with Bishop Brixen contributed to the heretical comments in response to Question One, Kramer expresses genuine concern in the Malleus for the future of religion in society. This is especially given Kramer was a Dominican who would have felt the pastoral responsibility as a communal preacher to defending Christianity from heretical corruption. Therefore, it is hardly surprising Kramer aggressively refers to disbelief as an “error” to be “confuted”.
Linking from the theme of heresy, Kramer emphasises the need for legal interference in witchcraft practice. Kramer stresses that witches should “be put to death,” implying the “death of the soul” through “phantastical illusion” was just as bad as a “grave and notorious crime.” The concept of punishment, especially capital punishment in exercising witchcraft, is a notion which had long been contemplated. Indeed, Kramer highlights this further in his reference to “St. Augustine” who advocated the need for all magicians, regarded as quasi-Satanists, to be executed. Inspired by St. Augustine’s principles, just as non-conformists were incinerated on pyres to nothing more than ash, Kramer developed the idea by suggesting witches were worthy of the same fate. Indeed, Malcolm Gaskill stresses the Malleus promoted witches as “lewd criminals” that were “to be hounded to their deaths in the secular courts.” Through portraying witches akin to societal delinquents, Kramer intended the Malleus to not simply condemn them in writing, but in the justice system as demonic agents and undoubtedly as heretics.
To achieve his aims, Kramer needed validation from a higher authority. In the Malleus, Kramer refers to the “tenor of the Bull of our Most Holy Father the Pope” to justify his convictions. The Papal Bull in question is the Summis Desiderantes Affectibus (1484), issued by Pope Innocent VIII. Notably, the Bull was produced in response to the increasing strain between Kramer’s witchcraft beliefs and the local authorities. Papal approval allowed inquisitors to legally proceed with witch pursuits and made anyone who denied their existence worthy of excommunication. Given the importance of faith in the 15th century, the threat of excommunication would have encouraged people to believe the published concepts on witchcraft. As a result, witchcraft and justice reciprocated one another, skilfully crafted in the Malleus through a persuasive combination of theology and judicial experience.
Another point Kramer conveys in the Malleus is the susceptibility of women and their involvement in witchcraft. He mentions women in a degrading manner, referring to them as “fragile”, “impressionable”, and “credulous”. In making such remarks, the implicit connotations of women are as weak and gullible. Women have been connected to witchcraft since antiquity for deviating from religious doctrine. In ancient Greek literature, Homer mentions a witch known as Circe who taught Odysseus necromancy and turned his sailors into pigs. Relating back to Kramer, the Dominican Order he was a member of would have focused greatly on classical study in preparation for a life of communal preaching. Even in the Malleus, Kramer makes numerous references to classical writers who demean women in their writing, such as Seneca who wrote in his Tragedies: “When a woman thinks alone, she thinks evil.” Similarly, in the Christian world which would also have been familiar to Kramer, the Bible contains various enchantresses, notably the Witch of Endor who summoned the spirit of Samuel for King Saul. Again, in the Malleus, Kramer uses the Bible to his advantage, noting the original sin when Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit: “It is clear in the case of the first woman that she had little faith.” Through using classical writers and biblical references in the Malleus, Kramer could encourage plausibility from these beliefs to form accusations against real women. Thus, women matching these interpretations were accused as heretics, and ultimately, as witches.
Correspondingly, women were linked to witchcraft because they were perceived as the weaker body, and so were easier to lure into satanic temptation. Indeed, the theme of seduction, diabolism and the associated carnal connotations is something Kramer persistently uses to justify women as weak. He remarks: “the lusts of women leads them into all sins” because they are “naturally more impressionable” and “more ready to receive the influence of a disembodied spirit.” The connection between this seemingly misogynistic view and witchcraft is highlighted by Hans Broedel, who asserts: “The witch did not worship the Devil, she slept with him.” Indeed, Johannes Nider had already established this trope by providing ecclesiastic explanations for female tendency towards superstition in his Praeceptorium, focusing particularly on the Devil’s exploitation of female fragility to perform diabolic assaults. In the 15th century, the female body was deemed to be the corrupt version of the archetypal male, holding volatile principles and prone to lecherous desires. Given this, female independence, notably sexual autonomy, was considered dangerous. Kramer’s involvement in the Scheuberin case accentuates these beliefs. Helena Scheuberin was recognised as a woman of suspicious morals, reputed to practise magic and was allegedly promiscuous. Consequently, Kramer used these factors to arrive at the conclusion she was a witch. Such impressions of women would have reflected Kramer’s patriarchal society: dominance by household men. Nevertheless, witchcraft provided an answer for the apprehension surrounding social disordering in a way that could be comprehended. As a result, the Malleus’s rise to prominence was due to the justification it provided on the uncertainty surrounding superstition. In doing so, Kramer was able to make his views on witchcraft as a heretical crime that defied the social order irrefutable.
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