The document provides background information on the Malleus Maleficarum ("Hammer of Witches"), a text published in 1486 that played a key role in legitimizing the witch trials of the 15th and 16th centuries. It was written by Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger as a guide for inquisitors. Though some dispute Sprenger's level of involvement, the text asserted that witchcraft was real and outlined how to identify and prosecute witches. It gained authority through endorsement from Pope Innocent VIII's papal bull Summis Desiderantes, which legalized investigations and torture for witchcraft confessions. The Malleus Maleficarum and Summis Des

1. The Fell Hammer
Ebony J. Yarger
History 380
Professor Knox
11 December 2014

2. Yarger, 2
Timeline of Witch Hunts
1
Witchcraft is condemned in the Bible, Exodus 22:18 & Leviticus
20:27.
560 BCE
St. Augustine of Hippo decries witchcraft as an improbability and
states that it cannot exist.
420 CE
Pope Innocent III condemns the Cathars as heretics while
categorizing Satan as a demonic force.
1208
Thomas Aquinas makes the case that demons are real and work
to seduce people into committing sin.
1273
Witch trials begin to emerge in both Germany and Savoy as
many Cathars flee into these areas.Mid-1400s
Pope Innocent VIII demands that an inquiry be made on the
spread of Satanism in Germany. Two German theologians,
Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger publish their research in the
Malleus Maleficarum
1484
During the Reformation several waves of witch hunt hysteria
occur which lead to increases in mass executions.
Early- to
mid-1500s
King James authorizes the use of torture in case of suspected
witchcraft in Scotland.
1591
After the largest outbreak of witch trials in France, 1643-1645,
the number of decreases at a dramatic rate.
1640s
Temperance Lloyd, England's last witch is executed.
1682

3. Yarger, 3
Witch hunts were trials against persons, namely women, suspected of witchcraft. These
trials developed in response to mass hysteria and moral panic incited by disasters. The Black
Death, Hundred Years’ War, the Reformation, and what is now known as the Little Ice Age
characterized the mass hysteria. The Little Ice Age was the incremental decline of the climate
creating freezing weather patterns resulting in crop failure. These events transpired during the
late Medieval and early Renaissance eras, approximately the 15th and 16th centuries. The massive
decline in population stemmed from the spread of disease, increase in famine, crime, and war. A
sense of panic emerged from Europe in the midst of its recovery. A singular book garnered
distinction and magnified the moral panic. The manuscript targeted witchcraft as the central
cause behind the recent upheavals. Written in 1486, the Malleus Maleficarum played an
instrumental role in the religious response of European society. The Catholic Church established
a special tribunal, the Inquisition, which investigated, tried, and eventually executed heretics
such as witches. The Malleus Maleficarum acted as the single-most contributing factor in the
witch trials of the Inquisition. That being said the central issue is in deciding whether the witch
hunts were caused by sexism or something else entirely. 2
The Melleus Maleficarum or in English, Hammer of the Witches basically served as a
guidebook for the Inquisition in persecuting witchcraft. The book was co-authored by Heinrich
Kramer and Jakob Sprenger, churchmen of the Dominican order. James Sprenger worked as
Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Cologne, in 1480. A year later, he became
the official Inquisitor over the Provinces of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne. His career is marked by a
strong push for reforms in the Dominican order. His work as an inquisitor kept him traveling
extensively throughout the provinces. Heinrich Kramer became Inquisitor of the Provinces of
Tyrol, Salzburg, Bohemia, and Moravia a little before 1474. He received recognition from Rome

4. Yarger, 4
for his eloquent speeches at the pulpit as well as working exhaustively for the Church. He also
assumed the role of being the right hand man of the Archbishop of Salzburg. In 1484, Heinrich
had already become associated with Sprenger in formulating an inquisition specializing in
witchcraft and sorcery. There has been some dispute as to the role Sprenger had in the authorship
of the Malleus Maleficarum. Scholars have since discovered that the relationship between
Sprenger and Heinrich had been less than amicable. In other words, their relationship was full of
enmity – at least on the side of Sprenger. Academics think Sprenger took great pains in using his
influential position to subvert Heinrich. His purpose in so doing was to cripple Heinrich’s career
in the Catholic Church. Additionally, Sprenger wanted to diminish the credibility and popularity
Heinrich enjoyed. Sprenger is thought to not have endorsed the Malleus Maleficarum, as Dean of
the Faculty of Theology at the University. Scholars have assumed that given his lack of
endorsement, Sprenger did not have any interest in prosecuting witches. Nevertheless, Kramer
named him as co-author of the treatise. It was of the popular opinion of that time that Sprenger
did have a role in the authorship of this book. The first time mention of Sprenger in relation to
Malleus Maleficarum occurred in 1484. Pope Innocent VIII had issued his papal bull, the
Summis Desiderantes.3
The Malleus Maleficarum, relied on the earlier texts such as, Formicarius (1435) by
Johannes Nider and Lamiarum sive striarum opusculum (1460) by Girolamo Visconti. These
previous manuscripts were theological treatises describing the activities of witchcraft, sorcery,
and demonology. The Malleus Maleficarum included the Summis Desiderantes as part of its
preface in order to affect an air of papal authority. It even claimed to have been endorsed by the
Faculty of Theology at the University. This would then infer that although a majority of the staff
were against the book a small majority supported its publication. Regardless, the text began with

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asserting that there were three major characteristics of witchcraft: demonic intentions of those
practicing the craft, how the Devil aids them in their dissidence, and lack of fealty to God. The
book is then divided into three parts. Section I aimed to discredit those critics whose aim was to
deny the actual existence of witchcraft. Said critics were said to have impeded the ecclesiastical
prosecution of heretics. Section II elucidated the specific types of witchcraft practiced and how
to remedy against them. The text utilized popular accounts and cases as examples. Section III
was specifically written for judges and other inquisitors. It described solutions for how to isolate
instances of witchcraft in secular society. These three sections shared the principal of theme of
what constitutes witchcraft and who fits under that definition.4
The Malleus Maleficarum codified both cannon (Church) and secular (laymen) law.
Kramer requested that Pope Innocent VIII legalize and sanction the prosecution of witchcraft,
after the local religious council had refused him. In December of 1484, Pope Innocent VIII
issued the Summis Desiderantes, which gave utter authority, approval, and support from the
papacy. The pope recognized witchcraft as heretical and authorized the Inquisition to start
“correcting, imprisoning, punishing and chastising” witches “according to their deserts.” The
pope also defined witches and their existence in the bull, describing them as:
[m]any persons of both sexes, unmindful of their own salvation and straying from
the Catholic Faith, have abandoned themselves to devils, incubi and succubi, and
by their incantations, spells conjurations, and other accursed charms and crafts,
enormities and horrid offenses, have slain infants yet in their mother’s womb, as
also the offspring of cattle, have blasted the produce of the earth, the grapes of the
vine, the fruits of the trees, nay, men and women, beasts of burden, herd-beasts, as
well as animals of other kinds, with terrible and piteous pains and sore diseases,
both internal and external; they hinder men from performing the sexual act and
women from conceiving, whence husbands cannot know their wives nor wives
receive their husbands; over and above this, they blasphemously renounce that
Faith which is theirs by the Sacrament of Baptism, and at the instigation of the
Enemy of Mankind they do not shrink from committing and perpetrating the
foulest abominations and filthiest excesses to the deadly peril of their own souls,

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whereby they outrage the Divine Majesty and are the cause of scandal and danger
to very many…the abominations and enormities in question remain unpunished
not without open danger to the souls of many and peril of eternal damnation.
The Malleus Maleficarum basically reiterated the same opinion in its text and both viewed
witchcraft as an outbreak in heresy, spreading rapidly. Under such fixed parameters the Summis
Desiderantes pushed for the cooperation between secular authorities alongside Inquisitors. It has
become clear that the bull had a clear-cut political agenda, resolving disputes between the Office
of the Inquisition and local authorities. The principal vein of discord concerned the jurisdiction
of secular and ecclesiastical courts. The bull went so far as to threaten anyone with
excommunication if they interfered with the investigations of official inquisitors. It was not,
however, the bull which inquisitors relied upon as their guide but instead the Malleus
Maleficarum. It operated as the primary text for detecting instances of witchcraft. The book
justified torture as a means by which inquirers could acquire true confessions. The papacy
merely legalized such confessions in addition to making other forms of evidence admissible in
ecclesiastical courts. Judges could then take such evidence under consideration when making a
ruling. This placed the accused in the position of having to prove their innocence, which was
common practice anyway. Ecclesiastical and secular authorities were then supposed work
cooperatively with one another in these cases. This illustrated the recognition of witchcraft as a
reality instead of a superstitious belief shrouded in myth and legend. That is not say that people
did not already live with such ideas but now they were validated by religious authorities. Their
dependency on the text increased as authorities attempted to facilitate criminal and heretical
investigations.5

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The Malleus Maleficarum created a fervor in the witch hunts due to its popularity and
genre. Until 1678, it was the most widely sold book the exception being the Holy Bible itself.
Between 1487 and 1520 it had been published on 13 separate occasions. Between 1574 and 1669
the book was published again this time 16. Several factors provide an explanation as to how the
text gained its popularity. First, the endorsements to the book namely the Summis Desiderantes
and the Faculty of Theology of the University of Cologne as well as the authors, Kramer and
Sprenger. The second factor came in the form of a new innovation, the printing press. Due to the
pioneering efforts of Johannes Gutenberg, the Malleus Maleficarum was rapidly dispersed in
most European regions. This occurred during the end of the 15th and early 16th centuries. Yet this
was not the first time a published manuscript had contributed to a witch-burning fervor. 30 years
prior to Johannes’ innovation, a wave of hysteria struck a chord of moral panic with an earlier
publication concerning witches. Books such as the 1467 publication, Fortalicium by Alphonsus
de Spina and pamphlets such as leufelsbuchers discussed instances of witchcraft, demon
possession, exorcisms, etc. incited fear amongst the public. The third factor attributed to the
prevalency of the Malleus Maleficarum lay in the timing of its publication. The text had been
released shortly before a dramatic increase in the witch crazes of Germany, early- to mid-1500s.6
The Malleus Maleficarum justified the role the Inquisition had in society and unified
Catholics and Protestants. Hugh Trevor-Roper, initially proposed that the witch-hunts were
partly the result of Catholic-Protestant conflicts in his 1967 publication, The Crisis of the
Seventeenth Century: Religion, the Reformation, and Social Change. During the mid-1600s,
Europe was in the midst of going through the Reformation and Counter-Reformation
movements. The two movements had become increasingly intolerant of the other while. For
example, Catholics and Protestants vied for their own autonomy while demanding the conversion

8. Yarger, 8
of the other. Make no mistake the Catholics and Protestants were quite antagonistic in their
differing theologies, by then. Their other goal was to maintain the integrity of their beliefs, even
to the point of zealotry. All of which meant that these two groups would accuse one another of
committing acts of witchcraft and other heresies. This theory has since been discredited by
historians Geoffrey Scarre and John Callow in their 2001 publication, Witchcraft and Magic in
Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe. They cite how Trevor-Roper ignored the evidence
which pointed to an absence in witch trials occurring in theologically-opposed regions. Meaning,
that the evidence did not support his theory at all and what evidence Trevor-Roper did use was
insufficient. There were little to no cases involving Catholics accusing Protestants of witchcraft
and vice-versa. In actuality most of these trials occurred in the non-conflicting areas of Europe.
Such regions also happened to be composed of homogenous denominations making them either
predominantly Catholic or Protestant. For example, Essex, Lowland Scotland, Geneva, Venice
and Spanish Basque Country were primarily composed of Catholics. Some evidence indicates
that an exchange of information corresponded between Catholic and Protestant regions on
supposed witches in their locality. Both groups, in other words, viewed witchcraft as a common
threat and stood in solidarity with one another in this matter. What is more, quite a number of
witch trials occurred as a result of the public demanding them. Meaning, such investigations
happened at the behest of the public, often involving religious and secular authorities. The Office
of Inquisition, therefore, did not so much instigate the witch trials as they did preside over them.
They focused on the determination of whether or not someone was, in fact, practicing witchcraft.
This is what truly crystalized the ear of witch hunting during the late 15th and early 16th
centuries. Witch trials were least likely to be rooted in inter-denominational conflicts of the
Reformation or Counter-Reformation movements. Both Protestant and Catholic authorities

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utilized the Malleus Maleficarum as a guide in their identification of legitimate cases involving
sorcery.7
The Malleus Maleficarum targeted women, specifically midwives, widows, and older
women who stepped beyond the gender norms. The book as well as witch trials themselves were
inexplicably intertwined with a gender-bias. Scarre and Callow discuss this in their book using
two tables, “1: The Proportion of Women among Defendants at Witchcraft Trials” & “2: The
Percentage of Defendants at Witchcraft Trials Executed. However anthropologist, Marvin Harris
described a functional explanation for the trials based on socio-economic status in his 1973
publication, Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches. He hypothesized that a majority of accused women
were of the lower class with rare exceptions of a few from the upper class. Such cases often
occurred under extreme duress stemming from an explosion of mass hysteria or panic within a
community. The most common estimates of the number of witches executed are between 70,000
and 100,000. Brian P. Levack in his 1987 book, The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe came
to this conclusion when he multiplied the number of European witch trials by the conviction and
execution rates. His initial finding was of 60,000 deaths but Anne L. Barstow made some
adjustments to this. In her 1994 book, Witchcraze: A New History Of The European Witch Hunts,
Barstow adjusted the estimate in order to make up for any lost or omitted records. She concludes
by estimating that instead of the original 60,000 executions there were in fact 100, 000. Either
way it remains a hotly debated issue yet there remains a consensus that between 75 and 80
percent of witches were female. The reason for this lies in the common stereotype of witchcraft
being a feminine crime rather than a male one. The same may be said of highway robberies being
considered a masculine crime. Such sexist views were reflected in the comments and opinions of
such people as Nicholas Remy, a 16th century judge, who stated:

10. Yarger, 10
[It is] not unreasonable that this scum of humanity, [witches], should be drawn
chiefly from the feminine sex.
To which another judge agreed with when he said:
The Devil uses them so, because he knows that women love carnal pleasures, and
he means to bind them to his allegiance by such agreeable provocations.
These sentiments were, without doubt, misogynistic but they reiterated the same conclusions
found within the text of the Malleus Maleficarum. Section I Question VI acted as the platform in
explaining why women were more vulnerable to witchcraft than men. They expounded upon the
many reasons why this was the case, yet one particular segment epitomizes them:
Now the wickedness of woman is spoken of in Ecclesiasticus xxv: There is no
head above the head of a serpent: and there is no wrath above the wrath of a
woman. I had rather dwell with a lion and a dragon than to keep a house with a
wicked woman. And among much which in that place precedes and follows about
a wicked woman, he concludes: All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a
woman…What else is a woman but a foe to friendship, an unescapable
punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a
domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature, painted with fair
colours…The many lusts of men lead them into one sin, but the lust of women
leads them into all sins; for the root of all woman’s vices is avarice…A woman
either loves or hates; there is no third grade. And the tears of a woman are
deception, for they may spring form true grief, or they may be a snare. When a
woman thinks alone, she thinks evil…Wherefore in many vituperations that we
read against women, the word woman is used to mean the lust of the flesh. As it is
said: I have found a woman more bitter than death, and good woman subject to
carnal lust.
Although, the sexism remains obvious an obvious explanation the witch hunts cannot be entirely
explained through misogyny. Women were the majority of people accusing other women of
witchcraft. Instead, the witch hunts mirrored the beliefs and customs found in the culture late 15th
and early 16th century Europe. That society largely thought of women as inferior to men in their
intelligence and moral capacity. Men were, as a matter of honor, responsible for safeguarding the
virtue of their sisters, wives, and daughters. This paternalistic point of view resulted in a bias
chauvinistic towards women. The status of women subsequently was stigmatized and subjugated

11. Yarger, 11
because they were inferior people. The phenomena of the witch hunting hysteria would not have
been made possible without the misanthropic depths of the Malleus Maleficarum.8
The Malleus Maleficarum, although not directly, persecuted female sexuality as a form of
witchcraft. The text reflects the fear medieval men had towards the evolving roles of women in
their society. Sprenger and Kramer permeated their book with testimonial accounts of witchcraft
caused by female carnality. What begins to take shape is the misrepresentation of female
sexuality as witchcraft. The text describes the ability Satan has in communicating with witches
through certain sexual acts of women. Its justification came from the idea that women were
constrained by temptation, the first biblical sin. Therefore, women were vulnerable to exploits
directed by the Devil and his demons. Their uninhibited sexuality prevented women from having
the ability to defend themselves against sinful pleasures. The radical sexual expression of women
posed as a grave threat to the values of both the Catholic and Protestant faiths. Section II of the
Malleus Maleficarum outlined the many acts witches could perform. As a part of their rituals,
witches engaged in intercourse with incubi, a sexual demon. Witches also had the power to
render men incapable of performing sexual acts, by stealing their penises. Similarly, witches
could prevent women from becoming pregnant or even cause miscarriages, thus, rendering a
woman barren. They were even said to cast various enchantments which bewitched men allowed
the witches to steal their semen for other nefarious activities. Suffice it to say the text went into
great detail in its description of the evils associated with female sexuality. Section III of the text
explained the many ways in which inquisitors could interrogate a suspected witch. A plethora of
torture techniques is issued at this point. The humiliation of the female body and, in effect,
female sexuality then becomes the central focus. Inquisitors would arrest a woman, strip her
bare, extensively examine her genitalia, and proceed to horsewhip her. The time varied, however,

12. Yarger, 12
afterwards red hot pincers were attached to her breasts. Interrogators could choose to tear her
breasts apart or rip-off the sensitive tissue entirely. The result would be a crude mastectomy. If
that were not enough, as an act of true sadism inquisitors inserted red hot pincers and or rods into
the vagina and or rectum of the woman. Other accounts attest to men being allowed to enter the
holding cell of an accused witch and rape her accordingly. It was believed such women caused
the arousal felt by men, in order to bewitch them. At the time, sexual arousal had been damned
as unholy and sinful. The brutality and heinousness of these acts cements the reality that female
sexuality was seen as wicked. The severity in the persecution of the female body, as a matter of
moral necessity, is abhorrent to the senses.9
Scholars have explored a variety of other explanations as to why women were targeted in
the witch hunts. The first is a macroeconomic explanation theorizing the reason for targeting
midwives as witches. Such women had well adapted skills and knowledge about child-birthing as
well as birth control. They could even facilitate abortions for women should they not be in a
position to support or care for their infants. Because midwives understood the mechanics of birth
control they became the targets of religious and secular censure. Gunnar Heinsohn and Otto
Steiger theorized on how local leaders sought to remove birth control in an effort to encourage
repopulation in their 2004 essay, Witchcraft, Population Catastrophe and Economic Crisis in
Renaissance Europe: An Alternative Macroeconomic Explanation. In a second essay, Birth
Control: The Political-Economic Rationale Behind Jean Bodin's "Démonomanie”, Heinsohn and
Steiger found that by removing primitive birth control techniques abortion itself would be
eliminated. They went onto describe how Europe, at this time, was recovering from the effects of
the Black Death. The bubonic plague had greatly decimated the size of populations over the
years and population growth became a matter of necessity. Returning to the point, the witch

13. Yarger, 13
hunts facilitated the removal of the female midwife altogether. This set about a new precedent
whereby gynecology became the practice of almost exclusively male doctors. The theory
elaborated how the witch trials were what marked the start in the criminalization process of birth
control. Because of anti-birth policies the population of Europe dramatically increased. This so-
called “population explosion” provided the necessary manpower and allowed Europe to later
emerge as empires. These empires eventually colonized approximately 95 percent of the known
world. John M. Riddle, a well-respected historian specializing in birth control, supports this
theory despite criticism made by other historians. The macroeconomic theory is still rather new
to the field and continues to be a topic of discussion among academics.10
A secondary explanation rooted in the relationship between regionalism and ethnicity has
since been endorsed. Anthropologists compared the historical records of non-European versus
European witch trials. Their analysis of these cases has hypothesized that the trials functioned as
social release for medieval communities. The records suggest a correlation between the initial
public accusations of witchcraft and a diffusion in social tension. A similar interpretation has
been made that the witch hunts created an environment conducive to ending interpersonal
relationships within communities. The termination of these relationships were not necessarily
desired co-equally by both parties. Quite often it just one party would seek the end of a
relationship. For example, the accused witch had been deemed by a member of her community
as unpopular, confrontational, and aloof. This characterized widows and other older women as
unable to support themselves financially. A major reason why this would be the case is that they
did not have husbands, fathers, or brothers assisting them. Because these women were often
impoverished they would beg for food and other materials from their neighbors on multiple
occasions. If their neighbors refused to help them the women would respond by cursing them. As

14. Yarger, 14
a method for resolving this conflict of interests, the community elected for the removal of such
undesirable women. The witch trials thus eliminated widows and other destitute women who
drained their communities of resources during a crisis. The evidence which best supports this
theory comes researchers Keith Thomas and Alan Macfarlane who studied witch trials occurring
in England.11
A third theory suggests the witch hunts were a form of class conflict. In a methodological
sense the wealthy elite used the witch trials in order to facilitate a social contract with the lower
classes. This contract allowed the upper class to promote their own authority and influence over
the poorer classes. Members of the Church as well as local aristocracies represent the central
authority figures during the witch hysteria. American anthropologist, Marvin Harris described
how witches were, basically, the patsies of the conflict. The elite used the trials in order to
prioritize themselves and exploit the mass panic. It was a calculated effort in deflecting attention
away from their role in the then recent economic depression. War, famine, and disease factored
in the decline of the economic well-being of Europe. Harris discussed these issues in his book,
Cows, Pigs, Wars & Witches: The Riddles of Culture, stating:
The practical significance of the witch mania therefore was that it shifted
responsibility of the crisis of late medieval society from both Church and state to
imaginary demons in human form.
Harris thought the religious and secular elites wanted to shift the blame onto witches. The upper
class then would make themselves a necessary part of the solution. The Church and aristocracy
therefore represented the stabilization of their society and communities. The goal, ultimately, lay
in the preservation of civil authority without fear of backlash from the lower classes. In other
words, Harris proposed a subversive theory which targeted the most vulnerable group, women.

15. Yarger, 15
Witches were blamed from anything ranging from the weather to the bubonic plague, despite
evidence to the contrary.12
The final explanation scholars have considered was in how the witch trials were rooted in
socio-political turmoil. Its functionality was determined by the correlation between disasters and
public hysteria. Say a community had been hit with famine, military conflicts, or disease
outbreaks. As a response, accusations of witchcraft ensued. It proved easier for these
communities to blame witches for the freezing weather which caused crop failure. Communities
also blamed witches for casting spells which cursed people with venereal diseases such as the
plague. Because meteorology was relatively undeveloped Europeans, during the late middle
ages, did not understand the shifting weather patterns. As a matter of fact, it was not until the 17th
century that the thermometer had been invented by Galileo Galilei. Researchers have found
evidence both in support and against this theory of socio-political influence. In some instances,
natural disasters resulted in the increase of witch hunts. Additionally, scholars have studied
instances in which certain regions were without conflict, famine, or disease and witch trials
occurred nevertheless. Other cases, however, involved outbreaks of plague and war factored in
the immediate decline of witch burnings. The Thirty Years’ War, for example, illustrated the
latter case whereas repopulation had become necessary.13
The variety of causation theories dealing in the witch craze offer multi-faceted
explanations for the phenomena. The difficulty, however, is in deciding which theory can be
adhered to. Most of them make sense up until a certain point, whereas they cannot be
substantiated. The socio-political turmoil theory is the most persuasive argument because of its
focus on functionality. The cultural response to the decimating effects of the bubonic plague,
Thirty Years War, and miniature ice age was indeed extreme. From an anthropological

16. Yarger, 16
standpoint, medieval people were searching for a reason to explain these catastrophes. The
human element, however, as the determining factor resulted in an inconsistency. Some regions of
Europe such as Germany and France experience massive witch executions. Yet there were other
regions not nearly so affected by the same catastrophes. Predicting the responses in group
populations poses a challenge, particularly because one is dealing in retrospect of an event.

17. Yarger, 17
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Endnotes
1 “ A Brief History of Witchcraft Persecutions before Salem by Douglas Linder,” last
modified in 2005, http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/witchhistory.html
2
Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of
Deviance (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), pg. 195; Lois Martin, A Brief History of Witchcraft
(Philadelphia: Running Press, 2010), pg. 5; Brian P. Levack, The Witch-hunt in Early Modern
Europe (London: Pearson Longman, 2006), pg. 49; Heinrich Institoris and Jakob Sprenger, The
Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger (New York: Dover Publications,
1971), Part II, Chapter XV.
3 Heinrich Insitoris and Jakob Sprenger, The Malleus Maleficarum, pg. v-xli; Alan C.
Kors and Edward Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), pg. 177.
4 Jeffrey B. Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press,
1972), pg. 230, 232, & 279; Elizabeth Mack, “The Malleus Maleficarum and King James:
Defining Witchcraft,” Voces Novae: Chapman University Historical Review 101 (2009): 182-
204; Christopher S. Mackay, Malleus Maleficarum (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2006), pg. 103 & 128; Bengt Ankarloo,and Stuart Clark et. al., Witchcraft and Magic in Europe,
Volume 3: The Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), pg. 115 &
239; Edward Peters, The Magician, the Witch, and the Law (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1978), pg. 173; Michael D. Bailey, Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy,
and Reform in the Late Middle Ages (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press,
2003), pg. 30.
5 Heather M. Campbell, The Emergence of Modern Europe: C. 1500 to 1788 (New York:
The Rosen Publishing Group, 2011), pg. 27; Lincoln G. Burr, “The Witch-Persecutions”
(Philadelphia: The Department of History of the University of Pennsylvania, 1897), pg. 7-10;
Alan C. Kors and Edward Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), pg. 177 & 180; “Malleus Maleficarum –
The Bull of Pope Innocent VIII,” last modified May 4, 2007,
http://web.archive.org/web/20080523174317/http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/mm00e.html;
George F. Black, Calendar of Cases of Witchcraft in Scotland 1510 to 1727 (New York:
Kessinger Publishing, 2003), pg. 6; David H. Darst, "Witchcraft in Spain: The Testimony of
Martín de Castañega's Treatise on Superstition and Witchcraft (1529)," Proceedings of the
American Philosophical Society 123 (1979): 298-299; Jeffrey B. Russell, Witchcraft in the
Middle Ages (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1972), pg.229-231.

22. Yarger, 22
6 Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, pg. 234; Gustav Henningsen, The Witches'
Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (Reno: University of Nevada Press,
1980), pg. 15; Rosemary E. Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft (New York:
Facts on File Inc., 1989), pg. 222; “Malleus Maleficarum” last modified in 1999,
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist257/stephwhit/final/malleus.html; Heinrich
Insitoris and Jakob Sprenger, The Malleus Maleficarum, pg. v-xli
7 Trevor-Roper Hugh, The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries and Other Essays (New York: Harper & Row, 1967), pg. 90-102; Geoffrey Scarre and
John Callow, Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Europe (Basingstoke:
Palgrave, 2001), pg. 41-45.
8 Scarre and Callow, Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Europe,
pg. 29, 31-32, 59, 61 & 76; Malcolm Gaskill, Witchcraft, a very short introduction (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2010), pg. 65; William E. Monter and Clark Stuart et. al., Witchcraft
and Magic in Europe: Witch trials in Continental Europe (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2002), pg. 12 ff; Robert Rapley, A Case of Witchcraft: The Trial of Urbain
Grandier (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1998), pg. 99; Joseph Klaits, Servants of
Satan: The Age of the Witch Hunts (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985), pg. 68;
“Malleus Maleficarum Part 1 Question VI” last modified in 2014, http://www.sacred-
texts.com/pag/mm/mm01_06a.htm; Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of
Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), pg. 436-438; Brian P. Levack, The
Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (New York: Pearson Longman, 2006), pg. 21; Anne L.
Barstow, Witchcraze: A New History Of The European Witch Hunts (San Francisco, CA:
Pandora, 1994), pg. 179.
9 “Gendercide Watch: European Witch-Hunts,” last modified in 2002,
http://www.gendercide.org/case_witchhunts.html; “Malleus Maleficarum Part 2Chapter IV” last
modified in 2014, http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm02a04a.htm; “Malleus Maleficarum
Part 2 Chapter VI” last modified in 2014, http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm02a06a.htm;
“Malleus Maleficarum Part 2 Chapter VII” last modified in 2014, http://www.sacred-
texts.com/pag/mm/mm02a07a.htm; “Malleus Maleficarum Part 2 XII” last modified in 2014,
http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm02a12a.htm; “Malleus Maleficarum Part 2 XIII” last
modified in 2014, http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm02a13a.htm; “Malleus Maleficarum
Part 3 Question I” last modified in 2014, http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm03_01a.htm;
“Malleus Maleficarum Part 3 Question VI” last modified in 2014, http://www.sacred-
texts.com/pag/mm/mm03_06a.htm; “Malleus Maleficarum Part 3 Question VII” last modified in
2014, http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm03_07a.htm; “Malleus Maleficarum Part 3
Question VIII” last modified in 2014, http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm03_08a.htm;

23. Yarger, 23
“Malleus Maleficarum Part 3 Question X” last modified in 2014, http://www.sacred-
texts.com/pag/mm/mm03_10a.htm; “Malleus Maleficarum Part 3 Question XV” last modified in
2014, http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm03_15a.htm; Trevor-Roper Hugh, The European
Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and Other Essays (New York: Harper &
Row, 1969), pg. 118; Camille Naish, Death Comes to the Maiden: Sex and Execution 1431–
1933 (London: Routledge, 1991), pg. 27-28; Scarre and Callow, Witchcraft and Magic in
Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Europe, pg. 32 & 34; Hellen Ellerbe, The Dark Side Of
Christian History (San Rafael: Morningstar Books, 1995), pg. 83 & 124; Homer W. Smith, Man
and His Gods (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1957), pg. 286-287;
10 Gunnar Heinsohn and Otto Steiger, “Witchcraft, Population Catastrophe and Economic
Crisis in Renaissance Europe: An Alternative Macroeconomic Explanation” (Discussion Paper
No. 13, University of Bremen, 2004), pg. 5-32; “The Elimination of Medieval Birth Control and
the Witch Trials of Modern Times,” International Journal of Women's Studies, May 3, 1982,
193-214; Heinsohn and Steiger, “Birth Control: The Political-Economic Rationale Behind Jean
Bodin's "Démonomanie,” History Of Political Economy 31 (3): 423-448; Heinsohn, "Population,
Conquest and Terror in the 21st Century" (University of Bremen, 2005), pg. 1-3; “‘way’ women
and ‘wise’ men in the fight against witchcraft. The refutation of a modern fable,” last modified
on January 17, 2006,
http://www.historicum.net/themen/hexenforschung/thementexte/rezeption/art/Weise_Frauen/htm
l/ca/b14c768f43/; Diane Purkiss, The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century
Representations (Abingdon: Routledge, 1996), pg. 8 & 92; Robert W. Thurston, Witch, Wicce,
Mother Goose: The Rise and Fall of the Witch Hunts in Europe and North America (Edinburgh:
Longman, 2001), pg. 42-45 & 169; Anne L. Barstow, Witchcraze: A New History of the
European Witch Hunts (San Francisco: Pandora, 1994), pg. 23; “Gendercide Watch: European
Witch-Hunts,” last modified in 2002, http://www.gendercide.org/case_witchhunts.html; Brian P.
Levack, The Witch-hunt in Early Modern Europe (London: Pearson Longman, 2006), pg.140;
Jenny Gibbons, "Recent Developments in the Study of the Great European Witch Hunt,” The
Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies (1998): 5; Robin Briggs, Witches &
Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft (London: Penguin, 1998),
pg. 264-265; Deborah Willis, Malevolent Nurture: Witch-hunting and Maternal Power in Early
Modern England (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995), pg. 36; Wolfgang Behringer, Witches
and Witch-Hunts (Cambridge: Polity, 2004), pg. 39.
11 Scarre and Callow, Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Europe,
pg. 45-46.
12 Ibid., pg. 49-50; Marvin Harris, Cows, Pigs, Wars & Witches: The Riddles of Culture
(New York: Vintage Books, 1989), pg. 205, 225-243.

24. Yarger, 24
13 Scarre and Callow, Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Europe,
pg. 41-42; Behringer, Witches and Witch-Hunts, pg. 88; H.C.E. Milfort, Witch Hunting in
Southwestern Germany 1562–1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1972), pg. 30-67.