What is the treatise of the witches gold devoted to. What is the cult treatise The Witch's Hammer dedicated to? Pictures of the theme "Witches and the Inquisition"

What is the cult treatise The Witch's Hammer dedicated to?

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Answer to the question “What is the cult treatise“ Hammer of the Witches ”dedicated to?”, 11 letters:
demonology

Alternative crossword puzzles for demonology

Science and religious practice, the object of which are supernatural beings called demons, spirits or geniuses

Belief in Evil Spirits

Definition of the word demonology in dictionaries

Great Soviet Encyclopedia Meaning of the word in the dictionary Great Soviet Encyclopedia
   (from demon and ... logic), in a number of religions, the doctrine of evil spirits, historically dating back to the primitive faith in spirits. D. is most significant in religions with the dualistic division of the Universe into the world of good and the world of evil ≈ in Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism. In later religions, ...

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. D.N. Ushakov Meaning of the word in the dictionary Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. D.N. Ushakov
   demonology, pl. no, w. (from the Greek. daimon - deity and logos - teaching). The system of mythical representations of evil spirits (ethnol.). A scientific discipline studying these mythical representations. The branch of medieval theology, interpreting evil spirits (history) ....

Wikipedia Meaning of the word in the Wikipedia dictionary
   Demonology is the common name for diverse myths about demons. The name is used by analogy with modern scientific fields. The main directions in demonology are usually the study of demons, a description of the behavior of demons, a description of the rites of call ...

New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova. The meaning of the word in the dictionary New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.
   g. The doctrine of the Demons (2), existing in some religions.

Examples of the use of the word demonology in the literature.

He doesn't just go completely into demonology, for a minute he does not forget the theoretical philosophy of his teacher and tries to test demonological practice with the help of purely theoretical philosophers.

Now he was looking for literature on witchcraft and wizardry, occultism and demonology, and when the Providence libraries were exhausted, he took the train to Boston to rummage there in the wealth of the large library at Copley Square, Harvard and Zinon Research Libraries, where rare works on biblical themes were available.

This demonology   illustrated by several interesting stories about the sorcerers and magicians in Russia of that time and parallel biblical examples.

This demonology   widely used quotes from Western anti-Semitic sources - the works of Hitler or Rosenberg in Germany, Fox or Jordan in England, ancient Muslim sources, these were also imitations of Western witty anti-Semitic jokes, sometimes even from Jewish sources.

According to Trachtenberg, the Christian influence was probably reflected in the fact that demonology, or the science of demons, took a less significant place than angelology, or the science of angels.

A treatise on the fight against witchcraft, written in 1486 by the inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger. It was the “Hammer of the Witches” that caused the mass persecution of the Inquisition against individuals suspected of having dark forces.

The book consists of three parts, each of which is aimed at solving a specific problem. Its influence on European minds turned out to be so great that the Pope himself issued a bull “With all the forces of the soul”, calling for the destruction of witches and sorcerers. In total, during the witch hunt, which lasted about two centuries, more than one hundred thousand processes took place, as a result of which at least 50 thousand people were injured. The main number of victims occurred in Germany, France and Switzerland. Even in America there were several high-profile processes, for example, events in a town called Salem.

The history of witch trials is rooted in antiquity. Two thousand years BC The Hammurabi Code demanded the death penalty for witchcraft.

The book by Kramer and Sprenger was fairly well structured. In the first part, built in the form of questions and answers, it was proved in detail that witchcraft actually exists, that witches are directly connected with evil forces, and their atrocities are monstrous and unforgivable. Here, witches are credited with human sacrifices, eating babies and many other monstrous acts. The first part of The Hammer of the Witches was intended to arouse maximum hatred of sorcerers and witches both among church authorities and secular ones.

The second part is devoted to a detailed description of all the ways that witches can harm people, as well as methods to counter witchcraft, which, in particular, are pilgrimage, repentance, prayers and exorcisms. This section of the book lists the categories of people against whom witches are powerless, and deals with cases of using witchcraft by sex.

The last execution of a woman on official charges of witchcraft occurred in Switzerland in 1782, but witches became victims of lynching later.

The final part of The Witch's Hammer is a code describing the technology for conducting trials of women who are convicted or suspected of witchcraft. It lists the methods of collecting evidence necessary and the categories of possible witnesses, as well as the grounds on which a decision is made.

The book is actually a detailed instruction on the trial, and it is designed in such a way that a conviction would not cause any difficulties. Kramer questions the effectiveness of the various trials that traditionally tested women for involvement in witchcraft, leaving them to decide on the guilt personally to the judge.

Who has not heard of the Inquisition these days? This organization has become an integral part of popular culture: films are made about it, books are written, and computer games are created. In the minds of modern people, the image of the Inquisition is for the most part created with the help of pop culture, often overly romanticized and not always true.

What associations come to mind when we hear this ominous word - the Inquisition? Bonfires, witches, torture, gloomy and severe monks wrapped in black cassocks. And some will remember Hammer of the Witches   - a medieval treatise on demonology, which also became known to a wide circle of people due to the popularization of the Inquisition in the mass culture. What kind of treatise is this, and why is it unusual?

Hammer of the Witcheshe Mallēus Maleficārum   (lat.), he Hexenhammer (German) - the famous work of two German friends inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, published in 1487. The full Latin name of the book is “Malleus Maleficarum, Maleficas, & earum hæresim, ut phramea potentissima conterens”, which translates as “Hammer of the Witches, destroying Witches and their heresies, like a mighty sword”. The treatise was written in 1486 by the Dominican inquisitor Heinrich Kramer, who signed the Latinized version of the name - Henrykus Institor. Its co-author was Dean of the University of Cologne, Inquisitor Jacob Sprenger. This work was published in Speyer. Before proceeding to describe the contents of this masterpiece, a few words should be said about the authors.

Heinrich Kramer   was a German monk and was a member of the Dominican Order. Throughout his life, he was an active supporter of the witch hunt, in his own words, sent 200 people to the fire.

He was distinguished by extreme cruelty and suspicion, during his sermons he intimidated people and urged them to write denunciations at the slightest suspicion of spoilage and other witchcraft, and convinced everyone of the conspiracy theory. According to Cramer, the actions of the devil and witches were about to lead to the end of the world. He tortured people, looking for those responsible, not trying to justify anyone. He was particularly cruel even among his fellow inquisitors. He was often criticized, and in 1490 even condemned for inadequate interrogation methods.

Jacob Sprengerwas dean of the University of Cologne, and also was a member of the Dominican Order. He is considered to be a co-author of Cramer, however, most likely, only the introduction belonged to his pen.

Despite its sonorous name, promoted thanks to all kinds of books and films, “Witch's Hammer” is a very boring reading, devoted mostly to the theological and legal substantiation of the need for witch hunting. The book itself is divided into three parts.

First part   It is devoted to expounding the Church’s point of view on witchcraft, which was declared the worst of crimes. Witches were divided into three types. The first part consists entirely of arguments and theoretical evidence on the existence of demons and their impact on the world, the characteristics of sexual intercourse with succubi and incubi, as well as descriptions of how witches steal penis from men.

Second part continues the same topics, and also adds to them descriptions of the methods of witchcraft wrecking and the elimination or cure of witchcraft. A lot of attention is paid to the sexual affairs of witches, the theft of male genital organs and how to deal with all this. It becomes clear what worried the Nkvizitor friends most of all.

well and the third partfully devoted to the legal side of the witch hunt issue. The rules of the trial, methods of pronouncing sentences, torture, interrogations, evidence of guilt in witchcraft, and much more.

When reading The Witch's Hammer, at first it becomes ridiculous from all these ridiculous explanations and evidence that contradict logic and common sense, but gradually the fun fades when you realize that at that time people took it all seriously. Moreover, on the basis of such wild fabrications, death sentences were imposed. Check out just a few quotes:

“How witches strip men of the penis; it should be borne in mind, however, that it is not in reality that they take away the penis from the human body, but they only hide it from the sorcerer's art, as was established above in the corresponding place. In the city of Ravensburg, one young man was attached to a girl, but when he wanted to leave her, he miraculously lost his male member, so he could not see him and only felt his smooth body. He was saddened. "

"The blowing witches are the most stupid of all witches, for if they were smart, they would not blow."

“This demon began with the fact that at night he began to prompt and beckon one noble woman lying in bed to commit adultery, and then began to excite her to filth by actions. When she screamed, the demon, in the form of a holy bishop, hid under her bed. Found there, he began to lie, calling himself Bishop Sylvanas. "

And also the “Hammer of the Witches” is a real anthem of misogyny. According to Kramer and Sprenger, all women are sinners a priori:

“If a woman is crying, then of course she is plotting.”

“Already at the time of the creation of the first woman, these her shortcomings were indicated by the fact that she was taken from a curved rib, namely from the rib rib, which, as it were, deviates from the man. It also follows from this shortcoming that a woman always deceives, since she is only an imperfect animal. ”

“We have to say, after an accurate verification of the material, that women have flaws in both the soul and body, and that it is not surprising that they commit more shameful acts.”

And such statements - a huge number! Now it is impossible to say with accuracy how many people were tortured and put to death because of a book written by clearly mentally unhealthy monk friends, but according to various sources, these are tens, or even hundreds of thousands of people. It remains to be rejoiced that the times of witch-hunt and religious fanaticism are far in the past. Right?

  “Hammer of the Witches” ... This terrifying work for the glory of God sent thousands of innocent people to the stake. What kind of book is this? Why has there been so much debate around her for 500 years?

So, get acquainted - the inquisitor's handbook - “Hammer of the Witches”. I warn you right away - reading is not for the faint of heart. In this "best seller" of the Middle Ages you will find a description and evocation of hail, plague, storms, and bloody sacrifices of people, and the ability to kill with one glance, predict and fly. For ethical reasons, I miss the worst moments, but if someone wants to read a book, stock up on a bag in case you feel sick. In comparison with this “masterpiece” all the horrors of such people as Stephen King, Dean Kunz and other masters of the horror genre fade.

This truly legendary work was born in 1486 in the city of Speyer. It was written by two Dominican monks Heinrich Kramer (also known as Heinrich Institoris) and Jacob Sprenger, denunciators of heretics from the Rhine region, located in northern Germany. From contemporary chronicles, one can learn that both pastors were not distinguished by exemplary sanctity, and residents of the Rhine region repeatedly complained to the bishops about pastors.

Heinrich Kramer began his activity as a whistleblower in Tyrol, where he soon turned the local population against himself. It was rumored that the priest, in order to justify the need for a witch hunt, had persuaded one lascivious woman to get into the furnace and pretend that the devil appeared there. Her voice blamed the people whom Kramer then brutally tortured. After numerous complaints, Bishop OM. Jacob Sprenger, co-author of Cramer’s creation, won the praise of The Hammer of the Witches and took out a letter from the Theological Department from Cologne University from 1487. But - only four professors from the whole of Cologne University signed this approval, and their support for the book was limited to the statement that parts of books I and II would not be retold to the Bible and other canonical works, and the latter, practical, was trustworthy thanks to the evidence provided in it. But the letter was never made public and published anywhere. Thus, we can conclude that the letter is just a fake, which added to the book of prestige. Another curious fact eloquently speaks of the “authority” of the authors of The Hammer of the Witches. Yakov Sprenger's colleagues at the university after the priest went to another world after December 6, 1495 did not serve the memorial service. And there could be two reasons for such disrespect. So, the first - to the repose, bequeathed his good beyond Cologne, but the second - this attitude may be due to the academic dishonesty of Jacob Sprenger.

But, Pope Innocent VIII supported the activities of the authors of The Hammer. But as early as 1491, Thomas Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, regarded the Hammer of the Witches as heresy. Why did this happen? It turns out that the Inquisition reread itself?

The “holy department of investigations of heretical sinfulness,” although there are many terrible stories that people who are not very knowledgeable about history love to tell about him, are not the bloodiest page in the annals of mankind, although not every tyrant managed to compete with it in cruelty . The Hammer was the most famous and popular guide for medieval hunters of witches and witches. In the XV century, women were not considered at all weak and fair sex, but insidious and dangerous messengers of the devil. In the best case, children, the kitchen, the church became their share. And if the woman was still smart and beautiful - she was accused of witchcraft and fell on the fire. Many of our compatriots who have visited Western Europe notice that there are very few beautiful women and girls. The Spaniards are also amazed by the abnormal love for the black clothes that they wear on holidays and on weekdays. And this is not accidental - this is the scar that the “witch’s hammer” left on the gene pool and the psychology of European states.

What was the basis for the birth of the terrifying instrument of the Inquisition? Organized in 1204, the Holy Inquisition, by law, had the right to inherit the property of convicted heretics, which they willingly used. Hussites, Cathars, Marans were a good source of replenishment of the church treasury. When the largest heretical sects were defeated, gaping holes appeared in the Vatican’s budget that urgently needed to be “patched up”. In addition, the Inquisition was a convenient, debugged, tested machine that possessed tremendous power. Stopping her work was not only very difficult, but also very dangerous. The Holy Fathers undertook to search for a new source of their income - and found it. They became “witches” and “sorcerers”. The reason for accusing a person of witchcraft could be a hint, an anonymous letter, a rumor. Anyone could fall victim to slander: the aristocrat, the artisan, and the merchant. The inquisitorial court recognized all the charges - the testimonies of other convicts, ordinary passers-by and even children, although in those days their testimonies were not recognized as worthy of trust in secular courts. It should be noted that the public mental health of Europe wished for the best: for centuries, to terrify people, the omnipresent and omnipotent God, who mercilessly punished sinners. To establish who this very servant of the devil and just a sinner was, the book “The Hammer of the Witches” was called up - the most authoritative treatise on demonology at that time, the truth of which the Pope himself verified in his bull. The authors of the book were well versed in demonology, it was not difficult for them to interweave church knowledge and ancient legends in order to draw up a detailed instruction on the detection of witches and the fight against them. The results of Witch's Hammer are truly terrifying.

In just six years, Elector Trier (part-time archbishop) - to bring 368 witches to fire, i.e. more than one witch per week died at the stake. In two German villages, women raised such serious suspicions of the Inquisition that in each of them, after investigations, there was only one woman in each. Here's another example: in three months, the Bishop of Geneva sent 500 alleged witches to the stake. In Savoy, over 800 people were burned on charges of magic. According to the records of the inquisitors themselves, in Europe over 150 years, about 30 thousand witches were sentenced to shameful execution at the stake. It was a real crusade against women, and the Witch's Hammer became the bible of the inquisitors. For the sake of justice, it must be mentioned that not only women but also men came to the bonfires, but the number of sorcerers was an order of magnitude smaller than witches.

The book has three parts. Each part contains several chapters - in accordance with the canons of oratory. Each chapter, as a rule, begins with a question, and then the authors give a series of arguments and examples and at the end give an answer to the question posed. The authors use the scriptures, the Canon of Episcopi (the Episcopal Canon), the teachings of Aristotle, and also “Divine Church and Civil Law” as arguments and proof of their innocence, although from the point of view of modern psychology this essay can be excellent illustrative material to Freud’s theory about sexual abnormalities. A vivid proof of this can serve as an example of the authors' interpretation of the word “woman” (femina), derived from two words - “faith” and “small”. No less surprising is the interpretation of the word “devil” (diabolus) given in the book. According to the church, it comes from the words “two” and “death”. This symbolizes that the devil kills the physical and mental principle of man - the soul and body. The Hammer endorsed the most ridiculous prejudices regarding witchcraft and witchcraft.

The first part of the book tells of the three forces that make up witchcraft, namely: the devil, the sorcerer, and God's allowance. It says that the devil exists, can do supernatural things, and witches help him. And God allows it! At the same time, the Church calls witchcraft the worst of crimes. Therefore, the ministers of the Church must fully realize the whole vileness of the divorce, which is the renunciation of the Catholic faith, devotion and worship of the Devil, offering gifts to him, for example: sacrificing unbaptized children. Chastina 2

Among the most unreliable were women endowed with beauty. Beauty, as you know, was created by the devil to tempt people. At all times, the owners of an attractive appearance and keen mind attracted people and ... had envious, and most importantly - envious. Therefore, jealous and not shining with beauty and mind spouses often wrote denunciations to pretty charming neighbors - just in case. Inquisitors, all men without exception, also could not resist the charm of their beautiful prisoners. And this was another proof of their diabolical essence and Vedic gift. Oddly enough, midwives were counted among the witches. Why? Yes, because women believed them much more than local priests, who could help a sick or parturient woman only with prayer and absolutely did not understand anything in gynecology. The female body seemed so unclean and scary to them that over time the priests became convinced that a witch could grow fangs in a causal place. Another inquisitor argument - midwives could devote babies to the devil or even sacrifice them to him. The inquisitors of the seduced and abandoned women did not go around: "The fallen girls abandoned by their lovers, whom they gave themselves to promise to marry them, having lost all hope and meeting only shame and shame from everywhere, turn to the help of the devil." At the same time, the male seducer was by no means reproached.

With this list of amazing talents and deeds of witches, it was believed that disbelief in their ability is a heresy:

... Following the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, where he talked about wrecking witches, some tried to argue that sorcerers do not exist in the world and that it lives only in the imagination of people who ascribe to the machinations of witches natural phenomena whose reason is hidden. Others acknowledged the existence of witches, but believed that their witchcraft only act on the imagination and fantasy. These false teachings will be revealed and refuted in the following ...

The Bible says that witches exist, and at the same time, "anyone who does not believe in the establishment of scripture is a heretic." The authors argue that the power of the devil manifests itself most strongly during carnal intercourse. The Hammer explicitly states that "all sorcery comes from the carnal lusts of insatiable women." Witches are divided into three types: those who engage in all kinds of sabotage; those who have only healing abilities; those who have both of these witchcraft gifts. There was supposedly a higher category of witches who possessed great power. They scooped it from the bodies of devoured babies. Since these sins were great, even criminals excommunicated, false witnesses, corrupt women, foreigners were allowed to testify against witches in court.

The second part of the treatise by Sprenger and Kramer talks about the methods of witchcraft and how it can be removed. Here, not theoretical calculations, but analysis of practical magic are already given. The authors depict in detail and detail how witches conjure and how to protect themselves from their charms. Other kinds of witchcraft are also told: turning oneself and other people into an animal, inducing diseases, including plague and leprosy, spoiling the crop, introducing into someone else's body, controlling the forces of the elements ... The authors describe in detail the course of witchcraft rites, for example, sprinkling with water to cause rain, or piercing a wax figure symbolizing the victim with needles. If the witch wanted to steal milk, she pretended to be milking a knife stuck in the wall, while telling the devil which cow to milk. Also in the second chapter, eighteen sections are devoted to methods of combating witch sabotage. Among the remedies for charms are offered: pilgrimage to holy places, complete confession, exorcism. But to return the genital organ or human appearance can only be a witch who committed witchcraft, or her death. To confront crop failures, natural disasters and diseases, believers must go around the cursed places with a procession.

This chapter also mentions categories of people who are not subject to the spell of witches: inquisitors, witch fighters, people guarded by sacred rites and angels.

A separate chapter is devoted to male sorcerers.

The basis of the third part of the treatise was the commandment: "Do not leave the healers alive." The whole procedure is described in detail here: ways to identify witches, indictment, persuasion, torture, and ways to get a confession.

Silence under torture automatically enlisted the victim in the ranks of the witches. Many inquisitors promised a pardon in exchange for a confession and received it this way: people believed in promises, and later they were invariably tortured. Inquisitors must have snatched a confession from the accused - according to the law, a witch or sorcerer could not be convicted without a confession. This part consists of 35 questions and answers. Oddly enough, most of them are considering the possibility of a acquittal. But in reality, the victims rarely managed to escape the fire.

A wide variety of ways to detect witches have been proposed. This procedure was very important for the indictment. What fanatics did not come up with! The witch was recognized by the flight of a knife with the image of a cross thrown through it. The priest could identify all the witches in his ward by introducing an Easter egg into the church. By the way, not all witch hunters dared to carry out this “feat”. Legend has it that if a witch manages to tear out an egg from him and crush it, then the person who started the test will break his heart. It was believed that children's shoes brought to church, previously lubricated with lard, could immobilize the sorceress. One of the most common was a water test. In the presence of witnesses, the executioner or the person performing his role tied the witch’s right hand to the left foot, and the left hand to the right, after which the sorceress was thrown into the water. If she began to sink, then there was no fault on her, and if she surfaced, it meant that the water did not accept the sinner. Then the father-inquisitors had no doubts - the woman definitely serves Satan. It was also believed that since the witch can fly, it means that she weighs less than other people. Thus, people accused of witchcraft were also checked by weighing. These methods were widespread among the people.

Please note that the common people did not share the views of the Inquisition regarding witches. If the priests considered the main accomplices of the devil to be women, then the peasants or the townspeople were guided in determining sorcerers not by gender, but by their appearance and behavior. Lonely, unsociable, evil, having physical disabilities, as well as those who did not follow local customs, neglected moral standards, or suddenly became rich, could turn out to be sorcerers.

As a rule, they were not touched until something extraordinary happened. Then began the search for the sorcerer or witch who had damaged.

But these methods were used until the XV century. When the witch hunt acquired a pan-European scale, only one procedure began to be used for identification everywhere - pricking with a needle. Suspicious stains, moles, marks and scars were found on the body of accused of witchcraft and a needle was stuck in them. If the wound did not bleed and the accused did not feel pain, the judges concluded that this was the mark of the devil, therefore, the person had connections with the unclean.

However, the “Hammer of the Witches” questioned both this and all previous methods of identifying accomplices of the devil. The authors of the book claimed that only a judge can talk about the witch's guilt. It was actually a verdict to everyone who fell into the hands of the Inquisitors, since fanatics were not inclined to justify anyone. The only hope of salvation for those against whom no direct charges were brought was renunciation of heretical thoughts, that is, a recognition of the existence of witches! After all, the Inquisition sentenced the witches to burning, not for magic, but for heresy - an agreement with the devil and his service.

According to the law, a witch could not be judged without giving her a lawyer and having her confession in relations with the devil, which the inquisitors quite easily managed to beat out from the victim during torture. The accused could not find out the names of the scammers and witnesses who confirmed the denunciation. In other words, it follows from the book that a woman is guilty before the Church of having been born. Her connection with the devil is thus almost inevitable and does not even require special evidence. Consequently, she has no right to life.

Guided by these considerations, the Inquisition destroyed, according to various sources, from several tens to hundreds of thousands of women - the most beautiful, smart, talented, wealthy. Since then, The Witch's Hammer, the cause of their death, has been considered the darkest and most creepy book in history. It has been reprinted 29 times! This is a record for the Middle Ages! The Hammer of the Witches has become an inspiration to the authors of all subsequent manuals and the main tool of the Inquisition.

Since its inception, this "scientific work" has caused a lot of rave reviews. Famous Dutch lawyer of the XVI century. In his popular at that time study, “The Practice of Criminal Cases,” Iodocus Damguder wrote: “This book has the force of law for the world.” The brilliant artist Albrecht Durer devoted his talent to displaying the stories described in the book. The creators of the Bavarian Codex Maximillian proceeded when compiling the punishment department for heretics from the provisions of the book by Kramer and Sprenger. Pope Alexander VI, Leo X, and Adrian VI repeatedly pointed to the correctness and infallibility of all the postulates of The Hammer of the Witches.

Modern scholars characterize the intellectual level of the book as follows: "Her miserable style, reminiscent of her aimless, confusing endless walking from place to place, is a wandering thought, incapable of concentration and ready to follow any obsession." Of course, it is illogical to judge the representations of medieval mystics from the point of view of modern science, but the reason and common sense inherent in enlightened people of all eras leads to the thought: this fateful book for humanity threw the development of civilization several hundred years ago.

In 1486, Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger wrote an impressive treatise called The Witch's Hammer. The main goal of this work was to prove the existence of witchcraft, to show that women conjure more often than men, and to describe the ways in which competent people can easily identify a witch and prove her guilt. Kramer and Sprenger (the contribution of the first was limited to the prologue, but his name is on the title page) knew what they were talking about: they were inquisitors and created a treatise based on their own experience. Sociologist Moira Smith describes the place in the Hammer of the Witches folklore narrative dedicated to theft of penises in an article published in the journal Journal of Folklore Research.

For generations of historians, this book has been described as a blatant example of how cruel a person can be. The “Hammer of the Witches” is called the “fruit of paranoid sexual fantasies,” however, the inquisitors used the information contained in the treatise for many decades, condemning and killing women who were convicted of “witchcraft” according to his position.

Three stories

Kramer made an important contribution to the hatred of women. It was he who first clearly articulated the idea that witchcraft is the prerogative of the female sex. “All witchcraft comes from a passion for carnal pleasures, which is insatiable in women,” the inquisitor wrote. It is not surprising that such a sexist approach to business determined the nature of crimes allegedly committed by witches: they were almost always connected with the issue of gender relations. Sorceresses copulated with incubuses, had abortions, became the cause of infertility and interfered in the intimate relations of husbands and their wives. As one of the strangest examples of such activity, Kramer talks about how witches steal male genital organs.

This topic is found in the treatise three times. In the first part of the work, the inquisitor discusses whether sorceresses and demons can make the penis disappear, and comes to the conclusion that if the former are really capable of doing this, the latter only create the illusion of lack of male dignity in the victim, which is also obvious to observers. In the second part, Kramer describes how to get out of this state. In the third, he gives examples of theft of the penis.

Image: cover of the seventh edition of the book (Cologne, 1520) / University of Sydney

“In the city of Ravensburg, a young man was attached to a girl, but when he wanted to leave her, he miraculously lost his male member, so he could not see him and only felt his smooth body,” says Kramer. Then, following the advice of the woman he met in the tavern, the young man returned to the witch and demanded his penis back, threatening to otherwise kill her. After that, the sorceress “touched her hand to his hips at the pubis and said:“ Now you have what you wanted ””.

“Once, he said, when I accepted the confession, a young man came and during the confession bitterly complained that he had lost his penis. Surprised, I did not want to believe his words; "He is light-hearted who believes easily," says the wise. But I was convinced firsthand when the young man, having removed his dress, showed that place, and I did not see anything. Being completely sane, I asked if he suspected anyone who had bewitched him so; the young man replied that he suspected, but that she was not here, she lived in Worms; "Then I advise you: immediately go to her and try, as far as possible, to propitiate her with promises and affectionate words." He did so. A few days later he returned and thanked me, saying that he was healthy and got everything back; I believed his words, but again checked with my own eyes. "

Finally, Kramer describes a completely fantastic picture:

“Finally, what do you need to think about those witches that such members in large numbers, up to twenty or thirty members at a time, hide in a bird’s nest or box, where they move, as if alive, and eat food that many have seen and that is universally known? To this it should be said that all this is done by devilish obsession and action, since the feelings of the audience are deceived by the above methods. Someone said that when he lost his penis and turned to the witch to restore his health, she ordered him to climb a tree and take one from the nest there, in which there were a large number of members. When he wanted to take one more from them, the witch said: “No, this one is not touching, and at the same time added, he belongs to one priest”.

Researchers at Witch's Hammer usually understand this passage unambiguously: everything described is the fruit of Cramer’s sick imagination, and the inquisitor is not joking. This, say, in 1584, the Englishman Reginald Scott, an ardent opponent of the belief in witchcraft and witches, noted in his book: “This is not a joke, because it is written by those who decide and decide who lives and who doesn't.” But is it really so?

Image: Hans Baldung / Staedel Museum, Weather Witches, 1523

Where did he go?

Modern critics of The Witch's Hammer come from the absurdity of allegations of magical theft of the penis, explaining everything solely by the imagination of the authors of the book. Nevertheless, descriptions of such practices are often found in folklore. For example, the demonologist Jean Boden recorded a conversation in 1567 with a woman who claimed to know more than fifty ways to cause impotence, prevent conception and even make urination difficult for the victim - just simply knot the knots on the threads properly.

Witch hunters knew popular beliefs and often focused on them in their work. If the woman’s husband became impotent, he could safely file for a divorce - because according to Canon Law of the Catholic Church, it was believed that witchcraft caused impotence.

Of course, Kramer went further, he was talking about the disappearance of the penis. Subsequently, other demonologists also noted cases of “drawing in, hiding, or completely removing the penis,” blaming the devil and his servants. There is evidence that women were tried for such “crimes” (although there are not many).

Most likely, when describing cases of "illusory theft" of the penis, Kramer refers to impotence when it comes to the loss of male dignity, and not the penis per se. Speaking of cases of real disappearance, the inquisitor probably refers to the genital retraction syndrome (cortex) - a condition known to modern psychiatrists. In medical practice, it is defined as follows: "fear or mania of drawing the genitals into the abdominal cavity, which will result in death."

This syndrome is little known in the West, but the beliefs associated with it exist, say, in China or Africa. The culprits of the genital retraction are vampires, ghosts, and spirits of women who died during childbirth. In West Africa, it is believed that sorcerers steal the penises, and in large numbers - if this happens, the crowd catches the "sorcerer" and beat him until he returns the stolen goods.

Image: Jacob Cornelitz van Oostzanen “Saul and the Witch of Endor”, 1526

Kramer in Witch's Hammer writes that witches "do not really take away a member from the human body, but they only hide it from sorcerer's art." Given the skepticism of the author of the treatise, it is not surprising that there are almost no such cases in the documentary evidence of witch trials.

Despite the fact that psychiatrists and inquisitors argue that penises do not physically disappear, medicine knows of cases of sudden reduction in genitals, which are probably the basis of cortex and other similar beliefs. This is probably what Kramer writes about when he talks about examining a young man's inguinal region with a “respected priest” (which most likely was the inquisitor himself).

Nest

The “nest of living penises” described in the treatise, which the witch contains as pets, is another matter. Did Kramer really believe in what he was writing? According to him, many people know about this practice, but then where is the other medieval evidence of this phenomenon?

The key to unraveling the mystery is how the inquisitor describes the picture. He claims that the witch contains penis in the nest and feeds them with oats. That is, in fact, we are talking about chicks, and birds in western folklore are often associated with the penis. For example, in English there is jargon cock ("cockerel"), in the XIX century England a member was called a "bird", in the USA - "kenar" and "cuckoo". Jokes in which the penis is compared to a bird are very popular.

Image: Martin van Maele “The Great Danse Macabre of the Quick”

Given all this, the nest Kramer writes about is not at all the fruit of his inflamed consciousness. It remains to answer the question of why at the end of the story the witch forbids the man to take the largest penis, since it belongs to the "one priest". As a result, this passage cannot be interpreted otherwise than as humor.

Inquisitors are joking too

And this is true - the size of the male genitalia has long been a joke. Moreover, there are variations on the theme of the old joke: the nun does not want to meet with one monk until he, in the darkness of the night, comes to her cell and shows what he is capable of. The monk persuades another monk, brother Conrad, famous for the size of his manhood, to replace him, but the nun very quickly realizes that the wrong one came to her - a member of Conrad’s brother is known to everyone in the convent.

But what does this anti-clerical joke do in “the most important and sinister demonology work ever written”? The “Hammer of the Witches” is full of life stories, and almost all of them consist of three key elements: someone turns to an authoritative person for help, she gives him recommendations for solving the problem, after which the result is described.

Image: medieval miniature

But the story of a nest with living penises does not follow this paradigm. It does not tell how it all ended, and there is no adviser. Kramer did not fit it into the format of others, wanting to emphasize that this is nothing more than a humorous tale, designed to dilute the gloomy tone of the story. The presence of a certain “priest” in it confirms this conjecture - the inquisitors and witch hunters eagerly made fun of low priest priests.

Researchers often portray the Inquisitors as the embodiment of evil — gloomy psychopaths who have been delighted to see the suffering of innocent people. However, the realities of that time should be taken into account here. Kramer and his colleagues lived when the witch hunt was not out of the ordinary, and to kill the “witch” meant solving many problems that she allegedly caused. These were ordinary unenlightened people who, like everyone else, loved to drink, eat, and let go of a dirty joke.