Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-15T18:26:14.078Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Author's Justification of the “Hammer for Sorceresses”

from THE HAMMER OF WITCHES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2015

Christopher S. Mackay
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
Get access

Summary

IN the midst of the disasters of the collapsing secular world, which, alas, we do not so much read of as experience in various places, the Ancient Rising Sun, who was perverted through the ineluctable damage caused by his downfall, has never ceased, since the beginning, to taint the Church, which the New Rising Sun, the human Jesus Christ, has made fruitful through the shedding of His own Blood, with the poison of various heresies. Nonetheless, he attacks through these heresies at that time in particular, when the evening of the world declines towards its setting and the evil of men swells up, since he knows in great anger, as John bears witness in the Book of Apocalypse [12:12], that he has little time remaining. Hence, he has also caused a certain unusual heretical perversity to grow up in the land of the Lord – a Heresy, I say, of Sorceresses, since it is to be designated by the particular gender over which he is known to have power. He contrives these things through countless forms of assault, and this one is carried out in the form of individual works. This is clearly daunting to conceive of, exceedingly loathsome to God and hateful to all believers in Christ, since in accordance with their agreement with Hell and treaty with Death they submit themselves to the foulest slavery in return for fulfilling their filthy acts of depravity. This heresy also consists of losses that are inflicted in the form of daily misfortunes on humans, domestic animals and the fruits of the earth through the permission of God and with the co-operation of demons.

In the midst of these evils, we Inquisitors, Jacobus Sprenger together with the very dear associate delegated by the Apostolic See for the extermination of so destructive a heresy, though very insignificant among the Professors of Holy Theology in the Order of Militant Preachers, nonetheless considered with a pious and grieving mind what remedy or solace should be administered to people as a salutary cure, and thought it right to set our shoulders to this work before all other remedies, confident that by the mellifluous generosity of Him Who gives to all plentifully and Who, having taken the pebble from the altar with tongs, touches the lips of the imperfect and cleans them, we will bring everything to the desired conclusion.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Hammer of Witches
A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum
, pp. 69 - 70
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×