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The Malleus Maleficarum, usually translated as the Hammer of Witches, is the best known treatise purporting to be about witchcraft. It was written by the German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer and first published in the German city of Speyer in 1486. Some describe it as the compendium of literature in demonology of the 15th century. Kramer blamed women for his own lust, and presented his views as the Church's position. The book was condemned by top theologians of the Inquisition at the Faculty of Cologne for recommending unethical and illegal procedures, and for being inconsistent with Catholic doctrines of demonology.
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have used malevolent magic against their own community, and often to have communed with evil beings. It was thought witchcraft could be thwarted by protective magic or counter-magic, which could be provided by cunning folk or folk healers. Suspected witches were also intimidated, banished, attacked or killed. Often they would be formally prosecuted and punished, if found guilty or simply believed to be guilty. European witch-hunts and witch trials in the early modern period led to tens of thousands of executions. In some regions, many of those accused of witchcraft were folk healers or midwives. European belief in witchcraft gradually dwindled during and after the Age of Enlightenment.
Magic, sometimes spelled magick, is an ancient practice rooted in rituals, spiritual divinations, and/or cultural lineage—with an intention to invoke, manipulate, or otherwise manifest supernatural forces, beings, or entities in the natural world. It is a categorical yet often ambiguous term which has been used to refer to a wide variety of beliefs and practices, frequently considered separate from both religion and science.
Necromancy is the practice of magical sorcery involving communication with the dead by summoning their spirits as apparitions or visions, or by resurrection for the purpose of divination; imparting the means to foretell future events; discovery of hidden knowledge; “returning a person to life”, or to use the dead as a weapon. Sometimes categorized under death magic, the term is occasionally also used in a more general sense to refer to black magic or witchcraft as a whole. Nowadays, ‘reanimation necromancy’ is not considered a real practice even by occultists and practitioners.
A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern period or about 1450 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, resulting in an estimated 35,000 to 50,000 executions. The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century. In other regions, like Africa and Asia, contemporary witch-hunts have been reported from sub-Saharan Africa and Papua New Guinea, and official legislation against witchcraft is still found in Saudi Arabia and Cameroon today.
Botis, sometimes Otis, is a demon described in the Lesser Key of Solomon and the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum as a President and an Earl who initially appears as a viper before changing into a sword-toting, fanged, and horned human who discusses matters past, present, and future; brings favor from allies and enemies, and rules 60 legions of demons. In the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic, Botis appears as Otius, and is mostly identical except that he is a preses and Count, appears in the more humanoid form to begin with, and rules only 36 legions of demons. In the Grand Grimoire, Botis appears as a subordinate of Agaliarept. According to Rudd, Botis is opposed by the Shemhamphorasch angel Lauviah.
Gaap is a demon that is described in demonological grimoires such as the Lesser Key of Solomon, Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, and the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic, as well as Jacques Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal,
Valac is a demon described in the goetic grimoires The Lesser Key of Solomon, Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, the Liber Officiorum Spirituum, and in the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic as an angelically winged boy riding a two-headed dragon, attributed with the power of finding treasures.
Amy is a demon described in demonological grimoires such as the Lesser Key of Solomon, the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, and in the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic; as well as Jacques Collin de Plancy Dictionnaire Infernal,
The Munich Manual of Demonic Magic or Liber incantationum, exorcismorum et fascinationum variarum is a fifteenth-century grimoire manuscript. The text, composed in Latin, is largely concerned with demonology and necromancy.
The Formicarius, written 1436–1438 by Johannes Nider during the Council of Florence and first printed in 1475, is the second book ever printed to discuss witchcraft. Nider dealt specifically with witchcraft in the fifth section of the book. Unlike his successors, he did not emphasize the idea of the Witches' Sabbath and was skeptical of the claim that witches could fly by night. With over 25 manuscript copies from fifteenth and early sixteenth century editions from the 1470s to 1692, the Formicarius is an important work for the study of the origins of the witch trials in Early Modern Europe, as it sheds light on their earliest phase during the first half of the 15th century.
Belief in witchcraft in Europe can be traced to classical antiquity and has continuous history during the Middle Ages, culminating in the Early Modern witch trials and giving rise to the fairy tale and popular culture "witch" stock character of modern times, as well as to the concept of the "modern witch" in Wicca and related movements of contemporary witchcraft.
The Brethren of the Free Spirit were adherents of a loose set of beliefs deemed heretical by the Catholic Church but held by some Christians, especially in the Low Countries, Germany, France, Bohemia, and Northern Italy between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. The movement was first identified in the late thirteenth century. It was not a single movement or school of thought, and it caused great unease among Church leaders at the time. Adherents were also called Free Spirits.
Jeffrey Burton Russell is an American historian and religious studies scholar.
Witch trials in the early modern period saw that between 1400 and 1782, around 40,000 to 60,000 were killed due to suspicion that they were practicing witchcraft. These trials occurred primarily in Europe, and were particularly severe in some parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Some witch hunts would last for years, and some sources estimate 100,000 trials occurred. Groundwork on the concept of witchcraft was developed by Christian theologians as early as the 13th century. However, prosecutions for the practice of witchcraft would only reach a highpoint from 1560 to 1630 during the Counter-Reformation and the European wars of religion, with some regions burning those who were convicted at the stake, of whom roughly 80% were women,, mostly over the age of 40.
Barbara Jane Newman is an American medievalist, literary critic, religious historian, and author. She is Professor of English and Religion, and John Evans Professor of Latin, at Northwestern University. Newman was elected in 2017 to the American Philosophical Society.
Nicholas Watson is an English-Canadian medievalist, literary critic, religious historian, and author. He is Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English at Harvard University and chair of the Harvard English Department.
During the Middle Ages, magic took on many forms, Instead of being able to identify one type of magic user, there were many who practiced several types of magic in these times, including monks, priests, physicians, surgeons, midwives, folk healers, and diviners. The practice of “magic” often consisted of using medicinal herbs for healing purposes. Classical medicine entailed magical elements. They would use charms or potions in hopes of driving out a sickness. People had strongly differing opinions as to what magic was, and because of this, it is important to understand all aspects of magic at this time.
Joseph Hansen was an influential German historian of witchcraft persecutions, and an archivist in the city of Cologne, where at the age of 80 he was killed, along with his wife, by the bombs of World War II.
Perrissona Gappit was tried for witchcraft in 1465 in Switzerland.
References
- ↑ "Kieckhefer, Richard ( 1946- )". isni.oclc.org. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
- ↑ "Richard Kieckhefer: Department of History" . Retrieved 3 April 2015.
- ↑ "Richard Kieckhefer: Personal Page" . Retrieved 4 April 2015.
- ↑ "Mythologies of Witchcraft in the Fifteenth Century" (PDF). Summer 2006. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
- ↑ Anne Ford (26 January 2012). "This week's Chicagoan: Richard Kieckhefer, historian of magic" . Retrieved 4 April 2015.
- ↑ Russell, Jeffrey Burton (March 1999). "Review of Forbidden Rites". Church History. 68 (1): 167–168. doi:10.2307/3170136. JSTOR 3170136. S2CID 162532756 . Retrieved 3 April 2015.
- ↑ "Authors:Richard Kieckhefer" . Retrieved 4 April 2015.
- ↑ "Richard Kieckhefer: Guggenheim Fellow". Archived from the original on 4 February 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
- ↑ "Professor Richard Kieckhefer" . Retrieved 3 April 2005.
- ↑ "List of Active Members by Class" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Fall 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
