Witches

=Macbeth=

In the list of history’s most infamous books, the //Malleus Maleficarum// (//The Hammer of Witches//) must rank up there with Hitler’s //Mein Kampf//. Published in 1486, it was written by two German friars, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, to debunk arguments that witchcraft does not exist. It was also meant to serve as a manual for the detection, prosecution, and punishment of witches. It was responsible for the ensuing frenzy of witch hunts which covered Europe with the blood of thousands of victims, mostly women.
 * The //Malleus Maleficarum//**

The //Malleus// is evidence that some superstitions are __far from harmless__. The book decrees that witchcraft is heresy, and that not believing in it is also heresy. It asserts that witches are mostly women, and it is female lust that leads women to form pacts with the Devil and copulate with incubi. Midwives are especially singled out for their alleged ability to prevent conception and terminate pregnancies. It accuses them of eating infants and offering live children to the Devil. But the real heinousness of the //Malleus// and its authors lies in the procedures drawn up to identify and exterminate witches.

The accused are to be stripped and searched for the “devil’s marks,” then dunked in water or burned, since people who are under the Devil’s protection cannot be drowned or killed by fire. Using the //Malleus// as a guide, torture was liberally used to extract confessions or implicate other people throughout the witch hysteria. Gruesome torture devices were developed that could crush or dislocate bones (the Bootikens, strappado), mangle bodily orifices (the Pear), or tear out fingernails (the Turcas). __Red-hot pincers__ were also applied to tear out pieces of flesh. Those found guilty of witchcraft were usually burned at the stake. All in all, there is no more damning testament to the dangers of superstition than the //Malleus Maleficarum//.