December 4, 2018 • 32 mins
During Europe's period of witchcraft hysteria, one enterprising (and failed) witch hunter sought to bolster his reputation by creating an authoritative text on the existence, discovery and persecution of witches. While it may seem silly now, the Malleus Maleficarum was a runaway success, with thousands of copies inundating European society even while various officials warned against treating it as a reliable source. Listen in to learn more about The Hammer of the Witches.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Yeah, let's cut straight to the chase with some fairly
terrifying numbers. During the early modern period of European history
(00:32):
that stretches from around fourteen fifty to seventeen fifty, somewhere
in the neighborhood of one thousand people, the overwhelming majority
of them being women, were tried for the crime of witchcraft,
and about half of these folks fifty were executed, usually
by being burned alive. But why why because they were
(00:54):
suspected of being witches null. Yes, the great witch panic
of those years you mentioned, Yeah, the great uh three
year witch panic was a big one. That's a big one.
That was a big one. It was. That's why it's
the great witch panic and the mediocre witch the other
lesser witch panic. Hey, let's give a shout out to
(01:16):
our super producer, Casey Pegram, who, to our knowledge has
never in fact hunted witches. That's true, right, Casey, that
is correct. Yes, no witch hunting in my past, Casey
on the case. That's good. That's good to know because
it's not a very noble pursuit. Yeah, we read about
(01:38):
it in history, some of the most famous ones being
like the Salem witch trials, the one that was famously
depicted in The Crucible, the play by Arthur Miller, and
it typically involves a bunch of over zealous religious nuts
looking for something that just is not there. Right. It's
strange because I had studied this in THEA asked, there's
(02:00):
a book I wouldn't recommend called The Devil in the
Shape of a Woman. Witchcraft in colonial New England. And
one of the most interesting things about the witch hunting
hysteria and the practice that continued for so long in
central Europe, but most of Europe and in the colonial
(02:20):
US or what would become the US, is that in
many cases there were people who genuinely believe that some
occult or supernatural event was occurring. But there were also
people who were prosecuting these cases out of a more cynical,
self interested motivation, because you see, if you could prove
(02:41):
that someone was a witch in a lot of jurisdictions,
their belongings and their estate would later go to you.
I did not know that then. So it was a
way to disenfranchise women. Oh, not only disenfranchise women, it
was a way to persecute women for uh their sexuality
and a lot of the language. So in the in
(03:01):
the book we're going to talk about today, the Melius
Maleficarum revolves around women being temptresses in some way or
somehow using their sexuality to lure men to be tools
of Satan in some way making them more open to
Satanic influence. So it's in large part a way of
(03:22):
punishing women for their sexuality, because a lot of these
men were either used to just um controlling women in
the form of a wife or in the form of
being some sort of higher up in a community and
having expecting to be cow towed to at all times
members of the opposite sex. In any sense that a
woman had some kind of power that they could not
(03:43):
understand it and maybe made them uncomfortable, they wanted to
kind of squash it. Absolutely absolutely and not even kind
of They definitively wanted this. Uh. This status quoth had
established to remain the same. The crime of witchcraft as
it was defined during this period of time consisted of
(04:04):
two main sort of branches. The first was the obvious one,
the practice of harmful magic, using some sort of mysterious
other worldly power to bring misfortune on other people in
your community. This could be um the a infliction of
a disease. Everybody gets sick. Let's blame that elderly person
(04:25):
who lives alone over by the edge of the woods.
It could be the death of human beings or livestock.
It could also often, going back to your note about sexuality, Noll,
it could be the crime of making men sexually impotent,
and so they're like, oh, I can't get aroused anymore.
You know what, It's not me, it's that elderly person
(04:50):
who lives alone on the other side of town. Yeah,
but didn't have to be elderly at all, right, it
could be anyone. It could be anyone. And these these
hunts were incredibly sense of at times. In Germany. In
nine in a place named qued Lindberg, a hundred and
thirty three women were executed in one day and there
(05:10):
was a witch hunt in Germany. Is very bad about this.
That left two German villages would get this, only one
female resident each. It's insane. So that's the that's the
context we want to lay out here. This stuff was tragic, horrific,
and looking back from our time in the modern day,
(05:31):
it could seem like some sort of group insanity. But
we have to remember the people who were prosecuting these cases,
didn't just believe that they were acting logically. They wanted
to I guess formalized this. And that leads us to
the book you mentioned, Noel. The proper name is what
(05:55):
Malius malefic Harum and also known as the Hammer of
the witches or in German. I love this hex and Hamma.
There we go to and so what is this? It is,
as you said, Ben, a codified book of all of
these things that we just mentioned. Okay, so the writers
(06:15):
of this book didn't just invent this stuff out of
whole cloth. It was kind of in the zeitgeist already,
which is do exist in the Bible, right, I mean
this idea of black magic or of you know, um Antichrist,
sort of of some kind of anti god entity. Sorcery
as an infernal power is the word which in the Bible. Ben.
(06:36):
It's a fascinating question because there are various kinds of
things that we call witchcraft and divination in the in
the Hebrew Bible, and it's generally mentioned in a disapproving tone.
But the problem that we run into is a problem
of translation, because somebody might translate something that just says
(06:59):
like orsery or sooth saying into witchcraft. Yeah, I've got
one here from Leviticus n one that uses the word spiritists.
It says, do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists,
for you will be defiled by them. I am the
Lord your God. Or from Chronicles three six, he sacrificed
his children in the valley of ben Hannon, practiced divination
(07:21):
and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He
did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing
his anger. So to your point been translation, but very
interesting to to google this and see, yes, witchcraft is
in that form in the Bible. And if the the
W word itself the priv yeah, then like Galatians five
(07:45):
nineteen mentions, it's there are several places where you can
find Bible verses about witchcraft. But to your point, Noel,
which I think is a very important point, the authors
of this, who are understood to be two Dominicans, a
guy named Johann Springer and a guy named Heinrich Kramer,
(08:07):
they weren't just saying let's give people our opinion of
which is they were. They were pulling, as you said,
from a a tradition and a system of beliefs that
had existed long before them. The book, or the document
as some people prefer to call it, was written around
and when they were writing it, they were essentially compiling
(08:30):
all these other things into sort of a one stop shop,
but not without their own editorializing. Right. That's a big
part of it because this guy, Heinrich Kramer um was
sort of like a failed witch hunter and he never
really got the respect that he felt he was due
and was kind of a bitter man and decided he
(08:51):
wanted to spread the word and kind of get people
thinking about these things that were very dear to him,
persecuting but aventially wicked women for whatever reason. You know,
he wanted to influence that and kind of have his
say on how people were gonna look at this, and
he put all this in a book along with his
partner Jacob Springer. That's correct, And there's an interesting part
(09:17):
of Kramer's motivation that we have to examine here. You know,
how some unscrupulous people on a get rich quick scheme
will self publish a book on Amazon and then use
that book as sort of a bona fide or a
mark of their own credibility. Totally expertise, Like, you know,
(09:38):
the best way to become a self help expert is
just to write a book that purports to teach people
to help themselves. Kramer also wanted, in addition to warning
the general public, or at least the literate public, against
the danger of witchcraft, he also wanted this book to
give him the official authority to hunt witches. And again,
(09:58):
this guy has somewhat of a myopic focus, but it
also has some alarmist nature to it. It doesn't. Over
the what two hundred and fifty six pages, it attempts
to do several things. First, it wants to prove that
witches and witchcraft are real. Don't be deceived. They are real.
(10:19):
They're out to get you. Second, building from that and
says these witches are real, they are infernal, they work
with demonic forces, so therefore they must be killed. And
then third, it wants to convince readers that not only
are witches real, not only are they dangerous, but they
are a sign of the apocalypse, the end of the world.
(10:40):
And it does a really interesting thing that creates a
real conundrum for when these witch trials start going completely bonkers.
It um points out that the Bible says there are witches. Therefore,
if you don't believe in witches, you are an accessory
to their evil crimes. Yeah, similar to the old Edmund
(11:01):
Burke quote the only thing necessary for the triumph of
evil is for good men to do nothing. Only even
further right, Because this is literally saying if you think
it means, you know, if if if you're standing up
for the truth and saying that this is not real,
this there is no witchcraft, or this person definitely is
not a witch, then they can accuse you of being
(11:22):
a heretic yourself simply for not believing what you're supposed
to believe. If you're not with us, you're against us,
against us. Okay, So if we divide the book we
talked about kind of three aims of the book, we
can also divide the work into three rough sections. The
(11:44):
first is, as we said, this explanation that which is
a real they are dangerous. The second is a guide
for the experts the clergy on how to recognize a witch.
And they get pretty specific, you know, like devil's marks,
which could be anything from a mole to scar right,
certain types of behavior or things that occur in their communities.
(12:05):
And then the third part. The final part is a
legal manual for how to properly accuse and persecute a
which and if finding them guilty spoiler alert, very few
people were found innocent to give them the death penalty.
And in the work, there's a really interesting bit of
double think here because the authors say that you shouldn't
(12:29):
be deceived if someone appears to be weak. They say,
in fact, the weak people are the most dangerous, which
is and what this meant is that a lot of
times people who lived on the fringes of society because
they were say mentally ill or they're very poor, they
became the number one targets. And then also we have
(12:50):
to face the facts. Uh. I'm pulling some of this
from a really excellent podcast called fifteen Minute History, with
an episode on witch hunting in Europe. The guests on
this episode has got named John E. Green, professor in
history at the University of Texas and Austin, and he
points out that a lot of times persecuting which has
(13:14):
made things even worse for the community because people who
would be considered witches would be like medical practitioners. Literally
the only healthcare in the village or in the town
or midwives, and you know, let's say a birth goes
wrong through no no fault of the midwife. If you don't,
(13:36):
depending on their luck, they may be accused of purposely
killing the child. Or if you're treating someone who has
a disease and they don't get better because hey, it's
an incurable disease, then they flipped the script and say
they're not better, not because leprosy is incurable at the time,
but because you're a witch. How what what a what
a horrible position to be in literally being the like
(13:58):
first line of defense for helping people and opening yourself
up to this kind of scrutiny and ridicule. It reminds
me of that scene for talking about the tests and
like the things that were contained in this book, which
is also the kinds of tortures and how you should
go about torturing a witch to get a proper confession.
But it reminds me of that scene in Monty Python
the Holy Grail where they're trying to see if it's
(14:19):
a witch and they're like, does wood sink in water? No,
it floats, so then throw in the water and see
if she floats. What else floats in water? A duck,
and then the king is like, so if she weighs
the same as a duck, then she's a witch. It's
like this kind of circular logic. You know, this is satire, obviously,
but that's the kind of stuff that was in this book.
(14:39):
And this book, although maybe it's started out as somewhat
of a specialized tool, this book becomes a wildly popular, right.
It goes through what twenty eight editions. I think there
are more than thirty thousand copies circulated throughout Europe. Yeah,
I think it's sold more copies than any book but
the Bible up until which is insane, especially when you
(15:04):
consider what a pain it was to make a book
at that time. So this also gets some endorsement from
the papacy itself, the Pope issues of Papal bull. It's
a document that the Pope signs themselves stating the official
church opinion. And this is pre publication though, right, It's
(15:25):
like he kind of sanctioned them to do this research,
and this bull was included in the in the printing. Yes, yeah,
and this book Hexama is the only do all right,
thanks man. This book is the only work of its
kind to receive the official approval of the Catholic Church.
(15:45):
Now people will tell you that there's some fairly convincing,
circumstantial evidence that Kramer bribed the Pope to condone The
Hammer of the Witches. Yeah. I also read somewhere that
it's not even specifically about the Hammer of the Witches,
that they sort of almost like fudged it a little
(16:06):
bit to make it seem like it was more about that,
but it was actually a little broader and not specifically
condoning everything that they were putting forth in this book.
But it's like the best New York Times book review
you could possibly get, are the best celebrity endorsement you
can ever imagine having, is having this thing included inside
your book jacket cover. Pope says, good to go. You know,
(16:30):
this is this is the this is the one. Yeah.
It's kind of like having writing a book about how
to be a better person and having uh an endorsement
from Mr Rogers or something. Not quite because we're talking
about God, you know, in divinity. But while we're talking
about fudging this, there's an interesting thing we we mentioned.
(16:50):
Jacob Springer or Johann Springer as he's often called. He
was in later editions mentioned as a collaborator, but now
with days, a lot of historians believe that his name
was just added as kind of an endorsement. Springer. Yeah,
that's right, that's right. I read that too, and that
he didn't actually have much to do with the creation
(17:13):
of the book, sort of like how Quentin Tarantino air
quotes presented the Man with the Iron Fist directed by Rizza,
and Tarantino didn't really have anything to do with probably
hung out, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure he probably had
a chair with his name on it, said, and he
probably made a rant about something in pop culture. But
that's just what he does. Yeah, that's just kind of
(17:34):
how Quintin is totally. So what was the what were
the bona fides of Springer? Again, Ben, I'm sorry if
he said it, Just help help me out. I want
to understand a little better. Yeah, he was dean of
the University of Cologne in Germany, and he was also
a friar of some note. And here's the thing, the
bull itself, it was more intended to confirm powers that
(18:00):
inquisitors or that a guy named Henry in Staturus and
James Springer who were inquisitors already have to quote deal
with persons of every class and with every form of crime,
for example, with witchcraft as being heresy. And it called
upon the Bishop of Strasbourg to lend um. This is
(18:21):
a quote from the from the Bull, lend inquisitors all
possible support. And the reason that Kramer enlisted Springer was
because Springer's name is actually in the Bull. But it
had nothing to do with the book. It was more
about seeking out witchcraft and prosecuting it in general, because
the law had changed where I believe it used to
(18:43):
be more a church specifically a church duty to seek
these things out, but then it kind of became more
of a municipal thing. And when we start seeing the
crazy panic of witch hunt pandemonium, that's because it became
a lot easier to do. Yeah, that's that's the thing,
(19:04):
And I think that's that's well put. We would be
remiss if we didn't mention that one of the things
clearly condoned by the book is torture. Oh yeah, horrific torture. Yeah.
Cramer's favorite was something called the strapato, which is a
device that attaches to the wrist and pulls some upwards,
so the victims hang by their arms until their arms dislocated. Yeah,
(19:27):
anytime we talk about this kind of stuff, I just
get the the hebe gebs so bad, like the thumb screws,
the ones that would literally shred your hands, you know,
by like these vices that your hands would go in.
And there was one that was some kind of like
helmet you would put on with like a drill that
would go right into your forehead. Um, just barbaric stuff.
(19:48):
And another thing that was in the in the book
was a caveat saying you don't have to tell the
person you're accusing who accused them. Right. It also recommends,
oddly enough, deception in order to obtain confessions. So there's
a quote here where it says, and when the implements
(20:08):
of torture have been prepared, the judge, both in person
and through other good men, zealous and the faith, tries
to persuade the prisoner to confess the truth freely. But
if he will not confess, he bid attendance, make the
prisoner fast to the strapado or other implement of torture.
The attendance obey forthwith yet with feigned agitation. Then at
(20:29):
the prayer of some of those present, the prisoners loosed
again and taken aside and once more persuaded to confess,
being led to believe that he will, in that case
not be put to death. That's why so many people confess,
because they got tortured for some amount of time and
then they got pulled aside and someone said, hey, look,
if you just come clean about this, it can end now.
(20:51):
Of course you don't have to die. And we already
know this about military interrogation, that interrogation under torture does
not yield uh results that are reliable, because people will
say anything if you'll stop doing the horrible thing to them,
right exactly. And that's I mean, it's the I hate
to say it, but torture is the tale as old
(21:12):
as time. And didn't they also talk about the quote
unquote more carnal inherent nature of women. Absolutely, that's what
we're talking about the top of the show. UM, I
feel like that's something it's inherent in this whole persecution
of women for witchcraft. But yes, it carries over into
this codified you know, book of all of these different techniques. Um.
(21:34):
I was watching a documentary on this book on History Channel,
and I forget the guy's name, but he was a
scholar who specifically studies this work, and he pointed out
all of these very charged words that were used in
the text, the words that didn't have to use and
they were Latin obviously, um, but words that would mean
something like disgusting or filth, you know, as opposed to
(21:56):
just um, you know, not good, like very chart large
language or a word that meant um, a temptress or
some kind of adulteress, you know. Where it was like,
this is what these women will turn men into through
their uh you know which Lee Wiles or whatever. So
very charged language, very much within with a position, you know.
(22:18):
And additionally, it's important to know there's a different definition
of seduction at play here. It's completely possible, for instance,
for someone to have uh sexually assaulted an innocent person
in a village and then say, I'm a good Christian man.
She seduced me through the use of witchcraft. Course, so
(22:41):
in addition to me attacking her as a punishment her powers,
she should be put to death. It reminds me of
the story we did about women being incarcerated for having
sexually transmitted diseases, where that was flipped as well. And
used by men to treat like men would give women
these sexually transmit diseases and then act like they had
(23:01):
given it to them, or use it to ostracize them
in some way. There was one story I believe where
a man like left a woman on the side of
the road or something like that. It's another one of
these really power dynamics that is again tail as old
as time, and we see it all codified in this
book here, like this is the way to do it.
(23:24):
There's a pretty interesting argument from Atlas Obscure by Sarah
last Cow about about the hammer of the witches, which,
you know what, while we're at it, shouldn't it be
the hammer for the witches? Just grammatically the witches do
not have the power, right. So what they found was
that the Malics Maleficarum was once thought to be the
(23:47):
handbook for witch hunters, but more recent research has found
that maybe it wasn't as influential as we initially thought.
Because you're right and all that um that Aprile Bull
from four eighty four the book was written in four six,
published in fourteen eight seven, that Papal Bull allows witchcraft prosecutions.
(24:09):
But as you said, doesn't specifically say this is the book,
but it named that guy Springer, which is the reason
that Kramer needed to have him as his co author,
because that allowed him to use that as a manipulation.
And I think we've made it clear. But this thing
caught on like wildfire and spread even to like the
New World, right, you know, which is where the Salem
stuff comes in. I mean, this became a thing and
(24:30):
it was literally this like best seller, but not just
one that people were talking about around the water cooler.
This actually caused the deaths of what was that figure
at the top of the show, Ben all the thousands
of women the early modern period, approximately a hundred thousand,
fifty thousand of whom that's excuse me, however, stated the
number of got you got? I think I said hundreds
(24:51):
of that, but hundreds of thousands of women who were
persecuted and a lesser number who were actually killed, but
in the most gruesome and horrific ways. Eventually, and to
the point about the perceived importance of the book, as
it was catching on with the public, it looks like
some members of the clergy were becoming increasingly I don't know,
(25:14):
skeptical of the book would be oddly enough a good word.
Leaders of the Spanish Inquisition didn't put too much stock
in the Hammer, and by at least the fifteen thirties
they were actively warning their own officials away from it
because maybe they saw it as sort of a personal
mission of Cramer's, maybe a little more self interest than
(25:36):
public interest. But it was still influential enough that people
would commission specific copies of it. And I guess it's
important for us to mention that while the vast majority
of people prosecuted for witchcraft were women, there were dudes
in there too, and they were also put to death.
It was kind of anything goes. Um, I've got a
(25:56):
couple of resources that I'd like to plug really quick,
interested in finding out more about this stuff. Um. I
know you and I both love the film The which
I feel like that displays these attitudes very strongly. There's
a young girl character who kind of is represents that
sexuality that we're talking about, and there's some kind of
(26:16):
telling shots that show that that's not only an issue
for the man, it's an issue for the mother, because
the mother is almost even as much um threatened by
that as as any you know, authority figure male might
be and that becomes a theme, and this idea of
a witch harming crops or livestock is represented, and just
(26:38):
the kind of idea of this which being is it real?
Is it not real? Is it just religious zelotry? Run
a muck. That's the thing that's fun about that movie.
But there's also the subtle argument for air got poison.
That's right, that's right, that they're all hallucinating on some
kind of poisoned crop, poisoned corn that has hoots and
(27:00):
genic effects um, which is one of the the UH
possible explanations for the Salem which trials which here and
how stuff works are Buddy Matt works on a show
about Salem called Unobscure with Aaron Manky of lore fame
and our pal Alex Williams, who composed our theme. And now, thankfully,
(27:21):
UH this book is surprise, surprise, no longer considered an
authoritative UH an authoritative guide to persecuting people for perceived
supernatural ability. Yeah, you don't hear so much about people burning,
which is anymore, thankfully, But you know there are still
which hunts of other varieties, and all this stuff is
very interesting to learn from and apply to modern day
(27:45):
um politics and things, which is something that they parallel
in that show un Obscured that we're talking about. And
for his part, Kramer kept writing and preaching until he
died in Bohemia in fifteen o five. His gambit to
increase his reputation or maybe to justify his failed attempts
(28:07):
at witch hunting, did seem to succeed. It's weird because
we said the Papal bull on persecution witchcraft was published
in the edition, but we didn't mention that by four
ninety the church had officially condemned the Hammer of the witches.
(28:28):
Was it because they were genuinely concerned for the damage
it was doing to communities? Or was it because he
was late with yet another bribe that we don't know? Well,
what we do know is that there was rampant corruption
in the Catholic Church and the papacy, and you know,
likely still is given what we know about some of
the scandals that that keep coming to light. So it's uh,
(28:51):
you know, the more things change and all that, and
this brings us to where's the silver lining here? Then
we need a silver lining. I have a comic recommendation.
See that's why the comic recommendation is helpful. It's our
insurance player. Yeah, okay, So I'm a fan of murky
and dark stuff, and I would like to recommend today
the comic Sir Edward Gray Witch Finder. So, no, you
(29:15):
you you know hell Boy and maybe Baltimore and all
those other things. I know hell Boy? Okay? So which
Finder is a spinoff from hell Boy and it concerns
a guy named Sir Edward Gray who is the Queen's
official expert on all things supernatural because of various interactions
(29:39):
he has had saving people from the nefarious activities of witches.
Edward Gray does not spoiler alert use the hammer of
the Witches the hex Muhamma. But it's a great story.
As a matter of fact, man, if you want to
borrow some of the trades, I have them, sure, as
soon as I returned lock and Key to you. That's right,
(30:00):
can't I can't be in double Dutch to you comic
book wise? Oh, I think he is so great. But
that's my comic recommendation for today. As far as we know,
there is not Thank Goodness, a graphic novel adaptation of
the nalias Malefic Cara. I think the Constantine comics are
really fun. That's great, and it's involves a lot of
different supernatural exploration and things like that. Um, I've always
(30:24):
been a huge fan of Sandman and Neil Gaiman's work,
and Constantine was in that briefly, and he has his
own series that's really great and has Witchcraft and Devilry
and uh Lucifer and all of these great deities and
but they have real personality, so that that's a fun one.
I wouldn't bother with the movie with Keanu Reeves. I would.
I would watch the movie after reading the comics are
(30:46):
just recognize it's a very different thing. And I have
heard that the TV series that got canceled was okay,
but I I liked it. I didn't see it. I
liked it. To whomever they picked to be the lead
actor for that the protagonist, he's got to be real.
Cockney can't be Kiana genuinely looks like John Postite. Counters
is a weird choice. There's a weird choice. I hear.
He's a great guy, though, you know, he seems like
(31:08):
a lovely dude. That's sad. Keanu on the bench meme
is is just delightful. There we go now, we're in,
you know, on a better note, we just had to
make ourselves cheer off. I think that's what it was.
We hope that it worked for you as well, Ridiculous historians.
Thank you so much for tuning in. Thanks to our
super producer, an avowed opponent of witch Hunt's, Casey Pegro.
(31:28):
Thanks to our research pal Gabe Lucier for hipping us
to some of the details in this kind of depressing
but incredible story. Um. We already thanked Alex, we did,
but we get to think him do it again. It
was weird thinking amount of context. No, I think it
was great. You know. I still I feel like we
should let him know that we still do this because
you said he just nodded once. That's just what he does.
(31:50):
He's just he's I mean that as accompliment. But both
he and our long suffering buddy Matt Um both work
on this sail show and I'm scared with Aaron Mangy.
So check that out if you want to do a
deep dive into the Salem witch trials and how it
kind of dovetails a bit with American politics right now.
It's a very interesting show. Um, and thanks to you
(32:11):
Ben for being a friend. Thanks to you, Noel, and
thanks to everyone in society who decided to stop burning
people alive the yeah yeah, I think that deserves it.
Thank you, and stay tuned for our next episode. We
can't tell you what it is yet for various reasons,
(32:32):
because because we don't know. Primarily it's because we haven't
picked one yet, but we can promise that we hope
it will be interesting. It'll be an episode. See it then, folks,
Yeah, let's cut straight to the chase with some fairly
terrifying numbers. During the early modern period of European history
(00:32):
that stretches from around fourteen fifty to seventeen fifty, somewhere
in the neighborhood of one thousand people, the overwhelming majority
of them being women, were tried for the crime of witchcraft,
and about half of these folks fifty were executed, usually
by being burned alive. But why why because they were
(00:54):
suspected of being witches null. Yes, the great witch panic
of those years you mentioned, Yeah, the great uh three
year witch panic was a big one. That's a big one.
That was a big one. It was. That's why it's
the great witch panic and the mediocre witch the other
lesser witch panic. Hey, let's give a shout out to
(01:16):
our super producer, Casey Pegram, who, to our knowledge has
never in fact hunted witches. That's true, right, Casey, that
is correct. Yes, no witch hunting in my past, Casey
on the case. That's good. That's good to know because
it's not a very noble pursuit. Yeah, we read about
(01:38):
it in history, some of the most famous ones being
like the Salem witch trials, the one that was famously
depicted in The Crucible, the play by Arthur Miller, and
it typically involves a bunch of over zealous religious nuts
looking for something that just is not there. Right. It's
strange because I had studied this in THEA asked, there's
(02:00):
a book I wouldn't recommend called The Devil in the
Shape of a Woman. Witchcraft in colonial New England. And
one of the most interesting things about the witch hunting
hysteria and the practice that continued for so long in
central Europe, but most of Europe and in the colonial
(02:20):
US or what would become the US, is that in
many cases there were people who genuinely believe that some
occult or supernatural event was occurring. But there were also
people who were prosecuting these cases out of a more cynical,
self interested motivation, because you see, if you could prove
(02:41):
that someone was a witch in a lot of jurisdictions,
their belongings and their estate would later go to you.
I did not know that then. So it was a
way to disenfranchise women. Oh, not only disenfranchise women, it
was a way to persecute women for uh their sexuality
and a lot of the language. So in the in
(03:01):
the book we're going to talk about today, the Melius
Maleficarum revolves around women being temptresses in some way or
somehow using their sexuality to lure men to be tools
of Satan in some way making them more open to
Satanic influence. So it's in large part a way of
(03:22):
punishing women for their sexuality, because a lot of these
men were either used to just um controlling women in
the form of a wife or in the form of
being some sort of higher up in a community and
having expecting to be cow towed to at all times
members of the opposite sex. In any sense that a
woman had some kind of power that they could not
(03:43):
understand it and maybe made them uncomfortable, they wanted to
kind of squash it. Absolutely absolutely and not even kind
of They definitively wanted this. Uh. This status quoth had
established to remain the same. The crime of witchcraft as
it was defined during this period of time consisted of
(04:04):
two main sort of branches. The first was the obvious one,
the practice of harmful magic, using some sort of mysterious
other worldly power to bring misfortune on other people in
your community. This could be um the a infliction of
a disease. Everybody gets sick. Let's blame that elderly person
(04:25):
who lives alone over by the edge of the woods.
It could be the death of human beings or livestock.
It could also often, going back to your note about sexuality, Noll,
it could be the crime of making men sexually impotent,
and so they're like, oh, I can't get aroused anymore.
You know what, It's not me, it's that elderly person
(04:50):
who lives alone on the other side of town. Yeah,
but didn't have to be elderly at all, right, it
could be anyone. It could be anyone. And these these
hunts were incredibly sense of at times. In Germany. In
nine in a place named qued Lindberg, a hundred and
thirty three women were executed in one day and there
(05:10):
was a witch hunt in Germany. Is very bad about this.
That left two German villages would get this, only one
female resident each. It's insane. So that's the that's the
context we want to lay out here. This stuff was tragic, horrific,
and looking back from our time in the modern day,
(05:31):
it could seem like some sort of group insanity. But
we have to remember the people who were prosecuting these cases,
didn't just believe that they were acting logically. They wanted
to I guess formalized this. And that leads us to
the book you mentioned, Noel. The proper name is what
(05:55):
Malius malefic Harum and also known as the Hammer of
the witches or in German. I love this hex and Hamma.
There we go to and so what is this? It is,
as you said, Ben, a codified book of all of
these things that we just mentioned. Okay, so the writers
(06:15):
of this book didn't just invent this stuff out of
whole cloth. It was kind of in the zeitgeist already,
which is do exist in the Bible, right, I mean
this idea of black magic or of you know, um Antichrist,
sort of of some kind of anti god entity. Sorcery
as an infernal power is the word which in the Bible. Ben.
(06:36):
It's a fascinating question because there are various kinds of
things that we call witchcraft and divination in the in
the Hebrew Bible, and it's generally mentioned in a disapproving tone.
But the problem that we run into is a problem
of translation, because somebody might translate something that just says
(06:59):
like orsery or sooth saying into witchcraft. Yeah, I've got
one here from Leviticus n one that uses the word spiritists.
It says, do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists,
for you will be defiled by them. I am the
Lord your God. Or from Chronicles three six, he sacrificed
his children in the valley of ben Hannon, practiced divination
(07:21):
and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He
did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing
his anger. So to your point been translation, but very
interesting to to google this and see, yes, witchcraft is
in that form in the Bible. And if the the
W word itself the priv yeah, then like Galatians five
(07:45):
nineteen mentions, it's there are several places where you can
find Bible verses about witchcraft. But to your point, Noel,
which I think is a very important point, the authors
of this, who are understood to be two Dominicans, a
guy named Johann Springer and a guy named Heinrich Kramer,
(08:07):
they weren't just saying let's give people our opinion of
which is they were. They were pulling, as you said,
from a a tradition and a system of beliefs that
had existed long before them. The book, or the document
as some people prefer to call it, was written around
and when they were writing it, they were essentially compiling
(08:30):
all these other things into sort of a one stop shop,
but not without their own editorializing. Right. That's a big
part of it because this guy, Heinrich Kramer um was
sort of like a failed witch hunter and he never
really got the respect that he felt he was due
and was kind of a bitter man and decided he
(08:51):
wanted to spread the word and kind of get people
thinking about these things that were very dear to him,
persecuting but aventially wicked women for whatever reason. You know,
he wanted to influence that and kind of have his
say on how people were gonna look at this, and
he put all this in a book along with his
partner Jacob Springer. That's correct, And there's an interesting part
(09:17):
of Kramer's motivation that we have to examine here. You know,
how some unscrupulous people on a get rich quick scheme
will self publish a book on Amazon and then use
that book as sort of a bona fide or a
mark of their own credibility. Totally expertise, Like, you know,
(09:38):
the best way to become a self help expert is
just to write a book that purports to teach people
to help themselves. Kramer also wanted, in addition to warning
the general public, or at least the literate public, against
the danger of witchcraft, he also wanted this book to
give him the official authority to hunt witches. And again,
(09:58):
this guy has somewhat of a myopic focus, but it
also has some alarmist nature to it. It doesn't. Over
the what two hundred and fifty six pages, it attempts
to do several things. First, it wants to prove that
witches and witchcraft are real. Don't be deceived. They are real.
(10:19):
They're out to get you. Second, building from that and
says these witches are real, they are infernal, they work
with demonic forces, so therefore they must be killed. And
then third, it wants to convince readers that not only
are witches real, not only are they dangerous, but they
are a sign of the apocalypse, the end of the world.
(10:40):
And it does a really interesting thing that creates a
real conundrum for when these witch trials start going completely bonkers.
It um points out that the Bible says there are witches. Therefore,
if you don't believe in witches, you are an accessory
to their evil crimes. Yeah, similar to the old Edmund
(11:01):
Burke quote the only thing necessary for the triumph of
evil is for good men to do nothing. Only even
further right, Because this is literally saying if you think
it means, you know, if if if you're standing up
for the truth and saying that this is not real,
this there is no witchcraft, or this person definitely is
not a witch, then they can accuse you of being
(11:22):
a heretic yourself simply for not believing what you're supposed
to believe. If you're not with us, you're against us,
against us. Okay, So if we divide the book we
talked about kind of three aims of the book, we
can also divide the work into three rough sections. The
(11:44):
first is, as we said, this explanation that which is
a real they are dangerous. The second is a guide
for the experts the clergy on how to recognize a witch.
And they get pretty specific, you know, like devil's marks,
which could be anything from a mole to scar right,
certain types of behavior or things that occur in their communities.
(12:05):
And then the third part. The final part is a
legal manual for how to properly accuse and persecute a
which and if finding them guilty spoiler alert, very few
people were found innocent to give them the death penalty.
And in the work, there's a really interesting bit of
double think here because the authors say that you shouldn't
(12:29):
be deceived if someone appears to be weak. They say,
in fact, the weak people are the most dangerous, which
is and what this meant is that a lot of
times people who lived on the fringes of society because
they were say mentally ill or they're very poor, they
became the number one targets. And then also we have
(12:50):
to face the facts. Uh. I'm pulling some of this
from a really excellent podcast called fifteen Minute History, with
an episode on witch hunting in Europe. The guests on
this episode has got named John E. Green, professor in
history at the University of Texas and Austin, and he
points out that a lot of times persecuting which has
(13:14):
made things even worse for the community because people who
would be considered witches would be like medical practitioners. Literally
the only healthcare in the village or in the town
or midwives, and you know, let's say a birth goes
wrong through no no fault of the midwife. If you don't,
(13:36):
depending on their luck, they may be accused of purposely
killing the child. Or if you're treating someone who has
a disease and they don't get better because hey, it's
an incurable disease, then they flipped the script and say
they're not better, not because leprosy is incurable at the time,
but because you're a witch. How what what a what
a horrible position to be in literally being the like
(13:58):
first line of defense for helping people and opening yourself
up to this kind of scrutiny and ridicule. It reminds
me of that scene for talking about the tests and
like the things that were contained in this book, which
is also the kinds of tortures and how you should
go about torturing a witch to get a proper confession.
But it reminds me of that scene in Monty Python
the Holy Grail where they're trying to see if it's
(14:19):
a witch and they're like, does wood sink in water? No,
it floats, so then throw in the water and see
if she floats. What else floats in water? A duck,
and then the king is like, so if she weighs
the same as a duck, then she's a witch. It's
like this kind of circular logic. You know, this is satire, obviously,
but that's the kind of stuff that was in this book.
(14:39):
And this book, although maybe it's started out as somewhat
of a specialized tool, this book becomes a wildly popular, right.
It goes through what twenty eight editions. I think there
are more than thirty thousand copies circulated throughout Europe. Yeah,
I think it's sold more copies than any book but
the Bible up until which is insane, especially when you
(15:04):
consider what a pain it was to make a book
at that time. So this also gets some endorsement from
the papacy itself, the Pope issues of Papal bull. It's
a document that the Pope signs themselves stating the official
church opinion. And this is pre publication though, right, It's
(15:25):
like he kind of sanctioned them to do this research,
and this bull was included in the in the printing. Yes, yeah,
and this book Hexama is the only do all right,
thanks man. This book is the only work of its
kind to receive the official approval of the Catholic Church.
(15:45):
Now people will tell you that there's some fairly convincing,
circumstantial evidence that Kramer bribed the Pope to condone The
Hammer of the Witches. Yeah. I also read somewhere that
it's not even specifically about the Hammer of the Witches,
that they sort of almost like fudged it a little
(16:06):
bit to make it seem like it was more about that,
but it was actually a little broader and not specifically
condoning everything that they were putting forth in this book.
But it's like the best New York Times book review
you could possibly get, are the best celebrity endorsement you
can ever imagine having, is having this thing included inside
your book jacket cover. Pope says, good to go. You know,
(16:30):
this is this is the this is the one. Yeah.
It's kind of like having writing a book about how
to be a better person and having uh an endorsement
from Mr Rogers or something. Not quite because we're talking
about God, you know, in divinity. But while we're talking
about fudging this, there's an interesting thing we we mentioned.
(16:50):
Jacob Springer or Johann Springer as he's often called. He
was in later editions mentioned as a collaborator, but now
with days, a lot of historians believe that his name
was just added as kind of an endorsement. Springer. Yeah,
that's right, that's right. I read that too, and that
he didn't actually have much to do with the creation
(17:13):
of the book, sort of like how Quentin Tarantino air
quotes presented the Man with the Iron Fist directed by Rizza,
and Tarantino didn't really have anything to do with probably
hung out, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure he probably had
a chair with his name on it, said, and he
probably made a rant about something in pop culture. But
that's just what he does. Yeah, that's just kind of
(17:34):
how Quintin is totally. So what was the what were
the bona fides of Springer? Again, Ben, I'm sorry if
he said it, Just help help me out. I want
to understand a little better. Yeah, he was dean of
the University of Cologne in Germany, and he was also
a friar of some note. And here's the thing, the
bull itself, it was more intended to confirm powers that
(18:00):
inquisitors or that a guy named Henry in Staturus and
James Springer who were inquisitors already have to quote deal
with persons of every class and with every form of crime,
for example, with witchcraft as being heresy. And it called
upon the Bishop of Strasbourg to lend um. This is
(18:21):
a quote from the from the Bull, lend inquisitors all
possible support. And the reason that Kramer enlisted Springer was
because Springer's name is actually in the Bull. But it
had nothing to do with the book. It was more
about seeking out witchcraft and prosecuting it in general, because
the law had changed where I believe it used to
(18:43):
be more a church specifically a church duty to seek
these things out, but then it kind of became more
of a municipal thing. And when we start seeing the
crazy panic of witch hunt pandemonium, that's because it became
a lot easier to do. Yeah, that's that's the thing,
(19:04):
And I think that's that's well put. We would be
remiss if we didn't mention that one of the things
clearly condoned by the book is torture. Oh yeah, horrific torture. Yeah.
Cramer's favorite was something called the strapato, which is a
device that attaches to the wrist and pulls some upwards,
so the victims hang by their arms until their arms dislocated. Yeah,
(19:27):
anytime we talk about this kind of stuff, I just
get the the hebe gebs so bad, like the thumb screws,
the ones that would literally shred your hands, you know,
by like these vices that your hands would go in.
And there was one that was some kind of like
helmet you would put on with like a drill that
would go right into your forehead. Um, just barbaric stuff.
(19:48):
And another thing that was in the in the book
was a caveat saying you don't have to tell the
person you're accusing who accused them. Right. It also recommends,
oddly enough, deception in order to obtain confessions. So there's
a quote here where it says, and when the implements
(20:08):
of torture have been prepared, the judge, both in person
and through other good men, zealous and the faith, tries
to persuade the prisoner to confess the truth freely. But
if he will not confess, he bid attendance, make the
prisoner fast to the strapado or other implement of torture.
The attendance obey forthwith yet with feigned agitation. Then at
(20:29):
the prayer of some of those present, the prisoners loosed
again and taken aside and once more persuaded to confess,
being led to believe that he will, in that case
not be put to death. That's why so many people confess,
because they got tortured for some amount of time and
then they got pulled aside and someone said, hey, look,
if you just come clean about this, it can end now.
(20:51):
Of course you don't have to die. And we already
know this about military interrogation, that interrogation under torture does
not yield uh results that are reliable, because people will
say anything if you'll stop doing the horrible thing to them,
right exactly. And that's I mean, it's the I hate
to say it, but torture is the tale as old
(21:12):
as time. And didn't they also talk about the quote
unquote more carnal inherent nature of women. Absolutely, that's what
we're talking about the top of the show. UM, I
feel like that's something it's inherent in this whole persecution
of women for witchcraft. But yes, it carries over into
this codified you know, book of all of these different techniques. Um.
(21:34):
I was watching a documentary on this book on History Channel,
and I forget the guy's name, but he was a
scholar who specifically studies this work, and he pointed out
all of these very charged words that were used in
the text, the words that didn't have to use and
they were Latin obviously, um, but words that would mean
something like disgusting or filth, you know, as opposed to
(21:56):
just um, you know, not good, like very chart large
language or a word that meant um, a temptress or
some kind of adulteress, you know. Where it was like,
this is what these women will turn men into through
their uh you know which Lee Wiles or whatever. So
very charged language, very much within with a position, you know.
(22:18):
And additionally, it's important to know there's a different definition
of seduction at play here. It's completely possible, for instance,
for someone to have uh sexually assaulted an innocent person
in a village and then say, I'm a good Christian man.
She seduced me through the use of witchcraft. Course, so
(22:41):
in addition to me attacking her as a punishment her powers,
she should be put to death. It reminds me of
the story we did about women being incarcerated for having
sexually transmitted diseases, where that was flipped as well. And
used by men to treat like men would give women
these sexually transmit diseases and then act like they had
(23:01):
given it to them, or use it to ostracize them
in some way. There was one story I believe where
a man like left a woman on the side of
the road or something like that. It's another one of
these really power dynamics that is again tail as old
as time, and we see it all codified in this
book here, like this is the way to do it.
(23:24):
There's a pretty interesting argument from Atlas Obscure by Sarah
last Cow about about the hammer of the witches, which,
you know what, while we're at it, shouldn't it be
the hammer for the witches? Just grammatically the witches do
not have the power, right. So what they found was
that the Malics Maleficarum was once thought to be the
(23:47):
handbook for witch hunters, but more recent research has found
that maybe it wasn't as influential as we initially thought.
Because you're right and all that um that Aprile Bull
from four eighty four the book was written in four six,
published in fourteen eight seven, that Papal Bull allows witchcraft prosecutions.
(24:09):
But as you said, doesn't specifically say this is the book,
but it named that guy Springer, which is the reason
that Kramer needed to have him as his co author,
because that allowed him to use that as a manipulation.
And I think we've made it clear. But this thing
caught on like wildfire and spread even to like the
New World, right, you know, which is where the Salem
stuff comes in. I mean, this became a thing and
(24:30):
it was literally this like best seller, but not just
one that people were talking about around the water cooler.
This actually caused the deaths of what was that figure
at the top of the show, Ben all the thousands
of women the early modern period, approximately a hundred thousand,
fifty thousand of whom that's excuse me, however, stated the
number of got you got? I think I said hundreds
(24:51):
of that, but hundreds of thousands of women who were
persecuted and a lesser number who were actually killed, but
in the most gruesome and horrific ways. Eventually, and to
the point about the perceived importance of the book, as
it was catching on with the public, it looks like
some members of the clergy were becoming increasingly I don't know,
(25:14):
skeptical of the book would be oddly enough a good word.
Leaders of the Spanish Inquisition didn't put too much stock
in the Hammer, and by at least the fifteen thirties
they were actively warning their own officials away from it
because maybe they saw it as sort of a personal
mission of Cramer's, maybe a little more self interest than
(25:36):
public interest. But it was still influential enough that people
would commission specific copies of it. And I guess it's
important for us to mention that while the vast majority
of people prosecuted for witchcraft were women, there were dudes
in there too, and they were also put to death.
It was kind of anything goes. Um, I've got a
(25:56):
couple of resources that I'd like to plug really quick,
interested in finding out more about this stuff. Um. I
know you and I both love the film The which
I feel like that displays these attitudes very strongly. There's
a young girl character who kind of is represents that
sexuality that we're talking about, and there's some kind of
(26:16):
telling shots that show that that's not only an issue
for the man, it's an issue for the mother, because
the mother is almost even as much um threatened by
that as as any you know, authority figure male might
be and that becomes a theme, and this idea of
a witch harming crops or livestock is represented, and just
(26:38):
the kind of idea of this which being is it real?
Is it not real? Is it just religious zelotry? Run
a muck. That's the thing that's fun about that movie.
But there's also the subtle argument for air got poison.
That's right, that's right, that they're all hallucinating on some
kind of poisoned crop, poisoned corn that has hoots and
(27:00):
genic effects um, which is one of the the UH
possible explanations for the Salem which trials which here and
how stuff works are Buddy Matt works on a show
about Salem called Unobscure with Aaron Manky of lore fame
and our pal Alex Williams, who composed our theme. And now, thankfully,
(27:21):
UH this book is surprise, surprise, no longer considered an
authoritative UH an authoritative guide to persecuting people for perceived
supernatural ability. Yeah, you don't hear so much about people burning,
which is anymore, thankfully, But you know there are still
which hunts of other varieties, and all this stuff is
very interesting to learn from and apply to modern day
(27:45):
um politics and things, which is something that they parallel
in that show un Obscured that we're talking about. And
for his part, Kramer kept writing and preaching until he
died in Bohemia in fifteen o five. His gambit to
increase his reputation or maybe to justify his failed attempts
(28:07):
at witch hunting, did seem to succeed. It's weird because
we said the Papal bull on persecution witchcraft was published
in the edition, but we didn't mention that by four
ninety the church had officially condemned the Hammer of the witches.
(28:28):
Was it because they were genuinely concerned for the damage
it was doing to communities? Or was it because he
was late with yet another bribe that we don't know? Well,
what we do know is that there was rampant corruption
in the Catholic Church and the papacy, and you know,
likely still is given what we know about some of
the scandals that that keep coming to light. So it's uh,
(28:51):
you know, the more things change and all that, and
this brings us to where's the silver lining here? Then
we need a silver lining. I have a comic recommendation.
See that's why the comic recommendation is helpful. It's our
insurance player. Yeah, okay, So I'm a fan of murky
and dark stuff, and I would like to recommend today
the comic Sir Edward Gray Witch Finder. So, no, you
(29:15):
you you know hell Boy and maybe Baltimore and all
those other things. I know hell Boy? Okay? So which
Finder is a spinoff from hell Boy and it concerns
a guy named Sir Edward Gray who is the Queen's
official expert on all things supernatural because of various interactions
(29:39):
he has had saving people from the nefarious activities of witches.
Edward Gray does not spoiler alert use the hammer of
the Witches the hex Muhamma. But it's a great story.
As a matter of fact, man, if you want to
borrow some of the trades, I have them, sure, as
soon as I returned lock and Key to you. That's right,
(30:00):
can't I can't be in double Dutch to you comic
book wise? Oh, I think he is so great. But
that's my comic recommendation for today. As far as we know,
there is not Thank Goodness, a graphic novel adaptation of
the nalias Malefic Cara. I think the Constantine comics are
really fun. That's great, and it's involves a lot of
different supernatural exploration and things like that. Um, I've always
(30:24):
been a huge fan of Sandman and Neil Gaiman's work,
and Constantine was in that briefly, and he has his
own series that's really great and has Witchcraft and Devilry
and uh Lucifer and all of these great deities and
but they have real personality, so that that's a fun one.
I wouldn't bother with the movie with Keanu Reeves. I would.
I would watch the movie after reading the comics are
(30:46):
just recognize it's a very different thing. And I have
heard that the TV series that got canceled was okay,
but I I liked it. I didn't see it. I
liked it. To whomever they picked to be the lead
actor for that the protagonist, he's got to be real.
Cockney can't be Kiana genuinely looks like John Postite. Counters
is a weird choice. There's a weird choice. I hear.
He's a great guy, though, you know, he seems like
(31:08):
a lovely dude. That's sad. Keanu on the bench meme
is is just delightful. There we go now, we're in,
you know, on a better note, we just had to
make ourselves cheer off. I think that's what it was.
We hope that it worked for you as well, Ridiculous historians.
Thank you so much for tuning in. Thanks to our
super producer, an avowed opponent of witch Hunt's, Casey Pegro.
(31:28):
Thanks to our research pal Gabe Lucier for hipping us
to some of the details in this kind of depressing
but incredible story. Um. We already thanked Alex, we did,
but we get to think him do it again. It
was weird thinking amount of context. No, I think it
was great. You know. I still I feel like we
should let him know that we still do this because
you said he just nodded once. That's just what he does.
(31:50):
He's just he's I mean that as accompliment. But both
he and our long suffering buddy Matt Um both work
on this sail show and I'm scared with Aaron Mangy.
So check that out if you want to do a
deep dive into the Salem witch trials and how it
kind of dovetails a bit with American politics right now.
It's a very interesting show. Um, and thanks to you
(32:11):
Ben for being a friend. Thanks to you, Noel, and
thanks to everyone in society who decided to stop burning
people alive the yeah yeah, I think that deserves it.
Thank you, and stay tuned for our next episode. We
can't tell you what it is yet for various reasons,
(32:32):
because because we don't know. Primarily it's because we haven't
picked one yet, but we can promise that we hope
it will be interesting. It'll be an episode. See it then, folks,
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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