The Hammer of Witches

In this episode, Nic and Molly discuss the infamous witch-hunting text, the Malleus Maleficarum, which means "The Hammer of Witches" in English. The book was first written around 1486 by two men who were part of the Inquisition. They were tasked with identifying, prosecuting, and punishing suspected witches. This book was their manifesto about how witchcraft worked, how people could identify witches, how they might protect themselves against their powers, and how these witches should be punished (spoiler alert: the punishment was usually death). In this episode, we focus on how the authors of this text understood the mind by looking at their descriptions of demonic possession brought on by witches. Look for our next episode -- episode 9 -- which will focus on a different aspect of the same book.