May 20, 2025 • 29 mins
Welcome back to the Witch Hunt Podcast. This is episode 2 in The Evolution of Diabolical Witchcraft Belief. If you're just joining us, we recommend checking out Part 1 first, though this episode can certainly stand on its own.
This marks the continuation of our conversation with Professor Richard Raiswell of the University of Prince Edward Island, who previously joined us for our fascinating "Speak of the Devil" episode where we explored Satan as one of history's most enduring and complex figures.
In Part 1 of we began examining the critical relationship that developed between demons and witchcraft specifically in the 15th century. Now in Part 2, we'll delve deeper into how this connection became the driving force behind the witch hunts that devastated communities across Europe.
Professor Raiswell continues to guide us through how theological concepts about Satan evolved into specific accusations and persecution mechanisms. His expertise in medieval devil lore brings clarity to one of history's darkest chapters.
Remember, both parts of this special episode are available now wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for joining us as we continue this chilling and fascinating exploration of how demonology fueled witch persecution. Both Part 1 and Part 2 are available now wherever you get your podcasts.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to Witch Hunt Podcast.
I'm Josh Hutchinson. And I'm Sarah Jack, if you're
just joining us, we're in the middle of our special double
feature with Professor Richard Rizwell.
That's right, this is Part 2 of our conversation with Professor
Rizwell from the University of Prince Edward Island, continuing
our exploration of the critical relationship between demonology
(00:22):
and witch persecution. In Part 1, we began examining
how beliefs about demons became intrinsically linked with
witchcraft accusations in the 15th century.
Professor Raiswell, who many of you will remember from our Speak
of the Devil episode, brings hisexpertise in Medieval Devil Lord
to help us understand this pivotal historical development.
(00:44):
Now, in Part 2, we'll begin our exploration into the history of
the Malleus Maleficarum. We'll explore how many of the
tropes about witch hunting either developed in the Malleus
or were reiterated by the Malleus.
If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, we recommend starting
there, although this episode cancertainly stand on its own.
(01:07):
Both episodes are available now wherever you get your podcasts,
so let's. Rejoin our conversation with
Professor Raiswell as we continue our examination of the
demonic and witchcraft beliefs that led to the Malaise
Malefochar. How does the Maleus maleficarum
fit in? While the Auroras Gazzariorum
(01:27):
had said that witches could be male and female, witchcraft
becomes increasingly more gendered, and you see that right
from the start on the title pageof the maleus maleficarum.
Because maleficarum is a feminine noun in Latin, it would
be maleficorum if it was masculine.
(01:49):
And the way gendered languages work, if you've got 500 women
and one man, you always use the masculine form.
So this text is the hammer of evil doing women or the hammer
of witches. The Melius is a very bad book.
I don't just mean that it's morally repugnant.
(02:10):
It's actually very poorly written, and some of the
theological arguments that they make are really not very clever.
And this is made worse by the fact that what most people use
in the Anglophone world when they're looking at the malleus
is the translation, which was done in 1928 by a guy called
(02:33):
Montague Summers. This is the translation that you
can find available on the Internet or through sort of
fairly lavish editions on Amazonor whatever.
Leaving aside the fact that the translation doesn't read very
well at all, Summers translated the Maleus because he believed
(02:55):
the kinds of witchcraft the Maleus described was still real
in 1928. In the preface to his edition of
the Maleus, he says witchcraft is an evil thing, an enemy to
light and allies, the powers of darkness, of disruption and
decay. It is a vast political movement,
(03:18):
an organized society which was antisocial and anarchical, A
worldwide plot against civilization.
He says the text does have some problems, but he says that they
are trifling blemishes. His language.
But the essential message remains relevant today, with its
(03:40):
Bolsheviks and anarchists, as itwas in 1486 when it appeared.
Some of the misogyny, he says, is a touch extreme.
But he continues. And again, this is his language.
It is a wholesome and needful antidote to the current
feministic age with its confounding of the sexes.
(04:04):
Obviously anybody who approachesa translation of a document like
with those sorts of biases is going to produce a very stilted
translation. We have a very good English
language translation, which was done by a colleague at
(04:26):
University of Alberta. Christopher McKay came out in
2009. It is absolutely first rate.
But one of the things McKay makes clear in his translation,
it's the authors of the Malleus were writing very, very fast and
they were really, really sloppy.They are lifting stuff from
(04:48):
other sources, which is absolutely fine for the period.
I mean, nowadays you say plagiarism, it's not on.
I can't do that in my work, but it's absolutely fine by 15th
century standards. But they're lifting stuff from
manuals about prosecuting heretics, which are all written
in the masculine, and frequentlythey are just so sloppy they
(05:10):
don't even bother to turn the nouns feminine.
So when you read Summers's translation, he turns everything
feminine, which sort of makes the malleus look even worse than
it is. I mean, it's incredibly bad
book, but it's incredibly sloppytoo.
And frequently said frequently, nouns in the Malleys are
(05:33):
masculine when you'd expect feminine given the perspective
of the authors. To understand the book, I think
it's very important to understand the circumstances in
which it's written. When it was printed, it was
attributed to a theologian from the University of Cologne in
northwest Germany named Jacobus Springer and another unnamed
(05:59):
collaborator. Inside the text, it's clear that
the other collaborator is a guide called Heinrichus
Instutaurus, or Heinrich Kramer in German.
Modern scholars argue that the work is largely the work of
Instutaurus, and some have gone so far as to suggest that
Springer actually had nothing todo.
(06:21):
I think that's going too far. As McKay points out in his
translation, one of the things the authors of the Malleys did
is they they submitted it to thetheology faculty at the
University of Cologne, said, what do you think of this book?
Springer is on the faculty, the theology faculty at the
University of Cologne. If Incetoris had actually just
(06:43):
attributed it to somebody who had nothing to do with the book,
he would have noticed. So Springer certainly had
something to do with the text, but what he had to do with we
don't know. It's quite likely that
instatorists wrote nearly all ofit.
Springer is an academic. His only other work is a book
(07:05):
about praying the rosary. That's it.
So he writes, he's involved in abook about the prosecution of
witches, and he's got no one about praying the rosary.
He probably doesn't have that much to do with it.
Maybe he's involved in a bit of a theology.
Instotaurus is quite a differentman.
(07:25):
He's a theologian, he's a university Dr. So he's got the
equivalent of a PhD in theology,but he's fundamentally A
practical man. He's interested in preaching.
He's concerned with rooting out heresy, and we know that he's
engaged as an inquisitor, rooting out heresy in parts of
(07:46):
the German lands as early as 1467.
Got a letter from the late 1470swhere the Pope describes him as
a man notable for his zeal for religion, his knowledge of
letters. So his he's well read, his
integrity of life, his constancyof faith, along with various
(08:06):
other praiseworthy virtues and merits.
Yeah, it's not really the whole story.
He seems to have been widely disliked.
He faced punishment a couple of times himself. 1484 he gets into
trouble for slandering the Holy Roman Emperor.
Don't do that. It's just generally not a good
idea. And in 1482 he seems to have
(08:28):
been accused of embezzling moneyor collected to fund a crusade
against the Ottoman Turks. Nevertheless, in 1474, he
becomes appointed as an Inquisitor for the southern
regions of modern day Germany, plus Switzerland and western
(08:49):
Austria. So that eastern side of that
area where witchcraft accusations are beginning.
And it's in that capacity that he shows up in Ravensburg in
1484. What's happened?
So Radvensburg is in southwest Germany.
It's a lovely little town in southwest Germany.
It's about two hours from Munich.
(09:11):
A couple of months earlier, there'd been a severe freak
hailstorm that hit the town. The hailstorm had destroyed the
crops in the field and it ruinedthe city's vineyards.
According to the accounts, it was going to take a good two
years for the town to recover agriculturally.
(09:32):
So this is a devastating event. But this was just the latest
round of bad luck that had hit the city.
There'd been freak weather events for the past couple of
summers, torrential rains. There'd even been an outbreak of
plague. But in the summer of 1484,
people are beginning to think something is up.
(09:54):
Many people begin to state publicly that they think that
this disaster must be a result of some sort of harmful spells.
And so there's a public clamour in the marketplace about this.
People are talking. What's going on?
Why have we been hit by such badluck?
In response to this public outcry, the chaplain of the big
(10:18):
local church, Manly called Johannes Grandpa, called for the
matter to be investigated by theInquisition, and he requested,
it seems to be specifically thatInsta tourists be invited to the
city to investigate. What we haven't appreciated
before is that insta tourists had actually been to the city 10
(10:43):
years early, back in 1475. He'd been sent there by the
Bishop of Trent. Trent is in northern Italy.
The Bishop of Trent was being investigated by the Pope.
Bishop of Trent had just executed 13 Jews after the
discovery of the body of a 2 year old Christian boy named
(11:07):
Simon. This is a classic example of
what's called the blood libel, the idea that Jews kill
Christian children to use their blood to use their bodies in
demonic rituals. The Bishop of Trent had executed
various Jews after the propagation of a blood libel in
his city. All of this of course is
(11:28):
anti-Semitic garbage. Never happens, but these
accusations lead to many in the Jewish community in Trent being
killed. In response to these executions
in Trent, various members of theJewish community in other towns
petitioned the Pope and various other high-ranking church
(11:50):
officials to investigate what had happened.
They say that the Bishop went after the Jews in Trent in order
to get his hands on their money.To defend himself against this
accusation, the Bishop of Trent seems to have enlisted
Instatorus. He said to Instatorus go to
(12:11):
Ravensburg because back in 1428 they did the same thing.
There was a blood libel in Ravensburg In 1428.
Again, a Christian boy was foundin Ravensburg.
He was found hanging from a tree.
The local Jewish community was blamed for it.
Whole pilot people were executed.
(12:32):
So Incitorus is sent by the Bishop of Trent to go to
Ravensburg. He goes to Ravensburg, he meets
various people who were involvedin executing all of these Jews
in Ravensburg and they attest everything we did was legal.
It was a blockboard. Nobody got their hands on the
money of these Jews. It was because they were guilty.
(12:52):
So Incitorus collects all of this and gives it to the Bishop
of Trent in his defence in Trent.
So the point is that when Grampacalls Insta tourists to
investigate in 1484, he's a known commodity in the city.
They know what they're getting. It's just not some random guy
they've called in who happens tobe some sort of zealot.
(13:13):
This is somebody they know of already.
So what happens when Insta Tourists comes to Ravensburg?
So he comes to Ravensburg and heseems to spend several days
preaching in the city's main church about the evils of
sorcery and about witchcraft. So what he's doing is he's
(13:34):
priming the people. They start thinking in these
terms. Then he invites anybody with
knowledge or suspicion, or who has heard rumours about people
using unnatural means to harm other people or their animals.
He wants them to come forward and to make a legal deposition
(13:55):
against them. And according to the accounts, a
great number of people gave depositions.
We don't know how many have justsays a great number of people.
On the basis of this, at least three women, maybe as many as
six, and the reasons for that I'll make clear in a minute, are
(14:15):
arrested and taken into custody.And of these, he starts
interrogations with the two women who are arrested, who are
of lowest status. They're described as Agnes, the
bathkeeper, and Anna of Mendelheim.
In the presence of Greg, the mayor, and other members of the
(14:38):
town council. The two of them are subjected to
what the source says is the lightest torture, and both of
them confessed quickly. They confessed to having
intercourse with incubi, so maledemons.
Agnes says that she'd been doingthis regularly for 18 years.
(15:00):
Anna said she'd been doing it for 20 years.
Agnes also admitted to having caused the hailstorm that had
hit the city. She said that she'd been
summoned by her demon to come outside the town and to bring
with her a bowl of water. The demon told her to dig a
hole, to pour the water in, and then to stir the water with her
(15:21):
finger, invoking the name of thedemon himself.
The water promptly disappeared into the air, and then an hour
later, this great storm begin. Agnes also admitted to using
witchcraft to harm various people in the town, burying the
bones of animals under the threshold of their house.
(15:44):
When Anna was interrogated, she admitted much the same thing on
the third day after their arrest.
They're handed over to the town's secular authorities and
they're burned. Churchmen don't execute, they
hand people over to the secular authorities.
Churchmen technically can't shedblood, so they just pass
(16:06):
sentence and they hand them overto the secular authorities for
carrying out sentence. Before she dies, Agnes made a
full confession of all of her crimes, and she died in the
flames embracing the cross. Anna would not confess, and she
died slandering and cursing the town's Christian folk.
(16:29):
And after that, Instatoris leaves.
Now, remember I said that there were at least three, maybe as
many six women that were arrested as a result of this.
The other or others are still injail when Instatorus leaves.
One of them is the wife of the local locksmith, and she's
(16:50):
released days after Instatorus leaves.
What she does is she swears out what's called an aufaider.
This is a formal legal document which requires the accused to be
released on condition that they do not sue anybody who has sworn
(17:13):
out accusations against. And she's also required in
swearing out this ofeda to produce a certain number of
guarantors who prepared to pledge to her good behaviour and
they're liable if she does try to take revenge on those people
who are accused. So this document is sworn out
(17:36):
just days after insta tourists left, and given that this
locksmith's wife is required to provide guarantor with
reputation to stand up with for her, this suggests that while
some people have accused her of witchcraft, she was actually
fairly well connected social. She was charged, so she's maybe
(18:01):
a bit dubious, but she's got enough connections because
they're all male connections. She's got enough male people of
status to swear that she is a decent woman in the end.
By contrast, this must mean thatAgnes and Anna, who were
executed, didn't have those sorts of guarantors.
If Sartoris says in the Malleus,then when you begin witchcraft
(18:24):
prosecutions, you always begin with the easiest cases because
they're likely to confess, and that'll implicate other people.
So the case against the locksmith is not one.
If Sartoris touched, he expectedthe local church authorities to
go after her. But they don't.
We've got Elfeda relating to witchcraft related offences from
(18:46):
14861489 and 1490. What we don't know is whether
these women were women who were caught up in the Inquisition
that insta tourists started up in 1484.
Jail in the Middle Ages is not apunishment.
It's a place where you're held until you're punished.
(19:08):
Punishment is is physical, it's either corporeal or it's
execution at some level. So the one who swears out Nofeda
in 1490, she would, if this was related to Incituris's
Inquisition, she would have beenin jail for six years.
That's really unusual. So we just don't know what what
(19:30):
happened with these three other women.
It's either that they were caught up in Incituris
Inquisition, or there's more stuff happening which we don't
know, which is absolutely possible.
So what this shows is that people's position in society,
masses, some people are insulated if they've got
(19:51):
connections into society, particularly male society
obviously. And what happens when Instatorus
goes to Innsbruck? So he's in Revensburg in 1484.
He shows up in Innsbruck in July1485, and we frankly don't know
why he ends up there. There's not a big hailstorm in
(20:13):
Innsbruck or anything like that.But he shows up in Innsbruck in
July, late July 1485, and he again begins by preaching.
He preaches apparently for 15 days straight.
I mean, not all the time, but hepreaches for 15 days about the
evils of witchcraft. So again, he's priming the pump.
(20:35):
People are predisposed to thinking in these terms.
And then, as he did in Ramsburg,he invites people with knowledge
or suspicion of witchcraft to make depositions in front of
him. And these depositions absolutely
have to be secret. The secrecy is absolutely vital
(20:56):
for him. And this process apparently
takes six weeks. 64 people show up and make depositions.
They accuse a total of 46 different women.
Now. An outsider coming to town and
initiating legal proceedings against a large number of people
(21:17):
requires the support of the local community.
I mean, it's the. Tourist doesn't have any troops
with him. He needs the consent of the
local community. The local Bishop is meant to
help him, and initially the local Bishop does.
But as the. Investigations get going.
The Bishop has problems with theway Instatorus is handling
(21:40):
things. The Bishop wants Instatorus to
let the accused know who had sworn out depositions against
them. That's absolutely standard in
the legal system that they are used.
But Instatorus doesn't want these names public because
witchcraft is a secret crime. If you think about it, if you're
(22:04):
accused of murder, the murderingstops when you're in jail,
right? You're not going to murder
anybody in jail. So we can know who accused you
of murder. But witchcraft doesn't work that
way. You could be sitting in jail and
you could be taking revenge on the people who've fitted you up.
So the danger doesn't stop just because these people are in
(22:26):
jail. So it's tourists insists that
the names, the people who've accused these women, be secret.
So there's a tension here between the Bishop who's
insisting upon normal legal procedure, and it's the tourist
who's trying to do something different already.
From all of. These depositions, it's the
(22:49):
tourist decides to move forward with six cases, get convictions
on these first six as he'd done in Randensburg, and then he can
go off and leave the local Bishop to deal with all the
others. What happens here is really
strange because what happens is the Bishop hires the best lawyer
(23:11):
around to work to defend the women accused of witchcraft, and
the lawyer does what lawyers do.He immediately begins by saying
you're now following proper legal procedure and he tries to
have her incitorus replaced. As an Inquisitor, you're not up
to the job. You're making this up as you go
(23:33):
along. This isn't proper.
So he tries to. Have them replaced as
Inquisitor. He even tries at one point to
get him arrested. That doesn't work.
But eventually what the lawyer does is ends up appealing the
case to Rome, says in Sartoris. You're just not handling it
(23:54):
right. We're going to appeal this all
the way over your head to the Pope proper in Sartoris says
fine, that's you're right. But meanwhile we're going to get
things going here. And as soon as it tries to get
the trial going, it just breaks down in chaos.
It just. Completely collapses and the
(24:14):
women who had been arrested we're all released.
They were released in November 1485.
Now, there's a lot going on behind the scenes that we just
don't know about, but there seems to be a good amount of
local opposition to Insta tourists.
If you go around and you're accusing 46 women, that's a lot
(24:36):
of male relatives, a lot of friends who you've suddenly made
very, very angry. And it's clear that the Bishop
is playing to some of this opposition somehow.
We don't know very much about it.
Instatorus, though, doesn't leave.
He's still in town as late as the 9th of February 1486,
(24:58):
because the Bishop writes to himon the 9th of February 1486.
And he said, I can't guarantee your safety here anymore.
If you're smart, you'll leave. And he seems to have done that.
In fact, in that letter, it's quite amusing.
He calls Instatorus effectively senile, even though Instatorus
would have been only about 55. It's the Taurus leaves Innsbruck
(25:20):
in February 1486. The Malleus is printed, or at
least is ready to be printed by December 1486.
This is the context. So he is really, really angry.
He's writing this text because he's been humiliated and he's
absolutely convinced that what he's discovered is a vast
(25:42):
demonic conspiracy, and the bulkof Bishop of all people are in
league with these people. So this is an angry book, and
most of it seems to be written very fast in this sort of
fallout period from when the prosecution collapses in
November to the book appearing towards the end of December and
(26:03):
the very next year and the end of December 1486.
So it's written in a fit of pique, as it were, quickly and
slaughtily, and according to what sources he has to hand.
The point I'm going? To make about the Malleus is
that it's a very defensive book.Some of the things that they try
to make you think that this bookis better than it is, they try
(26:27):
to make you think that it's approved by the Pope and it
absolutely isn't. In fact, the theology faculty of
Cologne, even though one of his,one of the authors is there.
So yeah, it's all right. Theologians sign on and say,
yeah, I agree with what the Deansays.
They're not rigging endorsements, OK.
It's the imagination. It's just that the importance of
(26:49):
the book is when it shows up, and it shows up right at the
beginning of printing, so it spreads widely.
And the last part of the book, the theology, as I'll argue, is
pretty, pretty thin. But the last part, third part is
a do it yourself guide to running an inquisition.
(27:11):
It's even got the what we would call forms to fill in sample
forms. You want to do a deposition.
This is how it looks. Copy this out.
And I think that even 100 years later when the book is still
being printed, I don't think they're reading the theology.
I think they're using it becauseit's handy as a legal guide.
(27:32):
Thank you for enjoying this week's Double Double episodes
next. Week you'll be treated to
another Raise Well, double feature and.
Next week's double feature is jam packed with more history of
the Malaise Malfacarum the Witch's.
Hammer, Hexen Hammer, Have a great today and a beautiful
tomorrow. The Salem Witch Trials resulted
(27:56):
in witchcraft accusations against more than 150 people and
the executions of 20. So what went wrong?
We explore this and other facetsof the witch hunt in our new
podcast, The Thing About Salem, premiering June 1st.
The Thing about? Salem offers Bite Sides episodes
in both video and audio formats that you can enjoy in 15 minutes
(28:19):
or less. I'm Josh Hutchinson.
I'm Sarah. Jack, our ancestors experienced
the Salem witch trials. And here's a little taste of
what you can expect from the Thing About Salem.
Possibly. Doctor William Griggs decides
that the girls, oh, they're not sick in a natural way.
(28:44):
They're under an evil hand, justlike that one, Sarah.
So what does it mean that they're under an evil hand?
The Devil. Has come to Salem.
The devil's in Salem each week. The thing about Salem brings you
information on a thing from the witch trials.
(29:08):
Episodes. Will stream on YouTube and all
podcast platforms. To get ready, find
usoutaboutsalem.com. Be sure to join us for Episode 1
on June 1st.
Welcome back to Witch Hunt Podcast.
I'm Josh Hutchinson. And I'm Sarah Jack, if you're
just joining us, we're in the middle of our special double
feature with Professor Richard Rizwell.
That's right, this is Part 2 of our conversation with Professor
Rizwell from the University of Prince Edward Island, continuing
our exploration of the critical relationship between demonology
(00:22):
and witch persecution. In Part 1, we began examining
how beliefs about demons became intrinsically linked with
witchcraft accusations in the 15th century.
Professor Raiswell, who many of you will remember from our Speak
of the Devil episode, brings hisexpertise in Medieval Devil Lord
to help us understand this pivotal historical development.
(00:44):
Now, in Part 2, we'll begin our exploration into the history of
the Malleus Maleficarum. We'll explore how many of the
tropes about witch hunting either developed in the Malleus
or were reiterated by the Malleus.
If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, we recommend starting
there, although this episode cancertainly stand on its own.
(01:07):
Both episodes are available now wherever you get your podcasts,
so let's. Rejoin our conversation with
Professor Raiswell as we continue our examination of the
demonic and witchcraft beliefs that led to the Malaise
Malefochar. How does the Maleus maleficarum
fit in? While the Auroras Gazzariorum
(01:27):
had said that witches could be male and female, witchcraft
becomes increasingly more gendered, and you see that right
from the start on the title pageof the maleus maleficarum.
Because maleficarum is a feminine noun in Latin, it would
be maleficorum if it was masculine.
(01:49):
And the way gendered languages work, if you've got 500 women
and one man, you always use the masculine form.
So this text is the hammer of evil doing women or the hammer
of witches. The Melius is a very bad book.
I don't just mean that it's morally repugnant.
(02:10):
It's actually very poorly written, and some of the
theological arguments that they make are really not very clever.
And this is made worse by the fact that what most people use
in the Anglophone world when they're looking at the malleus
is the translation, which was done in 1928 by a guy called
(02:33):
Montague Summers. This is the translation that you
can find available on the Internet or through sort of
fairly lavish editions on Amazonor whatever.
Leaving aside the fact that the translation doesn't read very
well at all, Summers translated the Maleus because he believed
(02:55):
the kinds of witchcraft the Maleus described was still real
in 1928. In the preface to his edition of
the Maleus, he says witchcraft is an evil thing, an enemy to
light and allies, the powers of darkness, of disruption and
decay. It is a vast political movement,
(03:18):
an organized society which was antisocial and anarchical, A
worldwide plot against civilization.
He says the text does have some problems, but he says that they
are trifling blemishes. His language.
But the essential message remains relevant today, with its
(03:40):
Bolsheviks and anarchists, as itwas in 1486 when it appeared.
Some of the misogyny, he says, is a touch extreme.
But he continues. And again, this is his language.
It is a wholesome and needful antidote to the current
feministic age with its confounding of the sexes.
(04:04):
Obviously anybody who approachesa translation of a document like
with those sorts of biases is going to produce a very stilted
translation. We have a very good English
language translation, which was done by a colleague at
(04:26):
University of Alberta. Christopher McKay came out in
2009. It is absolutely first rate.
But one of the things McKay makes clear in his translation,
it's the authors of the Malleus were writing very, very fast and
they were really, really sloppy.They are lifting stuff from
(04:48):
other sources, which is absolutely fine for the period.
I mean, nowadays you say plagiarism, it's not on.
I can't do that in my work, but it's absolutely fine by 15th
century standards. But they're lifting stuff from
manuals about prosecuting heretics, which are all written
in the masculine, and frequentlythey are just so sloppy they
(05:10):
don't even bother to turn the nouns feminine.
So when you read Summers's translation, he turns everything
feminine, which sort of makes the malleus look even worse than
it is. I mean, it's incredibly bad
book, but it's incredibly sloppytoo.
And frequently said frequently, nouns in the Malleys are
(05:33):
masculine when you'd expect feminine given the perspective
of the authors. To understand the book, I think
it's very important to understand the circumstances in
which it's written. When it was printed, it was
attributed to a theologian from the University of Cologne in
northwest Germany named Jacobus Springer and another unnamed
(05:59):
collaborator. Inside the text, it's clear that
the other collaborator is a guide called Heinrichus
Instutaurus, or Heinrich Kramer in German.
Modern scholars argue that the work is largely the work of
Instutaurus, and some have gone so far as to suggest that
Springer actually had nothing todo.
(06:21):
I think that's going too far. As McKay points out in his
translation, one of the things the authors of the Malleys did
is they they submitted it to thetheology faculty at the
University of Cologne, said, what do you think of this book?
Springer is on the faculty, the theology faculty at the
University of Cologne. If Incetoris had actually just
(06:43):
attributed it to somebody who had nothing to do with the book,
he would have noticed. So Springer certainly had
something to do with the text, but what he had to do with we
don't know. It's quite likely that
instatorists wrote nearly all ofit.
Springer is an academic. His only other work is a book
(07:05):
about praying the rosary. That's it.
So he writes, he's involved in abook about the prosecution of
witches, and he's got no one about praying the rosary.
He probably doesn't have that much to do with it.
Maybe he's involved in a bit of a theology.
Instotaurus is quite a differentman.
(07:25):
He's a theologian, he's a university Dr. So he's got the
equivalent of a PhD in theology,but he's fundamentally A
practical man. He's interested in preaching.
He's concerned with rooting out heresy, and we know that he's
engaged as an inquisitor, rooting out heresy in parts of
(07:46):
the German lands as early as 1467.
Got a letter from the late 1470swhere the Pope describes him as
a man notable for his zeal for religion, his knowledge of
letters. So his he's well read, his
integrity of life, his constancyof faith, along with various
(08:06):
other praiseworthy virtues and merits.
Yeah, it's not really the whole story.
He seems to have been widely disliked.
He faced punishment a couple of times himself. 1484 he gets into
trouble for slandering the Holy Roman Emperor.
Don't do that. It's just generally not a good
idea. And in 1482 he seems to have
(08:28):
been accused of embezzling moneyor collected to fund a crusade
against the Ottoman Turks. Nevertheless, in 1474, he
becomes appointed as an Inquisitor for the southern
regions of modern day Germany, plus Switzerland and western
(08:49):
Austria. So that eastern side of that
area where witchcraft accusations are beginning.
And it's in that capacity that he shows up in Ravensburg in
1484. What's happened?
So Radvensburg is in southwest Germany.
It's a lovely little town in southwest Germany.
It's about two hours from Munich.
(09:11):
A couple of months earlier, there'd been a severe freak
hailstorm that hit the town. The hailstorm had destroyed the
crops in the field and it ruinedthe city's vineyards.
According to the accounts, it was going to take a good two
years for the town to recover agriculturally.
(09:32):
So this is a devastating event. But this was just the latest
round of bad luck that had hit the city.
There'd been freak weather events for the past couple of
summers, torrential rains. There'd even been an outbreak of
plague. But in the summer of 1484,
people are beginning to think something is up.
(09:54):
Many people begin to state publicly that they think that
this disaster must be a result of some sort of harmful spells.
And so there's a public clamour in the marketplace about this.
People are talking. What's going on?
Why have we been hit by such badluck?
In response to this public outcry, the chaplain of the big
(10:18):
local church, Manly called Johannes Grandpa, called for the
matter to be investigated by theInquisition, and he requested,
it seems to be specifically thatInsta tourists be invited to the
city to investigate. What we haven't appreciated
before is that insta tourists had actually been to the city 10
(10:43):
years early, back in 1475. He'd been sent there by the
Bishop of Trent. Trent is in northern Italy.
The Bishop of Trent was being investigated by the Pope.
Bishop of Trent had just executed 13 Jews after the
discovery of the body of a 2 year old Christian boy named
(11:07):
Simon. This is a classic example of
what's called the blood libel, the idea that Jews kill
Christian children to use their blood to use their bodies in
demonic rituals. The Bishop of Trent had executed
various Jews after the propagation of a blood libel in
his city. All of this of course is
(11:28):
anti-Semitic garbage. Never happens, but these
accusations lead to many in the Jewish community in Trent being
killed. In response to these executions
in Trent, various members of theJewish community in other towns
petitioned the Pope and various other high-ranking church
(11:50):
officials to investigate what had happened.
They say that the Bishop went after the Jews in Trent in order
to get his hands on their money.To defend himself against this
accusation, the Bishop of Trent seems to have enlisted
Instatorus. He said to Instatorus go to
(12:11):
Ravensburg because back in 1428 they did the same thing.
There was a blood libel in Ravensburg In 1428.
Again, a Christian boy was foundin Ravensburg.
He was found hanging from a tree.
The local Jewish community was blamed for it.
Whole pilot people were executed.
(12:32):
So Incitorus is sent by the Bishop of Trent to go to
Ravensburg. He goes to Ravensburg, he meets
various people who were involvedin executing all of these Jews
in Ravensburg and they attest everything we did was legal.
It was a blockboard. Nobody got their hands on the
money of these Jews. It was because they were guilty.
(12:52):
So Incitorus collects all of this and gives it to the Bishop
of Trent in his defence in Trent.
So the point is that when Grampacalls Insta tourists to
investigate in 1484, he's a known commodity in the city.
They know what they're getting. It's just not some random guy
they've called in who happens tobe some sort of zealot.
(13:13):
This is somebody they know of already.
So what happens when Insta Tourists comes to Ravensburg?
So he comes to Ravensburg and heseems to spend several days
preaching in the city's main church about the evils of
sorcery and about witchcraft. So what he's doing is he's
(13:34):
priming the people. They start thinking in these
terms. Then he invites anybody with
knowledge or suspicion, or who has heard rumours about people
using unnatural means to harm other people or their animals.
He wants them to come forward and to make a legal deposition
(13:55):
against them. And according to the accounts, a
great number of people gave depositions.
We don't know how many have justsays a great number of people.
On the basis of this, at least three women, maybe as many as
six, and the reasons for that I'll make clear in a minute, are
(14:15):
arrested and taken into custody.And of these, he starts
interrogations with the two women who are arrested, who are
of lowest status. They're described as Agnes, the
bathkeeper, and Anna of Mendelheim.
In the presence of Greg, the mayor, and other members of the
(14:38):
town council. The two of them are subjected to
what the source says is the lightest torture, and both of
them confessed quickly. They confessed to having
intercourse with incubi, so maledemons.
Agnes says that she'd been doingthis regularly for 18 years.
(15:00):
Anna said she'd been doing it for 20 years.
Agnes also admitted to having caused the hailstorm that had
hit the city. She said that she'd been
summoned by her demon to come outside the town and to bring
with her a bowl of water. The demon told her to dig a
hole, to pour the water in, and then to stir the water with her
(15:21):
finger, invoking the name of thedemon himself.
The water promptly disappeared into the air, and then an hour
later, this great storm begin. Agnes also admitted to using
witchcraft to harm various people in the town, burying the
bones of animals under the threshold of their house.
(15:44):
When Anna was interrogated, she admitted much the same thing on
the third day after their arrest.
They're handed over to the town's secular authorities and
they're burned. Churchmen don't execute, they
hand people over to the secular authorities.
Churchmen technically can't shedblood, so they just pass
(16:06):
sentence and they hand them overto the secular authorities for
carrying out sentence. Before she dies, Agnes made a
full confession of all of her crimes, and she died in the
flames embracing the cross. Anna would not confess, and she
died slandering and cursing the town's Christian folk.
(16:29):
And after that, Instatoris leaves.
Now, remember I said that there were at least three, maybe as
many six women that were arrested as a result of this.
The other or others are still injail when Instatorus leaves.
One of them is the wife of the local locksmith, and she's
(16:50):
released days after Instatorus leaves.
What she does is she swears out what's called an aufaider.
This is a formal legal document which requires the accused to be
released on condition that they do not sue anybody who has sworn
(17:13):
out accusations against. And she's also required in
swearing out this ofeda to produce a certain number of
guarantors who prepared to pledge to her good behaviour and
they're liable if she does try to take revenge on those people
who are accused. So this document is sworn out
(17:36):
just days after insta tourists left, and given that this
locksmith's wife is required to provide guarantor with
reputation to stand up with for her, this suggests that while
some people have accused her of witchcraft, she was actually
fairly well connected social. She was charged, so she's maybe
(18:01):
a bit dubious, but she's got enough connections because
they're all male connections. She's got enough male people of
status to swear that she is a decent woman in the end.
By contrast, this must mean thatAgnes and Anna, who were
executed, didn't have those sorts of guarantors.
If Sartoris says in the Malleus,then when you begin witchcraft
(18:24):
prosecutions, you always begin with the easiest cases because
they're likely to confess, and that'll implicate other people.
So the case against the locksmith is not one.
If Sartoris touched, he expectedthe local church authorities to
go after her. But they don't.
We've got Elfeda relating to witchcraft related offences from
(18:46):
14861489 and 1490. What we don't know is whether
these women were women who were caught up in the Inquisition
that insta tourists started up in 1484.
Jail in the Middle Ages is not apunishment.
It's a place where you're held until you're punished.
(19:08):
Punishment is is physical, it's either corporeal or it's
execution at some level. So the one who swears out Nofeda
in 1490, she would, if this was related to Incituris's
Inquisition, she would have beenin jail for six years.
That's really unusual. So we just don't know what what
(19:30):
happened with these three other women.
It's either that they were caught up in Incituris
Inquisition, or there's more stuff happening which we don't
know, which is absolutely possible.
So what this shows is that people's position in society,
masses, some people are insulated if they've got
(19:51):
connections into society, particularly male society
obviously. And what happens when Instatorus
goes to Innsbruck? So he's in Revensburg in 1484.
He shows up in Innsbruck in July1485, and we frankly don't know
why he ends up there. There's not a big hailstorm in
(20:13):
Innsbruck or anything like that.But he shows up in Innsbruck in
July, late July 1485, and he again begins by preaching.
He preaches apparently for 15 days straight.
I mean, not all the time, but hepreaches for 15 days about the
evils of witchcraft. So again, he's priming the pump.
(20:35):
People are predisposed to thinking in these terms.
And then, as he did in Ramsburg,he invites people with knowledge
or suspicion of witchcraft to make depositions in front of
him. And these depositions absolutely
have to be secret. The secrecy is absolutely vital
(20:56):
for him. And this process apparently
takes six weeks. 64 people show up and make depositions.
They accuse a total of 46 different women.
Now. An outsider coming to town and
initiating legal proceedings against a large number of people
(21:17):
requires the support of the local community.
I mean, it's the. Tourist doesn't have any troops
with him. He needs the consent of the
local community. The local Bishop is meant to
help him, and initially the local Bishop does.
But as the. Investigations get going.
The Bishop has problems with theway Instatorus is handling
(21:40):
things. The Bishop wants Instatorus to
let the accused know who had sworn out depositions against
them. That's absolutely standard in
the legal system that they are used.
But Instatorus doesn't want these names public because
witchcraft is a secret crime. If you think about it, if you're
(22:04):
accused of murder, the murderingstops when you're in jail,
right? You're not going to murder
anybody in jail. So we can know who accused you
of murder. But witchcraft doesn't work that
way. You could be sitting in jail and
you could be taking revenge on the people who've fitted you up.
So the danger doesn't stop just because these people are in
(22:26):
jail. So it's tourists insists that
the names, the people who've accused these women, be secret.
So there's a tension here between the Bishop who's
insisting upon normal legal procedure, and it's the tourist
who's trying to do something different already.
From all of. These depositions, it's the
(22:49):
tourist decides to move forward with six cases, get convictions
on these first six as he'd done in Randensburg, and then he can
go off and leave the local Bishop to deal with all the
others. What happens here is really
strange because what happens is the Bishop hires the best lawyer
(23:11):
around to work to defend the women accused of witchcraft, and
the lawyer does what lawyers do.He immediately begins by saying
you're now following proper legal procedure and he tries to
have her incitorus replaced. As an Inquisitor, you're not up
to the job. You're making this up as you go
(23:33):
along. This isn't proper.
So he tries to. Have them replaced as
Inquisitor. He even tries at one point to
get him arrested. That doesn't work.
But eventually what the lawyer does is ends up appealing the
case to Rome, says in Sartoris. You're just not handling it
(23:54):
right. We're going to appeal this all
the way over your head to the Pope proper in Sartoris says
fine, that's you're right. But meanwhile we're going to get
things going here. And as soon as it tries to get
the trial going, it just breaks down in chaos.
It just. Completely collapses and the
(24:14):
women who had been arrested we're all released.
They were released in November 1485.
Now, there's a lot going on behind the scenes that we just
don't know about, but there seems to be a good amount of
local opposition to Insta tourists.
If you go around and you're accusing 46 women, that's a lot
(24:36):
of male relatives, a lot of friends who you've suddenly made
very, very angry. And it's clear that the Bishop
is playing to some of this opposition somehow.
We don't know very much about it.
Instatorus, though, doesn't leave.
He's still in town as late as the 9th of February 1486,
(24:58):
because the Bishop writes to himon the 9th of February 1486.
And he said, I can't guarantee your safety here anymore.
If you're smart, you'll leave. And he seems to have done that.
In fact, in that letter, it's quite amusing.
He calls Instatorus effectively senile, even though Instatorus
would have been only about 55. It's the Taurus leaves Innsbruck
(25:20):
in February 1486. The Malleus is printed, or at
least is ready to be printed by December 1486.
This is the context. So he is really, really angry.
He's writing this text because he's been humiliated and he's
absolutely convinced that what he's discovered is a vast
(25:42):
demonic conspiracy, and the bulkof Bishop of all people are in
league with these people. So this is an angry book, and
most of it seems to be written very fast in this sort of
fallout period from when the prosecution collapses in
November to the book appearing towards the end of December and
(26:03):
the very next year and the end of December 1486.
So it's written in a fit of pique, as it were, quickly and
slaughtily, and according to what sources he has to hand.
The point I'm going? To make about the Malleus is
that it's a very defensive book.Some of the things that they try
to make you think that this bookis better than it is, they try
(26:27):
to make you think that it's approved by the Pope and it
absolutely isn't. In fact, the theology faculty of
Cologne, even though one of his,one of the authors is there.
So yeah, it's all right. Theologians sign on and say,
yeah, I agree with what the Deansays.
They're not rigging endorsements, OK.
It's the imagination. It's just that the importance of
(26:49):
the book is when it shows up, and it shows up right at the
beginning of printing, so it spreads widely.
And the last part of the book, the theology, as I'll argue, is
pretty, pretty thin. But the last part, third part is
a do it yourself guide to running an inquisition.
(27:11):
It's even got the what we would call forms to fill in sample
forms. You want to do a deposition.
This is how it looks. Copy this out.
And I think that even 100 years later when the book is still
being printed, I don't think they're reading the theology.
I think they're using it becauseit's handy as a legal guide.
(27:32):
Thank you for enjoying this week's Double Double episodes
next. Week you'll be treated to
another Raise Well, double feature and.
Next week's double feature is jam packed with more history of
the Malaise Malfacarum the Witch's.
Hammer, Hexen Hammer, Have a great today and a beautiful
tomorrow. The Salem Witch Trials resulted
(27:56):
in witchcraft accusations against more than 150 people and
the executions of 20. So what went wrong?
We explore this and other facetsof the witch hunt in our new
podcast, The Thing About Salem, premiering June 1st.
The Thing about? Salem offers Bite Sides episodes
in both video and audio formats that you can enjoy in 15 minutes
(28:19):
or less. I'm Josh Hutchinson.
I'm Sarah. Jack, our ancestors experienced
the Salem witch trials. And here's a little taste of
what you can expect from the Thing About Salem.
Possibly. Doctor William Griggs decides
that the girls, oh, they're not sick in a natural way.
(28:44):
They're under an evil hand, justlike that one, Sarah.
So what does it mean that they're under an evil hand?
The Devil. Has come to Salem.
The devil's in Salem each week. The thing about Salem brings you
information on a thing from the witch trials.
(29:08):
Episodes. Will stream on YouTube and all
podcast platforms. To get ready, find
usoutaboutsalem.com. Be sure to join us for Episode 1
on June 1st.
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