Want a NOOK? Explore Now
Anonymous
Posted March 22, 2005
I've been writing my own book recently on Historical Witchcraft. No research could be complete without reading and studying the Malleus Maleficarum. I read this book, along with others on the same subject, and although you may need a dictionary handy while reading this book - it is 100% quality! I recommend this book to EVERYONE Catholic all the way to Pagan. Why would a Witch recommend this book to a Christian and/or Catholic to read you may ask? Because it's important for them to understand the history of their religion as well and the crimes committed in the name of Jesus Christ. The Malleus Maleficarum was created as a 'handbook' for finding, torturing and ridding Europe of Witches and Pagans and other Non-Christians. Basically this entire era in history was evolved from a need for land, a need for power and the persecution of those women who were given credibility for their abilities as healers, midwives, etc. Now, this is not to say that males were not persecuited - however, the persecution of women was done because it was unfathomable that women could have the knowledge of 'educated' men as it pertained to medicine and the good that they had done for healing could not be attributed to them when the Christians felt that this could only be attributed to GOD.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 13, 2003
Medieval Catholics were forbidden to believe in the phenomena that were later identified as 'Witchcraft' -- it was described as an 'illusion' in the medieval canon law (Gratian's Decretum C. 26 q. 5 c. 11, the canon 'Episcopi'). So how did it happen that in the 1500s and 1600s some Catholics and nearly all Protestants went on hunts after witches? Because in the Renaissance (1480s) some theologians (like Kramer and Spenger, who were asked to investigate sorcery -- which was NOT a captial crime) tried with some success to prove that so-called witches were 'heretics' because they were said to worship the devil. Calvin and Luther loved this idea and so their followers burned witches in German, England, and Salem in New England. In Spain, where, sad to say (?), the Spanish Inquisition was responsible for sorcery cases (and applied the medieval law) not a single 'witch' was executed, rather those who belived in witches were punished. In other countries of northern Europe, sad to say, as many as a couple thousand poor souls (both men and women) were executed for this 'crime.' This book is essential reading if you want to know how the medieval Church law was subverted and people of the early modern period went off on witch hunts. I give it only 4 stars because of the lapses in the translation and the defective introduction. See Edward Peter's _The Magician, the Witch, and the Law_, if you want the background and role of this and other texts on 'witchcraft.'
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 4, 2000
I awarded this book 5 stars because it is, to coin a term from the fifty's 'the most'. The most horrific The most bigotted The most cruel The most un-intelligent The most dangerous despotism, the most heinous and misguided literature ever printed. To think that this was the textbook for the inquisition, and was writen because of a papal bull, makes it all the more heinous. I found it gruesome in the extreme and is more the type of document that one would expect to come out of Nazi Germany than the Christian church. It should be read and remembered by all Christians and Non-Christians alike, to ensure that it won't happen again. NOT to oppose evil is immoral, which is why I oppose all that this book stood and stands for. It made me ashamed to admit to being Christian, and has made me think again. If you have an ounce of tollerance towards your fellow man, then this book will turn you against Catholicism and probably INTO alcoholism. That it will also turn your stomach, would not surprise me either, it did mine! Buy it, read it, pass it on...this book should be read by everyone on the planet...and I am very serious! Please read every word and consider !!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted November 15, 2004
This is one of the most terrifying books on witch hunts ever written.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 1, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted March 21, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted October 8, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Overview