WITCH FEVER

In 1486, two Dominican monks, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Springer, wrote a book called the Malleus Maleficarum – or, as it came to be known in English, The Hammer of the Witches. Kramer and Springer were both inquisitors for the Catholic Church and it was their job to root out any suspected heretics – a heretic being anyone who deviated from the accepted teachings and laws of the Church. But they took their work one step further and wrote the Malleus, designed to be a manual for all those who wished to find, expose and prosecute witches. The book displays an abnormal hatred of women. It states that women are more prone to evil than men; that their bodily functions mean that they are weaker than men and more easily seduced by the devil; and that most women are put on earth to tempt men into evil ways.


Cover of the Leiden edition of the Malleus Maleficarum, 1584. The Latin title is "MALLEUS MALEFICARUM, Maleficas, & earum hæresim, ut phramea potentissima conterens." (English: The Hammer of Witches which destroyeth Witches and their heresy like a most powerful spear.)

The production of this book coincided with the invention of the printing press and, therefore, copies of the book began to circulate all over Europe. Such was the demand that between 1487 and 1649 the Malleus was rewritten and reprinted twenty nine times. It also coincided with a time of religious uncertainty. Protestantism was spreading across Northern Europe and Catholicism was fighting back. Each religion became anxious to “purify” its membership and so the idea that witches lurked amongst the populace, polluting good Christians, took hold. The religious upheavals caused wars – some lasting for decades, as in the Netherlands – and every misfortune that fell on a community was blamed on some evil in their midst.
Those who were most often accused of witchcraft were women who did not conform to the male ideal of womanhood. Therefore, any woman who was well educated; skilled in folk medicine; had a strong personality; argued with her neighbours; owned a business; could not bear children, and so on, was a target.
When a witch was accused, she was first examined to see if she had any “marks of the devil” such as moles or birthmarks. In some countries she was weighed against the Bible or some holy relic because witches were supposed to be lighter than air, in order to ride their broomsticks. Any “magical properties” were removed, such as luxuriant hair, pet animals (thought to be witches “familiars” – or the means by which they communicated with the devil) and any cooking implements, potions or lavish clothes found in her house. Statements were taken from neighbours (a good opportunity for grievances to be aired). Often, the accused was tortured, in order to obtain a “confession”. Then the witch was put on public trial, which was usually a mockery since, by then, the accused was probably in no fit state, physically or mentally, to defend herself. Executions were usually by three means – the witch was burnt at the stake, drowned, or crushed by the weight of stones on her body.
Witch fever found its way across the Atlantic to the New World and there were several hysterical outbreaks in New England in the seventeenth century. However, by the late seventeenth century, the hysteria had died down, as the Christian religions agreed to disagree and were too busy grappling with the Age of Enlightenment and the new philosophies to think much about witchcraft.