Henricus Institoris and Jacobus Sprenger: Malleus maleficarum

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

The present excerpt is the beginning of book 2, the second expository part of the Malleus maleficarum. The excerpt explains how demons lure people into rejecting their faith and entering into pacts to do evil, as illustrated by a number of examples. The excerpt also discusses the types of sorcery believed to exist. Throughout, Institoris is concerned with making clear that sorcery is a threat and produces very real results. To counteract the argument that God, if he was all-powerful, would allow the Devil to work such evil in the world, Institoris emphasizes that sorcery occurs with God’s permission.

Many scholars have used the Malleus maleficarum to argue that witches were almost always identified as women. The unreliable data from the witch hunts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries seems to support this view, in some regions of Europe, if not in others. The excerpt included here does often refer to female sorceresses. This trend of identification does not persist throughout this very long work, however, for Institoris does give examples of male sorcerers. But the first English translation of the Malleus maleficarum in the early twentieth century changed many Latin words from the masculine plural, suggesting a group that included men, to feminine and also used the feminized term “witch” rather than “sorcerer/sorceress.” This excerpt, from a new translation of the work, provides more careful and precise word choices so that the text retains Institoris’s original meaning.

On the Different Methods by Which Demons Allure and Entice the Innocent through Sorceresses to Increase This Form of Breaking the Faith

Institoris opens this section with a discussion of how demons are able to tempt people in three different ways and why God allows this temptation to happen. The first reason for why people enter into pacts with the Devil is what he terms “exhaustion” over temporal, or earthly, losses. Institoris makes clear that the fault lies with the people who are lured in this way. God gave humans the strength to withstand such ruses, as anyone’s own power is greater than that of the Devil’s temptation. God therefore allows this to happen so that people can prove their faith and not become lazy, thinking that God will always provide. Rather, the Christian has a responsibility to him- or herself and to God to maintain faith. Using a biblical passage, Institoris further suggests that God allows harmful magic as a tool to teach the faithful this lesson.

He proceeds to outline the way in which the Devil entices people through temporal losses, presenting it as a type of domino effect: A demon enters into a pact with one person, who becomes a sorceress; the demon uses that sorceress to inflict harm on another’s person and property; the person who is suffering material losses through this sorcery has no choice but to turn to another sorceress for help; and, in doing so, the person submits to that sorceress and thus to the Devil. Institoris provides examples that demonstrate this process. At first the afflicted person is just asked to do some small things that would displease God, like not making a full confession of sins to a priest. These acts increase and serve to slowly draw the person deeper into rejection of Christianity. The cunning and subtlety of the Devil is therefore demonstrated, something that Institoris discusses in more depth later. This mode of temptation works best among respectable married women, Institoris claims, because they are the ones most concerned with material things and personal belongings.

Institoris then moves on to the next method that the Devil uses, that of luring women through physical attraction and sexual desire. Young girls, according to Institoris, are more concerned with “ambition and the pleasures of the body.” The Devil is particularly set on tempting virgins, since it is a greater coup to get the “righteous” to renounce their faith. He therefore sets his sights on virgins and entices them through handsome young men. A sorceress functions as the intermediary, leading a young virgin to a meeting with a man who is really the Devil in disguise. Two of the examples in this section provide the information that if the maiden makes the sign of the cross, the Devil cannot appear. Although the author does not explain how this works, the presumption is that if a virgin crosses herself, it somehow builds a shell of holy protection, a barrier that the Devil cannot penetrate. Institoris’s final example here is different, as it concerns a woman who had already ended (or decided to end) her virginity and was on her way to see her boyfriend to have sexual relations. In this case, the Devil stops her on her way and easily persuades her to become his “mistress.” This example reinforces the point made earlier that the Devil more easily tempts those who are leaning toward “evil” acts, and it implicitly establishes that virginity is preferred by God and somehow holy.

Finally, Institoris presents the last way through which the Devil lures the faithful. Again, the goal is to entice young women, but this time nonvirgins. According to the text, many girls are persuaded to have sex on the promise of marriage but are then deserted by their lovers. The author suggests that such a young woman feels “disgraced” and ashamed. As a result, she is angry and vindictive and so employs a sorceress to retaliate and cast spells on her former lover or his new partner. The examples in this section describe two situations: one in which a woman vows that her former lover’s new bride will be beset by ill health, which comes to pass, and another in which a woman successfully makes her former lover impotent so that he cannot consummate his new marriage. Institoris claims that this method of luring women toward sorcery for the sake of vengeance is the most prevalent of all. In making this assertion, Institoris again upholds the beliefs that virginity until marriage is preferred and that young women are more easily drawn into working for the Devil because of their frequent bad choices. Those who remain virgins are harder to lure and have the means to protect themselves, since their moral compass has not been corrupted by sexual pleasure.

There Follows a Discussion of the Method of Making a Sacrilegious Avowal

The next chapter of Book 2 moves on to discuss how, once one is tempted by the Devil or his demons, a formal pact in which the person vows loyalty to the Devil takes place. The form of this ritual differs, depending on which category of sorcery the person engages in. Institoris outlines three types of sorceresses: those who harm but do not heal, those who heal only, and those who both harm and heal. Those who are able to harm are further subdivided according to the evil effects they can produce, with one type “supreme” because they have totally surrendered themselves to evil. It is this group that, he claims, “regularly devour and consume babies of their own kind,” like wolves; babies “of their own kind” means babies they gave birth to, although the author does state that such sorceresses kill other babies as well.

Institoris goes on to describe the innate evil of this type of sorceress by stating that they are the ones who want to—and are able to—produce the most harm in the world. He provides a long list of all of these sorceresses’ abilities, which include inducing hailstorms, making people and animals sterile, transporting themselves from place to place through the air “in body or imagination,” foreseeing events, and killing. Within this list, almost all of what have become popular beliefs about witches are present, outlined for the first time in one place. The author emphasizes that these sorceresses are real and exist—based on the account of the inquisitor Johannes Nider, who discussed them in his book Formicarius, or “Ant Hill” (ca. 1437)—and are currently present in northern Italy, where forty-one women were burned just the previous year. In order to preempt any arguments that the existence of such evil women shows that God is not omnipotent, Institoris takes care to mention that God allows these harmful acts through his “justice.” Presumably Institoris is referring back to his argument in the first chapter of this book that God allows sorcery as a test of people’s faith and a lesson to others.

Institoris finally moves on to discussing the actual ritual of vowing oneself in league with the Devil, stating that there are two types of rites. One is ceremonial and is done in the presence of witnesses. The individual renounces Christianity and then swears loyalty or homage to the Devil, promising to serve him and to persuade others to become his servants, too. In return, the individual, with the Devil’s help, will be able to get all that he or she desires. This type of vow occurs when one sorcerer or sorceress brings another into the sect. Institoris’s example includes a long digression about how one girl from Strasburg (or Strasbourg) was persuaded to make her avowal. In the course of this discussion he uses her story to show that sorceresses physically transported themselves from place to place and did not just do so in their imagination, contradicting the text of the Canon Episcopi. He then uses a report from another sorceress to show that the reason they kill and eat babies is to make concoctions from the baby’s body that allow them to fly through the air and give them other powers. The second rite, a private ritual, merits only a paragraph. In this scenario, a demon appears personally to someone who is suffering and promises to heal the person or fix a problem if they follow his commands.

Having established the types of rituals, Institoris addresses why the act of homage takes place. There are two parts to the pledge: the vow in which a person rejects the Christian faith and the act of homage, or giving oneself over “body and soul” to the Devil. These acts do not have to be done at the same time, but both acts are necessary to “increase the offence against the majesty of God” and to secure the damnation of the person, which is the Devil’s “greatest desire.” Separation of the vow and the act of homage is desirable for four reasons, according to Institoris: That way, demons can slowly entice a person into the act of homage by fulfilling a succession of small desires first; the Devil can test a person, seeing whether he or she will stay true to his or her rejection of the faith; if the person does not seem loyal, the Devil can then punish him or her harshly, since the formal act of homage has not taken place; and since demons can predict the future and know when someone will die, they have the patience to wait between securing these two aspects of the pledge.

In the final few paragraphs of this chapter, Institoris briefly discusses the powers that demons have, in particular why they are able to predict the future. Demons have “natural subtlety” or intellect, physical swiftness, and experience “with time and the revelations made by the spirits above.” In other words, since demons are from the other world, they somehow have knowledge of how angels work and what God intends, even though they are barred from heaven proper. They can also predict what will happen after they use their powers, and they have heightened senses that allow them to foretell approaching death. Their cunning helps them to identify human intentions and have a better understanding of the revelations of the biblical prophets who gave clues to future events. The long example that follows this discussion simply demonstrates that a sorceress was able to predict that she would die soon. The next short example has little to do with the previous discussion but rather provides a moral lesson. A sorceress who was condemned to die thwarted the demons by making a full confession and went to her death happily because “she escaped the power of the demon.” For her actions and intent, God would have given her forgiveness, thus rescuing her from the eternal fire if not the earthly physical one. The point is that God is merciful, even to those who have rejected him, if they are truly penitent.