Henricus Institoris and Jacobus Sprenger: Malleus maleficarum

Questions for Further Study

• 1. Why do you think investigation into witchcraft in the Middle Ages and beyond tended to focus more on women than on men?
• 2. The introduction of printing by Johannes Gutenberg took place just thirty years before Malleus maleficarum was written. What impact do you think printing might have had on the promulgation of the document throughout the German-speaking world and beyond and hence on the fervor with which witches were hunted? Put differently, would witch hunting have been less prevalent had the printing press not yet been invented?
• 3. What impact did religious disputes in Europe during this time have on the concern with witches and witchcraft?
• 4. Read this document in conjunction with Gerald Gardner’s Book of Shadows. How do you think Gardner would respond to the contents of Malleus maleficarum?
• 5. In the contemporary world, the attitude toward “witches” and “witchcraft” is generally one of much greater tolerance in comparison with the medieval world. Today, the average person is likely to think that a self-proclaimed witch is a harmless eccentric, witches are a staple of modern Halloween festivities, and from 1964 to 1972 a popular television comedy, Bewitched, featured a woman with powers of witchcraft. What, in your view, accounts for the difference? Why was witchcraft taken so seriously in the fifteenth century and apparently less so today?