PART II
from THE HAMMER OF WITCHES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2015
Summary
THE second basic part of this work is about the procedure observed by sorcerers in inflicting acts of sorcery and is divided into eighteen chapters. There are two additional topics of difficulty, one at the beginning about preventive remedies (how it can be made impossible for someone to be affected by sorcery), the second at the end about the remedies that break acts of sorcery and that can remedy those affected by sorcery (according to the Philosopher in Physics, Bk. 4 [8.4] the agent that removes and the one that prohibits go together and are incidental causes). In order, then, for the entire foundation of this horrible heresy to be grasped through these topics, in two basic divisions the focus will be laid, first, on the sorceresses' initiation and their sacrilegious avowal; second, on their advance in the method of working and their horrible procedure; and, third, on wholesome impediments against their acts of sorcery and on preventative remedies. We are now laboring at subject matter involving morality, and for this reason it is not necessary to dwell on various arguments and explanations everywhere, since the topics that will follow in the chapters have been sufficiently discussed in the preceding questions. Therefore, we beseech the reader in the name of God not to ask for an explanation for all matters, when suitable likelihood is sufficient if facts that are generally agreed to be true either on the basis of one's own experience from seeing or hearing or on the basis of the accounts given by trustworthy witnesses are adduced.
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- The Hammer of WitchesA Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, pp. 259 - 262Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009