Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Map
- Introduction
- THE HAMMER OF WITCHES
- Structure of the text
- Author's Justification of the “Hammer for Sorceresses”
- Text of the Apostolic Bull
- Approbation and Signatures of the Doctors of the Illustrious University of Cologne
- PART I
- Question 1
- Question 2
- Question 3
- Question 4
- Question 5
- Question 6
- Question 7
- Question 8
- Question 9
- Question 10
- Question 11
- Question 12
- Question 13
- Question 14
- Question 15
- Question 16
- Question 17
- Question 18
- PART II
Question 8
from PART I
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2015
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Map
- Introduction
- THE HAMMER OF WITCHES
- Structure of the text
- Author's Justification of the “Hammer for Sorceresses”
- Text of the Apostolic Bull
- Approbation and Signatures of the Doctors of the Illustrious University of Cologne
- PART I
- Question 1
- Question 2
- Question 3
- Question 4
- Question 5
- Question 6
- Question 7
- Question 8
- Question 9
- Question 10
- Question 11
- Question 12
- Question 13
- Question 14
- Question 15
- Question 16
- Question 17
- Question 18
- PART II
Summary
[TT] SECOND, this same truth, namely that adulteresses, female fornicators and so on are more frequently sorceresses, is shown by the impediment of the act of the faculty to procreate that is caused by sorcery.
[AG 1] In order for the truth to become more evident, it is first argued that it is not possible, because if such an act of sorcery were possible, it could also happen to married people, and if this is granted, then since matrimony is the work of God and sorcery the work of the Devil, the work of the Devil will be stronger than the work of God. If, on the other hand, it is granted that it happens only to fornicators and not to married people, then the view will return that sorcery does not exist in the reality but only in people's opinion (the opposite of this was treated in Question One) or an explanation will have to be given for why these things can happen to one group and not the other. While it seems that there is no other underlying reason except that matrimony is the work of God (and this reason is not, according to the theologians, conclusive, as is clear in Commentary on Pronouncements, Bk. 4, Dist. 30, “On the impediment caused by sorcery” [4.1.3]), there still remains the argument that the work of the Devil will be stronger than the work of God, and since | it is inappropriate to claim this, therefore it is also inappropriate to claim that the sexual act can be impeded through sorcery.
[AG 2] Likewise, the Devil cannot impede acts of the other natural forces, like eating, walking and having an erection, which seems to be true on the grounds that they would be able to destroy the entire world.
[AG3] Also, since the sexual act is the same in respect to every woman, then if it is impeded, it is impeded in terms of every woman.
[SC] But this is false, and therefore so too is the first argument.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Hammer of WitchesA Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, pp. 187 - 193Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009