The first part of the Malleus Maleficarum aims to prove the existence of witchcraft, the mechanisms by which it functions, and the need for the Church to combat witchcraft by whatever means necessary. It also includes some illuminating little asides on the subject of why women seem more prone to witchcraft than men and why so many of the effects of witchcraft seem to touch on the sexual function.
(Plenty of ink is spent on the question of witches and their role in causing male impotence, let me tell you.)
The book is formatted in the question and answer style of most scholastic philosophy. The chapter headings begin with a question to be discussed (such as "Whether Witches may work some Prestidigitatory Illusion so that the Male Organ appears to be entirely removed and separate from the Body."). This is followed by a few possible positions one could take on the question, usually citing the scriptures or the writings of philosophers. After this, the writer usually presents his own conclusion and offers rebuttals for the other positions expressed in the chapter.
The first part of the Malleus Maleficarum follows this scholastic style much more stringently than parts two or three. In parts two and three we're treated to many personal accounts from the authors' inquisitorial experience, including personal accounts from accused witches and witnesses to witchcraft. But Part I is mostly dry, theoretical stuff, although it reveals a lot about the state of mind of the early Renaissance and does much of the intellectual heavy lifting for what comes after.
More than anything else, the purpose of the first part of the Malleus Maleficarum is to prove that witchcraft actually exists. The book opens by asking the question "Whether the belief that there are such beings as witches is so essential a part of the Catholic faith that obstinately to maintain the opposite opinion manifestly savours of heresy." And there are several arguments advanced here against the existence of witchcraft. Some of which include:
Only God can change a human being for the better or worse, so the belief in witches smacks of paganism.
Only natural causes can have effects on natural objects–so there's no means by which supernatural demons could operate in the world.
If demons could operate on the Earth they would have brought about the end of the world by now.
God is more powerful than the devil, and since God is good he would not allow demons to work their will on Earth.
Ultimately, Sprenger and Kramer come to the conclusion that witchcraft does exist, basing much of their argument on the writings of Thomas Aquinas and scriptural exhortations such as the famous "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
The picture of witchcraft we ultimately arrive at is that it requires three things: the action of human witches, the cooperation of demons, and the permission of God in allowing such things to be possible.
Because God is infinitely powerful and the creator of all things, he's also the creator of the witches and demons who perform these evil acts. So without the divine permission there could be no witchcraft. But God is also all-good, so why would he allow these evil things to take place? This leads Sprenger and Kramer to tackle their own version of the Problem of Evil: why does God allow witchcraft to occur?
(One of the effects of a consistently-applied monotheism is that you have to either place God beyond good and evil or else explain how every apparent evil actually serves the maximal goodness of creation.)
Sprenger and Kramer take the usual route of Christian theologians, explaining things in terms of free will. Free will is a higher good than compelled goodness because beings who freely choose the good (when they could have chosen evil) are better than beings who were merely made to be good and could not have been otherwise. But in order for that goodness to exist as a possibility, the possibility of evil must also exist. So in giving free will to human beings and angels, God also tacitly allows the possibility of witchcraft.
Ultimately Sprenger and Kramer conclude that to deny the existence of witchcraft is heretical–which, with the support of the Pope, gave them considerable authority to prosecute witches as part of their inquisitorial work. Any hesitant bishops or local priests could now be informed that their doubts about the effects of witchcraft could itself be construed as heresy.
The first part of the Malleus Maleficarum also covers subjects like the role of the stars and other celestial bodies in witchcraft, the peculiar tendency of midwives to become witches (not least because midwives were more likely than anyone else to perform abortions), and the many ways in which witches can cause sexual impotence in males.
Most famously, though, the first part of the book discusses the reasons why women are more likely than men to practice witchcraft. One of the more fascinating points, from a modern perspective, is that we're told women have a stronger tendency to witchcraft because of their stronger sexual ("carnal") desire. The modern common sense is that males naturally have more interest in sex than females–who hasn't heard the tired cliché about men thinking about sex every seven seconds? Yet in the early Renaissance this common sense was reversed: it was women, not men, who were believed to constantly suffer from excessive sexual desire.
In fact, the Malleus Maleficarum goes so fast as to claim that carnal lust is the basis of all the activities of witches. Granted, at least one of the authors was an Inquisitor with a known penchant for asking accused witches intimate questions about their sex lives. But here we find one of the more striking differences between modernity and the world in which the Malleus Maleficarum was written.
Sprenger and Kramer also attribute the feminine tendency to witchcraft to a weaker faith in God, citing examples such as the role of Eve in the Fall. They even include an etymological argument, adding a laughingly unconvincing derivation for the Latin word femina:
And all this is indicated by the etymology of the word; for Femina comes from Fe and Minus, since she is ever weaker to hold and preserve the faith.
Much ink is also spilled on the question of how witches cause men to become impotent with their wives, but not with any other woman. The earnestness with which these two Dominican friars try to invoke witches to explain the obvious is one of the high points of the otherwise pretty dry Part I of the Malleus Maleficarum.
Don't worry, though. Next week is for Part II and it's a lot more compelling.
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