Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europe - University of Reading

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Seminar One: The Malleus Maleficarum
Spring Term
Summary
We shall be spending the first three sessions this term looking at witchcraft, attitudes
to witchcraft, and the persecution of witches in early modern Europe. In the course of
these three seminars, we will study the writings of the witch-hunters, the records of
trials, and the expansion of belief in witchcraft and the witch-hunt spread across
Europe. The first seminar of the term will be devoted to representations of witchcraft
in the writings of the persecutors, inquisitors, and educated, with a particular focus on
the Malleus Maleficarum or the ‗Hammer of Witches‘, which is perhaps the best
known document of the witch-craze. Some extracts are provided, but you can read
more in the University Library edition of the Malleus. or on the web (follow
references from the course homepage) The book is often referred to in the records of
the witch-trials in Germany, France, Italy, and England, and its influence was
enduring — indeed the introduction to one modern edition states ‗this famous
document should interest the historian, the student of witchcraft and the occult, and
the psychologist who is interested in the medieval mind‘.
Seminar Preparation
Please read the primary source documents before the first class. We will spend some
time looking at these in detail in class. Beforehand, please let me have a gobbet
extract from these passages (choose your own section as a ‗question‘ for the rest of
the class). You might also find it helpful to dip into the relevant section of reading list.
Questions for Discussion
(i) What was ‗witchcraft‘ in the early modern period?
(ii) Why was it so feared — especially by the church?
(iii) How did the learned stereotype of the witch develop?
(iv) How do learned views of the witch compare with popular attitudes?
(v) How far did the Malleus Malficarum shape attitudes to witchcraft?
(vi) Has the influence of the Malleus been overexaggerated?
Primary Sources for Class Discussion
The Malleus Maleficarum (extracts)
Guazzo: Compendium Maleficarum (extracts)
Secondary Reading
Anglo, S., The Damned Art : Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft (London, 1977).
"Evident Authority and Authoritative Evidence: The Malleus Maleficarum." In his
The Damned Art: Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft. (London, 1977).
Baroja, J.C., "Witchcraft and Catholic Theology.", in B. Ankarloo, G. Henningsen, eds. Early
Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries (Oxford, 1989).
Clark, S., Thinking with Demons. The idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
(Oxford, 1997).