The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

166 Malgaras
are in constant warfare with LILITH. Makhlath commands
478 hosts of evil spirits. She and Agrath meet Lilith
and battle on the Day of Atonement. While they
quarrel, the prayers of Israel are able to rise to heaven.
Malgaras DEMON among the 31 AERIAL SPIRITS OF SOL-
OMON. Malgaras rules in the west and has dozens of
dukes serving him both day and night. His servants are
courteous and appear in pairs, along with their own servants.
His 12 major servants of the daytime are Camiel,
Meliel, Borasy, Agor, Casiet, Rabiel, Cabiel, Udiel, Opriel,
Masiel, Barfas, and Arois. His 12 major dukes of the
nighttime are Aros, Doiel, Cubi, Liblel, Raboc, Aspeil,
Caron, Zamor, Amiel, Aspara, Deilas, and Basiel.
Malleus Maleficarum (Witch Hammer) The most
influential and important witch hunter’s guide of the
Inquisition. Published first in Germany in 1487, the Malleus
Maleficarum was translated into dozens of editions
throughout Europe and England and was the leading reference
for witch trials on the Continent for about 200
years. It was adopted by both Protestant and Catholic
civil and ecclesiastical judges. It was second only to the
Bible in sales until John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress was
published in 1678. The book gives instructions for interrogating,
trying, and punishing accused witches and
details the nature, characteristics, and behavior of
DEMONs and the DEVIL.
Fourteen editions were published by 1520; another 16
editions appeared by 1669. By the end of the 17th century,
there were more than 30 editions. The book became the
definitive guide by which inquisitors and judges conducted
themselves and that subsequent writers used as a foundation
for their own works. The book was important in the
way it linked witchcraft to heresy. It has been described in
the centuries since as a vicious and cruel work, the most
damaging book of its kind during the Inquisition.
Authorship
The Malleus Maleficarum is credited to the authorship of
two Dominican inquisitors, Heinrich Kramer and James
Sprenger, though historians now believe that it was written
by Kramer, by far the more zealous of the two and one
of the most zealous participants in the entire Inquisition.
Kramer and Sprenger were empowered by Pope Innocent
VIII in his bull of December 9, 1484, to prosecute witches
throughout northern Germany. The papal edict was intended
to quell Protestant opposition to the Inquisition
and to solidify the case made in 1258 by Pope Alexander
IV for the prosecution of witches as heretics. It was
the opinion of the church that the secular arm, the civil
courts, were not punishing enough witches solely on the
basis of their evildoing.
Both Kramer and Sprenger were prolific writers.
Kramer, also known as Institoris, the latinized version of
his name, rose to power as an inquisitor and was known
to have framed some of his victims. He was violently opposed
to witchcraft and seemed also to harbor hatred
against women, whom he viewed as inherently weak
and evil. He sought to establish a direct connection between
women and diabolic witchcraft. Some historians
also think that Kramer was reacting to broader sentiments
of the time that were responses to the influences of
holy women and mystics such as St. Catherine of Siena, a
powerful figure consulted by royalty and heads of state.
He did praise the saintliness of certain holy women who
were able to resist the lustful temptations indulged in by
witches, in his view.
Sprenger was a distinguished friar, and he may have
allowed Kramer to use his name in Kramer’s virulent antiwitch
treatise, Apologia auctoris in Malleus Maleficarum,
written by 1485. He had some association with Kramer in
trials of accused witches.
Kramer’s treatise was absorbed into the Malleus Maleficarum.
After its publication, evidence surfaced that
Kramer may have fabricated one of the official letters
authorizing the work. Relations between Kramer and
Sprenger became strained. After Sprenger died in 1496,
his colleagues attempted to distance his legacy from
Kramer.
Little is known about Kramer’s activities after publication
of the Malleus in 1487 until his death in 1505. He
remained an inquisitor. In 1500, Pope Alexander VI appointed
him papal nuncio and inquisitor of Bohemia and
Moravia. He was pursuing witches and heretics in Bohemia
at the time of his death.
Contents
The Malleus is based on the biblical pronouncement “Thou
shall not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18) and draws
on Scripture and the works of Aristotle, St. Augustine,
and St. Thomas Aquinas as support. It maintains that
because God acknowledged witches, to doubt witchcraft
is heresy. The book is divided into three parts and organized
as questions answered by opposing arguments.
Part 1 concerns how the Devil and his witches, with
“the permission of Almighty God,” perpetrate a variety
of evils upon men and animals, including succubi and
incubi, instilling hatred, obstructing or destroying fertility,
and causing the metamorphosis, or shape shifting, of
human beings into beasts. God permits these acts; otherwise,
the Devil would have unlimited power and destroy
the world.
Part 2 describes how witches cast spells and bewitchments
and do their evil and how these actions can be
prevented or remedied. Particular emphasis is given to
Devil’s PACTs, a key to proving heresy. The existence of
witches and their maleficia is treated as unassailable fact,
and wild stories of SABBATs and other abominations are
presented as truth. Most of the stories are from the inquisitions
conducted by Sprenger and Kramer and from
material of other ecclesiastical witchcraft writers.
Part 3 sets forth the legal procedures for trying witches,
including the taking of testimony, admission of evidence,