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The bull recognized the existence of witches: Many persons of both sexes, unmindful of their own salvation and straying from the Catholic Faith, have abandoned themselves to devils, incubi and succubi, and by their incantations, spells, conjurations, and other accursed charms and crafts, enormities and horrid offences, have slain infants yet in the mother's womb, as also the offspring of ...
Throughout the medieval era, mainstream Christian doctrine had denied the belief in the existence of witches and witchcraft, condemning it as a pagan superstition. [14] Some have argued that the work of the Dominican Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century helped lay the groundwork for a shift in Christian doctrine, by which certain Christian theologians eventually began to accept the possibility ...
Michelet portrays the life of witches and trials held for witchcraft, and argues that medieval witchcraft was a righteous act of rebellion by the lower classes against feudalism and the Roman Catholic Church. Although his book is thought to be largely inaccurate, it is notable for being one of the first sympathetic histories of witchcraft.
Witchcraft is the use of alleged supernatural powers of magic.A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic or supernatural powers to inflict harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. [1]
German Jews of the twelfth century. From Herrad von Landsperg , Hortus deliciarum The origins of the witch archetype have been connected to antisemitic beliefs : [ 1 ] [ 4 ] in 1215, the Fourth Council of the Lateran issued an edict that all Jews must wear identifying headgear, a pointed cap known as a Judenhat .
Ancrene Wisse - MS Cleopatra in the British Library. Ancrene Wisse (/ ˌ æ ŋ k r ɛ n ˈ w ɪ s /; also known as the Ancrene Riwle [note 1] / ˌ æ ŋ k r ɛ n ˈ r iː ʊ l i / [1] or Guide for Anchoresses) is an anonymous monastic rule (or manual) for anchoresses written in the early 13th century.
The Malleus Maleficarum, [a] usually translated as the Hammer of Witches, [3] [b] is the best known treatise about witchcraft. [6] [7] It was written by the German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinized name Henricus Institor) and first published in the German city of Speyer in 1486.
In response to the Bishop's criticism, Kramer began to write a treatise on witchcraft that later became the Malleus Maleficarum (commonly translated as "The Hammer of Witches"). The bull Summis desiderantes , which gave him the authority of prosecuting and investigating cases of sorcery, was included in the forefront of the book, first ...