The Malleus Maleficarum

Women’s roles have changed greatly throughout history. As the advancement of culture, laws, and ideas altered ways of life, women’s lives also evolved in numerous aspects of society. Women’s roles changed greatly between 1815 and 1860. During this time, family dynamics changed as the mothers that were placed at the center of the household were given greater freedoms. In addition, women had more opportunity to take on jobs in the workplace. Women also fought for reform movements that altered their ways of life in the community. During the reform era of the United States, factors such as religion, education, and reforms greatly changed women’s roles in the family, workplace, and society.

Because of the 19th Amendment that allowed women the right to vote, Women started to gain legitimacy in the eyes of society. There was no law that made them lesser of a

Witchcraft was defined for the masses by the publication of the Malleus Maleficarium also known simply as the Handbook. Written by two Dominican friars in 1486 it’s purpose was to be used as a handbook to identify, capture, torture, and execute suspected witches. Opinions stated as facts and written in the Malleus Maleficarium, “handbook”, were based their faith, church doctrine, and the Bible. No doubt a religious masterpiece in it’s time this handbook is a neatly woven together a group of beliefs, experiences, wisdom of ancient writers, religious ideas, and God inspired writings that justify it’s purpose. Written by and used by Catholics this handbook proved useful for Protestants as well. Based on biblical interpretation and ideas the handbook provided Protestant Church leaders biblical authority to prosecute witchcraft as well. Translated into today’s vernacular phrases such as, “everybody knows that women are feeble minded” or “everybody knows that women are more superstitious than men” and “all women have slippery tongues” are included in the handbook and presented to the reader as foregone conclusions. Specific

Many social changes have occurred over time that have allowed women to gain the same rights that men have had for many years. The Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries changed the work

Women’s rights have improved drastically since that time but there still is a stigma that men are better than women. This type of view is wrong and shouldn’t even be thought about in the world we live into today. Woman server a great purpose in the world we live in and should be considered equal in all aspects of life. If one were to ponder this idea seriously we can see without out women no children are born. The sad truth is that women still have to fight for their rights in every aspect of their daily lives. The typical women in society makes only .70 cents for every dollar that a man would make doing the same job. One would think that one hundred and fifty years later women would be considered equal counterparts to men. “There has been progress toward greater workplace equality, but we still have a long ways to

The witch trials in continental Europe, which lasted from the late 1300s until around 1650, resulted in an execution of "between 200,000 and 500,000 witches, 85% or more of whom were women."1 There is wide debate between historians arguing about whether or not this is a mass act of sexism—some stating that large groups of men gathered together to blame women for all of their village 's misfortunes, while others state that there were still a high number of males executed for witchcraft, and that anybody could be considered a witch. There is no getting around the fact that gender was a very important factor in the European witch trials, seeing as a majority of victims across the country were women. That being said, the idea of witch-hunts being sexist and specifically targeted towards women is false, rather, the label of "witch" was more frequently added onto powerful women who were viewed as sinful threats to society, resulting in the high number of executed females.

Women are sometimes more nurturing than some men when it comes to taking care of their family members or children. When a woman becomes pregnant they receive a maternity leave which also puts a hold on their income, making it easier for the man of the household to have a higher paying job (Joan Acker, 1989). Another example, when a child of a family gets sick most of the time the woman is the one to leave work early and stay home with the child. Some job sites have paid maternity leave but then many do not. Women have greater recourse to part-time work so they can combine work and family responsibilities (Joan Acker, 1989). During the older days, women were not allowed to enter professions such as medicine or law, married women had no property rights, they were not allowed to vote, married women were not even present in the eyes of the law. From then to now a lot has changed but women still are not

They could now vote, be hired for a variety of jobs and positions, and be paid equally under the law. It has been argued that the social position of women today is different today than in past centuries. One area of question is still pay. In many cases, a woman doing the same job as a man is paid less. Just to make a point, women participating in jury duty was an argument for women to always stay in the home.

When people think of witches today, there is an image of the characteristics of an old, haggard woman. The connotation of women and witches is significant throughout history especially in early modern Europe. The early modern period was the beginnings of the witch- hunt panics and rooted the characterization and oppression of witches. The moral righteousness through the patriarchal system in place led a clear disportionate between females persecuted as witches. The patriarchal system in place was misogynistic which led to characterizing and stigmatizing of women through the values of the church.

They could not strive to be better and they could not challenge the way society thought. This is simply not the case today. Our society has advanced to the point where there are not such defined boundaries on what a woman can achieve. Many women have accomplished achievements that early 20th century women didn’t even dream about such as voting. Voting was a right gained by women in 1920. The 19th amendment says that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” This was a great victory for women. Also, women work much more now. Women are doing jobs that were historically reserved for men such as the military. Another area that women are thriving in now is sports. In the early 20th century you would never hear of women participating in sports on any level. Today women’s sports are plentiful. Women have achieved a lot over the last century.

Germany during the early modern period was a part of the Holy Roman Empire, made up of territorial states and independent cities ruled by prince-bishops. In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull, known as the Witch Bull, and appointed two inquisitors, Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Krämer, to rid Germany of witchcraft (Sallman, 1994; Wilson, 1996). In 1486 Sprenger and Krämer published the Malleus maleficarum, a book which condemned witchcraft as heresy, connecting witches’ magic with diabolism (Levack, 2016). It also claimed women were more susceptible to witchcraft by their nature (Wiesner-Hanks, 2013). During the witch trials of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, women were the primary victims of accusations and executions (Levack,

The manipulations of the Bible and other texts aren’t an uncommon thing at all. Cult leaders can make use of the Bible for their own selfishness; however, unlike many other manipulations, the book “Malleus Maleficarum” focuses on women and witchcraft in the society during that period of time. Witchcraft has always been a concern during the early century as it is consider to be connected to evilness; people would judge this problem with prejudice viewpoints. Women aren’t being compared to men, but they are being used as a subject that is related to the Devil. Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger use the Bible in the “Malleus Maleficarum” to manipulate and accuse women to be witches under the spell of the Devil.

Heinrich Kramer, a Dominican friar, wrote the Malleus Maleficarum in 1486. He believed witches to be “members of a vast conspiracy directed against Christian society that was allowed by God to cause immense physical and spiritual hardship” (Behringer 716). Therefore, Kramer believed the real way to rid witches was through physical eradication. The start of the manuscript came from his experience in witchcraft trials in Upper Germany.

Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger wrote The Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) published December 9, 1484. Kramer included the Papal Bull issued by Pope Innocent VIII on December 5, 1484. A papal bull is an official, formal decree by a sitting Pope, it is called a ‘Bull’ because of the official lead seal, ‘bulla’ that authenticated it. This Bull gave Kramer’s book the authority of Pope Innocent VIII to its readers. Also included in the book are approbations, approvals given by an official group or persons, in the Malleus Maleficarum the approbation came from the Faculty of Theology of the University of Cologne. The Malleus Maleficarum became an official guide for the hunting, trying, and punishing witches through the inquisitorial process.

Women's rights and responsibilities have changed a lot between the 19th and 21st centuries. Starting from the 19th century, women have progressed in almost every year. Women can now work, get an education, own property, and vote. Women also have more responsibilities in the household than they use to. With these changes, women are now almost equals to men. (Women Empowerment Vital)