page_title: Malleus Maleficarum
section_title: Justification (Apologia auctoris)
hierarchical_section_title: Malleus Maleficarum / Summary of contents / Justification (Apologia auctoris)
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Mramorová socha Lucifera (od Guillaume Geefs) v katedrále sv. Pavla v Lutychu (Belgie) English: en:Le génie du mal (The Genius of Evil), known informally in English as en:Lucifer or The Lucifer of Liège, artist en:Guillaume Geefs (Belgium) Français&#160;: fr:Le Génie du Mal - Statue en marbre de Lucifer (par Guillaume Geefs) à la cathédrale Saint-Paul de Liège (Belgique) Русский: Скульптура "Гений зла" (en:Le génie du mal), неофициально называемая "Люцифер", скульптора en:Guillaume Geefs, в Льеже (Бельгия).
context_page_description: The Malleus Maleficarum, usually translated as the Hammer of Witches, is the best known treatise on witchcraft. It was written by the Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer and first published in the German city of Speyer in 1486. It endorses extermination of witches and for this purpose develops a detailed legal and theological theory. It has been described as the compendium of literature in demonology of the fifteenth century. The top theologians of the Inquisition at the Faculty of Cologne condemned the book as recommending unethical and illegal procedures, as well as being inconsistent with Catholic doctrines of demonology.
  The Malleus elevates sorcery to the criminal status of heresy and recommends that secular courts prosecute it as such in order to eliminate witches. The recommended procedures include torture to effectively obtain confessions and the death penalty as the only sure remedy against the evils of witchcraft. At that time, it was typical to burn heretics alive at the stake and the Malleus encouraged the same treatment of witches. The book had a strong influence on culture for several centuries.
context_section_description: In this part it is briefly explained that prevalence of sorcery which is a method of Satan's final assault motivated authors to write the Malleus Maleficarum:
  [...] [ Lucifer ] attacks through these heresies at that time in particular, when the evening of the world declines towards its setting and the evil of men swells up, since he knows in great anger, as John bears witness in the Book of Apocalypse [12:12], that he has little time remaining. Hence, he has also caused a certain unusual heretical perversity to grow up in the land of the Lord – a Heresy, I say, of Sorceresses, since it is to be designated by the particular gender over which he is known to have power. [...] In the midst of these evils, we Inquisitors, Jacobus Sprenger together with the very dear associate [Institoris] delegated by the Apostolic See for the extermination of so destructive a heresy [...] we will bring everything to the desired conclusion. [...] naming the treatise the "Hammer for Sorceresses," we are undertaking the task of compiling the work for an associate [presumably, an ecclesiastic] [...]
caption: Lucifer (Le génie du mal) by Guillaume Geefs (Cathedral of St. Paul, Liège, Belgium)
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D300", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "150", "Image YResolution": "150", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.4.2", "Image DateTime": "2008:03:17 13:36:18", "Image ExifOffset": "212", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[132, 216, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "9360", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9420", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4876", "EXIF ExposureTime": "8589935/1073741824", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:03:15 14:31:09", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:03:15 14:31:09", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "14608309/2097152", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4072055/4194304", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "50", "EXIF SubSecTime": "", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2536", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4123", "EXIF SensingMethod": "0", "EXIF SceneType": "8", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "75", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}