#''Witches may work some Prestidigitatory Illusion so that the Male Organ appears to be entirely removed and separate from the Body''

[haggishlyhagging]

It was clear to "everyone" during the witchcraze that the witchburners were doing god's will by slaughtering women. Even the title of the "authoritative" work of demonology, the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) worked as a self-fulfilling prophecy, for of course "maleficarum" is the feminine form of the word for evil-doer/witch. Since this was published in 1486, in the early period of the witchcraze, it contributed mightily to the overwhelming focus on women during the following centuries. In order to grasp how thoroughly males justified their massacre it is necessary only to look through the Malleus Maleficarum. For example, in the ninth question of Part One, the priestly authors gravely pose the pregnant question: "Whether Witches may work some Prestidigitatory Illusion so that the Male Organ appears to be entirely removed and separate from the Body?" The learned response is that they can: "But when it is performed by witches it is only a matter of glamour; although it is no illusion in the opinion of the sufferer." The term glamour, of course, means "a magic spell."

Kramer and Sprenger gave abundant reasons to justify the gynocidal maniacs who controlled society and culture. They explained that witches turn men into beasts, copulate with devils, raise and stir up hailstorms and tempests. The witch/ woman-killers appeared "perfectly" justified, since the priest professionals had posed the question: "Why is it that Women are chiefly addicted to Evil Superstitions?" The question itself set the framework for the answer. The reader was informed that women are more credulous, that they are naturally more impressionable, have slippery tongues, are feebler both in mind and body, are more carnal than men (!) to the extent of having insatiable lust, have weak memories, are liars by nature. Then—without missing a beat, after hammering home their view that women are feeble in every sense—these Sado-Sages add that "nearly all the kingdoms of the world have been overthrown by women."

Those who acted as henchmen in hunting out, torturing, and killing women as witches could argue correctly that they were serving the Higher Order of patriarchy and were acting "under orders." The papal Bull of Innocent VIII, Summis desiderantes affectibus (1484), was a document of the highest authority, giving the support of Rome to "Our dear sons," the dominican Inquisitors, Kramer and Sprenger, who were encountering opposition to the witch persecutions. This papal document had been purposefully solicited by the two dominicans to legitimate their attempt to launch the witchcraze in the Rhineland. As Trevor-Roper points out:

Having obtained it, they printed it in their book, as if the book had been written in response to the bull. The book thus advertised to all Europe both the new epidemic of witchcraft and the authority which had been given them to suppress it.

Here we see very conscious manipulation of legitimation from on high by the Inquisitors. Given the "go ahead" from Innocent, they had perfect justification for carrying out orders. More than that: Innocent had made it clear that "Our venerable Brother, the Bishop of Strasburg . . . shall threaten all who endeavor to hinder or harass the Inquisitors, all who oppose them . . . [with] terrible penalties." Thus ecclesiastical power was used to erase responsibility for opposing the witch persecutions, even for speaking against them. Although Innocent's Bull itself refers to "many persons of both sexes" as having "abandoned themselves to devils, incubi and succubi," the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum manage to totally erase this idea, while at the same time retaining the full support of "Innocent" in their war against women. Thus the "dear Sons"—the real leaders of the witch-hunting brotherhood—were the power behind the throne of the Holy Father.

In the witchcraze, then, we can see the truth of Helen Diner's insight that "in Christianity the tree becomes the torture cross of the world." Under the Sign of the Cross good and wise women were tortured and burned to death. Trees were killed and their wood used to make the fires that would devour these women. Under the reign of the Torture Cross Society, the Tree of Life—the divine Self-centering life of independent women—was cut down and consumed. The citizens of the city of god created, staged, and acted out the christian hell on earth. Their theology expressd itself as demonology; their reigning philosophy became an ontology of the damned. No one was responsible for this evil except the victims, who were perceived not as victims of their murderers, but of the devil. Innocent and his "dear Sons" were servants of god, burning with innocence.

-Mary Daly, Gyn/Ecology

[medusanevertalks]

“To deal with the increasing tide of witchcraft and in conformity with the Pope’s orders, Sprenger and Kramer collaborated on the Malleus Maleficarum. This document, a monument to Aristode’s logic and academic methodology (quoting and footnoting “authorities”), catalogues the major concerns of 15th-century Catholic theology:

Question I. Whether the Belief that there are such Beings as Witches is so Essential a Part of the Catholic Faith that Obstinancy to maintain the Opposite Opinion manifestly savours of Heresy (Answer: Yes)

Question III. Whether Children can be Generated by Incubi and Succubi (Answer: Yes)

Question VIII. Whether Witches can Hebetate the Power of Generation or Obstruct the Venereal Act (Answer: Yes)

Question IX. Whether Witches may work some Prestidigitatory Illusion so that the Male Organ appears to be entirely removed and separate from the Body (Answer: Yes)

Question XL. That Witches who are Midwives in Various Ways Kill the Child Conceived in the Womb, and Procure Abortion; or if they do not do this, Offer New-born Children to the Devils (Answer: Yes)

The Malleus also describes the ritual and content of witchcraft per se, though in the tradition of paternalism indigenous to the Church, Sprenger and Kramer are careful not to give formulae for charms or other dangerous information. They write “of the several Methods by which Devils through Witches Entice and Allure the Innocent to the Increase of that Horrid Craft and company”; “of the Way whereby a Formal Pact with Evil is made”; “How they are Transported from Place to Place”; “Here follows the Way whereby Witches copulate with those Devils known as Incubi”, etc. They document how witches injure cattle, cause hailstorms and tempests, illnesses in people and animals, bewitch men, change themselves into animals, change animals into people, commit acts of cannibalism and murder. The main concern of the Malleus is with natural events, nature, the real dynamic world which refused to conform to Catholic doctrine — the Malleus, with tragic wrong-headedness, explains most aspects of biology, sexology, medicine, and weather in terms of the demonic.”

— Andrea Dworkin, Woman Hating; 1974