Notes On The Malleus Maleficarum Part 1

The Malleus Maleficarum is a German book written by witch-persecutors and it is concerned with the topic of witchcraft, it is divided into 3 parts and each part has a series of questions. The notes are categorized based on which part and which question the notes were taken from. For example 1:1 is part 1 question 1 and that is the part the notes are starting on.

1:1

The authors of the work call for the extermination of witches. They mention that witchcraft can be used to damage crops, cause impotence, cause miscarriages, sour the milk of cows, and negatively affect the health of others. It mentions incantations as one method of doing these things.

1:2

Regarding the evil eye. Galatians 3:1 mentions the evil eye. Persian philosopher Avicenna believes the virtue(power) of the imagination can effect external bodies(other people for instance) even if those people are not directly looked at.

It mentions how the imagination or internal state of one person can affect another in the same way other changes in the external environment can affect people. For instance if someone walks upon a plank that is placed on the grass one generally feels normal. If one walks upon a plank over deep water they might feel nervous. The act of the evil eye is compared to a change in the external environment happening through the external person practicing the evil eye bringing about a situation in themselves that is comparable to the victim of the evil eye experiencing a transformation similar to the sort of transformation as it would be if one was walking upon a plank on the grass and the grass was replaced with a deep pool of water.

Saints perform miracles sometimes through their own power without the intercession of God and it states that people can by virtue(power) of their soul(nervous system? mind? heart?) transform the bodily matter in another person so as to influence there to be either health or illness. It mentions Peter revived a dead woman named Tabitha through prayer.

Witches have the power to cause hail or rain, love or hate, and bring about madness in others. It mentions that it is possible to destroy human life through chanting alone even from a far distance without the aid of any potions. It mentions witches have the power to stir up storms. The following is quotes to support this case.

"Contaminated with no contagion from poison that has been drunk, the mind being enchanted, dies".
-Lucian Civil Wars 6.457

As a side note the word enchant contains en and chant which means in chant, incantations are chanting. Formulas affirmations or prayers that are chanted. Incantation contains the word canto which means song.

The veneration of images is traced back to a King of Nineveh called Ninus who loved his father very much and made an image of his father and would allow criminals to go free if they venerated the image. Ninus was the son of Belus and the person who claimed this as the origin of image veneration was Vincent in the book Mirror Of History.

Witches can manipulate both air and fire.

"As a result of the strong imagination of the soul the spirit of a conjoined body is changed. This change of spirits takes place especially in the eyes, where more delicate spirits reach".
-St. Thomas Summa 1.117.3

Soul force via the eyes.

According to Aristotle in "Sleep and Wakefulness" children tend to have tender and receptive bodies and that if an old woman looks upon one of them with malice it can be harmful to the child. It states childrens bodies as more impressionable.

As an aside the word envy is related to the word envision. The evil eye is called envidia in some cultures.

It is mentioned that a creature called a basilisk can kill simply by looking at someone.

Runes are mentioned as well and here is a direct quote from the text:
"Or even let us conceive that if the superstitiously employ natural things, as, for example, by writing down certain characters or unknown names of some kind, and that then they use these runes for restoring a person to health, or for inducing friendship, or with some useful end, and not at all for doing any damage or harm, in such cases, it may be granted, I say, that there is no express invocation of demons; nevertheless it cannot be that these spells are employed without a tacit invocation, wherefore all such charms must be judge to be wholly unlawful."

http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/part_I/mm01_02c.html

It is also mentioned that they use certain talismans to counteract the influence of heavenly bodies, to counteract astrological influences. It also mentions that certain talismans are made or rituals done under the influence of certain stars, during certain time periods due to the astrological influence of that particular day or period of time.

1:5

It is again mentioned here that the glare of an old woman can affect delicate children.

The envy Sarai felt towards Hagar is mentioned as being an example of the envy that a childless or barren woman can feel towards those women who do have children. It is mentioned that the will power is the power of a soul. It further states that a barren woman swells with anger just as the swelling of the sea bubbles. [The equation of anger with bubbling and this with curses and the evil eye supports the notion that the norse word for magic seithr may have been related to someone seething with anger and either muttering things or inscribing runes as a result.]

It is mentioned that many women have perished due to an inability to wreak vengeance, that the hatred they feel eats them up inside due to not getting the revenge they seek. Like a sort of heart sickness.

Part 2 of notes

https://steemit.com/parapsychology/@patrick987/notes-on-malleus-maleficarum-part-2