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Two items appear below: 1 Malleus Maleficarum Dean Dowling 2 The Bible and Witch-Hunts Anonymous TRUE
RELIGIOUS BELIEF Dean R. Dowling (Investigator 112, 2007 January)
James 6 of Scotland
became
James 1 of
England
when Elizabeth 1 died. In 1590 James wrote a treatise for finding and
prosecuting
witches, the Demonologic, and included one infallible sign for
a
witch – if she had the Devil's Hood, the clitoris (The clitoris was the
teat on which devilish "familiars" sucked). Read the Tyrannicide
Brief
by Geoffrey Robinson, page 73.
The infamous 1486 Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer for Witches) by Dominicans Sprenger and Kramer and justified by Exodus 22:18, Deuteronomy 18:10 and Galatians 5:19 was the Inquisitors handbook of questions and torture to be used by the best legal and judicial brains at the witches trial. The Malleus is still in print, Dover Paperback. The 1928, 1948 prefaces
for the English
translations
by Rev Montague Summers is an eye opener as to the modern religious
mentality.
Quoting the 1948 preface page (viii), "The
Malleus lay on the
bench of every
judge, on the desk of every magistrate. It was the ultimate,
irrefutable,
unarguable authority.–
"The
Malleus is among
the
most important,
wisest and weightiest books of the world." Page (ix) "From the
point of psychology, of history, it is supreme – what is surprising is the modernity of the book – there are cases which occur in the law courts today, set out with the greatest clarity, argued with unflinching logic and judged with the scrupulous impartiality." Read the 1928 preface, page, (xviii). Realise Summers wrote this in 1948, 1928 not 1486 (1) The actual Malleus
page 6 says, "For
witchcraft is high treason against God's Majesty. And so they are
put to torture to make them confess – all their goods sold by public auction – those who consulted or resorted to witches were punished with exile and confiscation of all their property." Confiscation
of all
their
property,
whether lawfully acquired or not, except for personal clothes and
photos happens
now in 2006 for those identified and not even charged with
the
production and/or trafficking in the illegal drugs like cannabis,
heroin
etc.
This is of the same religious mentality as the Malleus. (See the W.A. Criminal Property Confiscation Act 2000) (2)
Page 47 Malleus,
"All
witchcraft
comes
from carnal lust, which in women is insatiable."
Midwives who carried the knowledge of the ancient contraception methods (including herbal) were special targets of the Inquisition. Anonymous dobbing in was much encouraged and children denouncing their parents justified (Matt 21:16). The Protestants were just as bad, Luther in the Wittenberg sermons urged his followers to hunt and torture witches. Calvin advocated mass executions and thought the court at Geneva far too lenient. Read "The Misery of Christianity" by Dr Joachim Kahl, ex Protestant theologian, Page 83. There were 50 odd questions to be considered in the witch trial e.g. Question 1: "Whether the Belief that there are such Beings as Witches is so essential a part of the Catholic Faith that obstinacy to maintain the Opposite Opinion manifestly savours of Heresy." Note how the religious/legal mind put itself in an infallible position – to deny the existence of witches was a burning-alive offence in itself. Similarly with our present Drug laws. Anyone criticising the torture was in danger of despising the word of God and being a heretic. More legal infallibility. Question 3: "Whether Children can be generated by Incubi and Succubi." Incubi were when the Devil changes into a man to make a woman pregnant. Succubi were when the Devil changes into a woman and can be made pregnant by a man. The monsters conceived in this way (wolves heads, fishes tails) had to be fed with ordinary children. ("The Misery of Christianity" Dr. J Kahl, page 82) Question 6: "Concerning witches who copulate with Devils – Why is it that Women are chiefly addicted to Evil Superstitions?" and so on. The Malleus had more
than
30 reprints by
1669 in an age of high illiteracy and the official witchhunts lasted
more
than 600 years – 1234 to the last witch drowned 1836.
THE EXCUSES
The excuses used by Christian apologists: (1) Ignore
and pass it
over in silence. But why didn't God send
Angels to tell
Sprenger
and Kramer and the Popes they had "misinterpreted", "taken out of
context,"
Ex 22:18, Dt 18:10, Gal 5:19? As he sent an Angel to tell Joseph,
Mary's
adultery and pregnancy was due to the Holy Ghost (Matt 1:20). God has
the
power to send Angels anywhere, anytime.
But perhaps the Malleus is very formal, logical, academic, legal and utter bullshit?? (4) This
excuse beats the
lot. It was not
the witches themselves, but the mad delusion of those who persecuted
them
that came from the Devil. The Inquisitional judges were the deluded
agents
of Satan. (Kahl, page 94, Nigg 1962). THE BIBLE
and WITCH-HUNTS
Anonymous (Investigator
113, 2007
March)
Witchcraft and The Maleus "Formal, logical, academic, legal and utter bullshit." That's Dean Dowling's evaluation of The Maleus Maleficarum. (#112) The Malleus (1486) gave instructions on interrogating people accused of witchcraft. Guilt was assumed and accused persons were either found guilty or died during interrogation. About 30,000 "witches"
were executed in
Europe
in 300 years commencing about 1450, the last ones in Switzerland in
1782.
In Germany
the witch-hunt
craze reached
its
highest intensity in the early 17th century. Contributing
factors
were:
Life was "nasty, brutish
and short" and
people sought scapegoats. Judges, accusers and prosecutors got a share
in the confiscated belongings of convicted witches. Therefore, it was a
matter of self-interest to accuse people of witchcraft.
THE
BIBLE In the 15th century belief in witches who cast spells, ride on broomsticks, cause natural calamities, and have sex with the Devil became commonplace. The belief developed over the previous 1,000 years as story-tellers added juicy details to existing beliefs in pagan magic, herbal medicine, veneration of relics, demons, the evil eye, etc. (Maxwell-Stuart 2000) Not everyone in the
"witch
craze"
centuries
was stupid, cruel, and irrational. The era coincided with the rise of
science.
Hundreds of men, enthused by belief in the Bible and its "God of
order",
founded scientific disciplines that subsequently benefited billions of
people. (Investigator 13)
With the rise of education and Bible-distribution, Bible understanding improved. The Bible nowhere sanctions interrogation by torture – rather investigation by evidence and questioning of "witnesses". Friedrich Spee
(1591-1635)
a Jesuit in
Germany
authored Cautio Criminalis (1631). Spee argued that people who
are
tortured will confess to anything to avoid further torture and
therefore
confession obtained by torture is unreliable.
The Bible
verses
witch-hunters relied on
were: You
shall not permit a sorceress to
live. (Exodus 22:18)
There shall not be found among you any one who burns his son or daughter as an offering, any one who practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a wizard, or a necromancer. (Deuteronomy 18:10) The word "sorcerer/ess" appears as "witch" in the King James Bible (1611) but is mistranslated and has nothing to do with European witchcraft. The two verses
were part
of the law
"covenant"
or contract between God and Israel and there is no
sanction for
anyone else to carry them out. (Psalm 147:19-20)
Compare a modern
contract,
perhaps for a
bank loan with penalties for non-repayment. The contract is solely
between
the bank and the borrower. Other people are uninvolved and they neither
do
the repayments nor are penalised for not doing so.
The bahaviors
listed in
the two quoted
verses
were Canaanite religious practices, which if widely copied would
destroy
Israel. Adopting them was betrayal of religion and country. By the Law
of Moses, Israelite promoters of such evil deserved death to stop
Canaanite
evil from spreading. We can compare this to the death penalty in 20th-century
countries for traitors who worked to undermine their country's
sovereignty.
However, I
repeat, that
was under the Law
Covenant of Moses.
The New
Testament contains
the "new
covenant"
or new contract. In this, people are to "do no wrong", "cast off the
works
of darkness", "love your neighbor" and let the secular authorities deal
with crime, traitors and whatever. (Romans 13)
"Sorcery" in the New Testament (Galatians 5:19-21) referred to religious practice in the Roman Empire. The New Testament penalty is excommunication not killing or torture. (I Corinthians 5:9-13)
EXCUSES Dowling
lists
"excuses" of
Christian
apologists
for the witch-hunts. (p. 45)
In
the
20th
century,
government by
atheists
and others who rejected the Bible inflicted more violent death and
torture
in a few years than all misguided ecclesiastical rule over centuries.
Hitler – 30 million deaths; Imperial Japan – 25 million; Communist
Russia and China – 120
million; North Korea – 5 million; Pol Pot – 1 1/2 million; Idi Amin –
400,000.
Does
Dowling, if
he's an
atheist,
consider
it his responsibility to give excuses?
THE
ANGELS Dowling
asks why
didn't
God send angels
to
intervene?
Here I need to summarise in a nutshell some deep theology on why God's permits evil to occur. The Bible teaches:
From these four
premises
the whole
witch-hunt
program with torture to extract "confessions" is seen as an example of
humans insisting on their own ideas of good and right, contrary to God,
and botching it.
Point "4"
answers
Dowling's question:
"Why
didn't God send angels to tell Sprenger and Kramer [guys who
interrogated
"witches"] and the Popes they had misinterpreted?"
The answer
is
that
Sprenger's and
Kramer's
ideas of good and evil were getting a tryout as everyone else's.
Similarly
with every successive generation: People reject points "1", "2" and
"3",
insist on their own way rather than God's, and consider themselves good
and right but end up exposed as deceived evildoers.
Angels, in
the
Bible, came
on rare
occasions
to prepare the setting for the "Messiah" (Christ) through whom humans
finally
realize how wrong they were and can become friends of God again. (John
3:16)
JUDGMENT Another opponent of witch-hunts and torture was German physician Johan Weyer (1515-1588) author of De Praestigiis Daemonum (1563). Weyer
explained
symptoms
and
manifestations
of witchcraft as medical and psychological conditions and condemned the
use of torture to extract confessions.
Jesus
warned,
"With what
judgment you
pronounce
you will be judged." The Bible often states that people will be
judged by "what they have done". As a Bible believer Weyer echoed these
stern warmings to witch-hunters of his time: But when the great
searcher of hearts,
from whom nothing is hidden, shall appear, your wicked deeds shall
be revealed, you tyrants, sanguinary judges, butchers, torturers and ferocious robbers, who have thrown out humanity and do not know mercy. So I summon you before the tribunal of the Great Judge, who shall decide between us, where the truth you have trampled under foot and buried shall arise and condemn you, demanding vengeance for your inhumanities. BE
CAREFUL Mr
Dowling's evaluation of The Malleus
as "bullshit" was correct. Yet, many people still believe in witches: Even
today people
believe that they
have
a witch's spell on them… If things go wrong, animals and people
fall sick and property is damaged people quite regularly begin talking about the "evil people," about witches and magicians. Modern
belief in
witchcraft had gone in
cycles,
frequently related to social change: between 1860 and 1890 with the
replacement
of aristocratic land ownership and in 1945-1946 with the flood of
female
refugees False belief
in
religion,
science and
politics
is all around us. It's relatively easy to recognize error and evil of
past
centuries but what about in our lifetime? Without constant vigilance,
self-scrutiny,
humility and careful inquiry we will succumb.
REFERENCES: Investigator Magazine No. 13, July 1990; No. 104, September 2005 Kopp, E. The German Tribune, 25 February 1990, p. 15 Maxwell-Stuart, P.G. The Emergence of the Christian Witch, History Today, November 2000 Pickering, D. 1996 Dictionary of Witchcraft, Brockhampton Press Witchcraft
2000
Geddes & Grosset
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