HSTEU 305 WEEK
3 DISCUSSION
Discussion
will focus on image of women in Malleus Maleficarum (K&P, 176-204)
and in
Bernardino of Siena’s sermon against women practicing magic (133-137).
Some
questions are included to guide your reading of other documents as well.
Kramer & Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum, K&P, 176-204
What image of
women is reflected here? Why, in the opinion of these authors, are women
more likely to take up witchcraft? What kinds of crimes do witches commit?
Why are midwives particularly suspect?
What do Kramer
& Sprenger add to the diabolical pact as presented in Aquinas?
What is their attitude to the
Canon Episcopi?
What sources do
Kramer & Sprenger draw on to support their argument?
When they refer to their own “experience,” what kind of experience are they
referring to?
Why would this manual have been convincing to readers?
Witchcraft and
demonological literature has been described as the pornography of the late Middle
Ages.
If so, what kinds of sexual attitudes and fears are expressed in descriptions
of the powers of demons & witches?
(For instance, incubi & succubi.) And what do you make of the bird’s nest
story ?? (p. 203)
What is actual (i.e. physical) and what is illusory (imaginary) in the things
attributed to demons ?
Bernadino of
Siena sermon against women sorcerers (1427): K&P, 133-137
Why is Siena threatened with
the wrath of God?
What kinds of magical activities
are people using? For what purposes?
What does Bernardino mean by
“Know that she or he who claims to have the power to break a charm
knows
as well, be assured, how to work one”? (p.135)
In 1424, Bernardino presided
over a witch trial in Rome. What does he say about the trial three years later?