“But the devils cannot interfere with the stars.”
— Heinrich Kramer, Malleus Maleficarum (1485)
I. THE NECESSARY WITCH
Whether such beings as witches
Obstinately maintain firm belief in doctrine
Can be changed for the better or the worse,
Or transformed into another kind or likeness,
By the Creator of all things — a pagan and a heretic:
Man.
In this way, they could destroy the world
And bring it to utter confusion,
But the devils cannot interfere with the stars.
Evil is powerful in the world —
That is to say, man and beast;
Because magicians observe the course of certain stars
They have the power of effecting any change —
It follows that there is no hope
Of permanent disease, therefore
They are to be put to death —
There is the Faith.
Men bewitched by carnal copulation
Destroy the witch
Because, they had a certain
Legitimate dominion over them —
A certain idol, the loss of souls —
He is able to do this:
To cure it by the penalty of death.
The same penalty is unlawful for any man,
Even if he confesses his crime —
Let him suffer not, and so
Let us speak against the first error:
Women.
II. WOMEN
Concerning witches:
Such abominations are part of the body of men,
And men surpass all others in wickedness.
Women are learned in nature,
In goodness or vice,
And when they exceed the bounds of their condition
They are governed by: ministry, faith, fire —
The tongue of one prudent man can subdue
The wrangling of a multitude,
Not understanding wisdom is found —
And fools die for want of wisdom.
All good men are friendly and hostile,
Peaceable and quarrelsome,
Neighborly and utterly selfish —
Sin honoured to serve the wickedness of women;
A woman is an unescapable punishment
For the many lusts of men —
When a woman thinks alone,
She thinks evil.
Good women are of a different nature from men:
Gold, fair, this defect, weaker, the Blessed Virgin.
Just as the tides of the sea are always heaving and boiling,
There is no wrath above the wrath of a woman
Falsely accused, imprisoned, truly the most powerful —
Holy women, patient, fruitful, poison.
A woman will not be governed —
In the same way, we have killed them.
And why? Because she would not be governed,
And would follow her own impulse?
Deadly to keep —
More bitter than death, that is,
More bitter than death, again,
More bitter than death, again,
And so, He has granted to men the privilege,
Special dominion, to destroy women.
Corruption of sin,
A work of God,
The Faith.
III. MIDWIVES
Here is set forth the truth concerning horrible crimes:
This form of homicide is more
Than the obstruction of a woman —
It is the devouring of the night-time,
The memory,
The midwives.
IV. SUCH MIGHTY WORKS OF WITCHCRAFT
There are witches that rage against men,
With such great power —
They have the sword to which human nature is subject:
Wisdom, justice, and goodness
Where it would otherwise remain hidden
For the information of the people,
Our parents, the smaller ones, the angels —
Anyone is at liberty to collect.
There is power to the processes of nature,
To the influences of the stars —
All the influence of that wisdom,
The ultimate good of the universe,
Held by the witches —
The extent of men, animals, and the fruits of the earth.
Faith is certain that nothing
Can be more galling to the pride of God,
But God permits witches, the original sin,
To their intention and desire:
The shield of Faith on the other hand.
The wicked are already His,
Those who do not set themselves against Him.
The human will is not evil,
But he can be.
The witches show their contempt.
They do not hurt their enemies.
V. OF THE WAY EVIL IS MADE
They profess their sacrilege through this treatise.
Witches will suffice every instinct
Of human or animal nature — this most powerful class,
Who practise a solemn ceremony, a solemn vow,
To make certain that, one day, men
Shall speak the truth:
That they summoned the devil in the form of a man
And tread underfoot the women speaking certainly
And in a total abnegation of the Faith —
Mercy has given her great power
To expose that he gain some profit from her despair.
The truth of this is clear:
It is a Divine impulse that a witch is made,
With their lips and their hearts.
We have often learned that truth is witnessed
By swollen and livid faces;
It is pious to believe a human life
Is revelation,
That devils cause disease and famines,
So also they can predict them —
So, no man can know what impulses, what actions,
Will foretell when a witch is burned.
But a certain old woman took notice —
Of the care, the sick, the cause —
She already told,
And when he begged to be liberated, she said
“You will be healed.”
And within thirty days she was
Condemned to the fire.
If only she could be set free.
