What is the cult treatise “The Witches Hammer” dedicated to?

First letter "d"

Second letter "e"

Third letter "m"

The last letter is "I"

Answer to the question “What is the cult treatise “The Witches Hammer” dedicated to?”, 11 letters:
demonology

Alternative crossword questions for the word demonology

Science and religious practice, the object of which are supernatural beings called demons, spirits or geniuses

Belief in evil spirits

Definition of the word demonology in dictionaries

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The meaning of the word in the dictionary Great Soviet Encyclopedia
(from demon and...logy), in a number of religions the doctrine of evil spirits, historically dating back to the primitive belief in spirits. D. is most significant in religions with a dualistic division of the Universe into the world of good and the world of evil - in Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism. In later religions...

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. D.N. Ushakov The meaning of the word in the dictionary Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language. D.N. Ushakov
demonology, pl. no, w. (from the Greek daimon - deity and logos - teaching). System of mythical ideas about evil spirits (ethnol.). The scientific discipline that studies these mythical ideas. The branch of medieval theology that treated evil spirits (historical)....

Wikipedia Meaning of the word in the Wikipedia dictionary
Demonology is the general name for heterogeneous myths about demons. The name is used by analogy with modern scientific directions. The main areas of demonology are usually the study of demons, descriptions of demon behavior, descriptions of summoning rituals...

New explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova. The meaning of the word in the dictionary New explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.
and. The doctrine of Demons (2), existing in some religions.

Examples of the use of the word demonology in literature.

He doesn't just go completely into demonology, he does not forget for a minute the theoretical philosophy of his teacher and tries, as it were, to test demonological practice with the help of purely theoretical philosophemes.

Now he was looking for literature on witchcraft and wizardry, the occult and demonology, and when the Providence libraries were exhausted, he took a train to Boston to rummage through the riches of the great library in Coplay Square, the Harvard and Zeno Research Libraries, where rare works on biblical subjects were available.

This demonology illustrated by several interesting stories about magicians and magicians in Rus' at that time and parallel biblical examples.

This demonology widely used quotes from Western anti-Semitic sources - the works of Hitler or Rosenberg in Germany, Lees or Jordan in England, ancient Muslim sources, these were also imitations of Western witty anti-Semitic jokes, sometimes even from Jewish sources.

According to Trachtenberg, Christian influence may have been reflected in the fact that demonology, or the science of demons, took a less significant place than angelology, or the science of angels.

Witches and sorcerers gathered at the games with their infernal lovers at midnight: in the mountains, on forest lawns, in gardens or around the gallows. Having met, they ate and drank beyond measure, blasphemed, made noise, boasted of their atrocities and insidious plans, beat the bungler and praised Satan. But the main place at these gatherings was given to wild dances, during which naked men and women with torches in their hands, pressed back to back, furiously writhed and bawled obscene songs. These wild dances ended in the pre-dawn hour with wild lustful games in which demons, women and men, copulated with each other indiscriminately. In contrast to such frequent night gatherings, the Sabbath had the character of a festive satanic mass. Sabbaths were held mostly on church holidays, mainly on Walpurgis Night and the night of Ivan Kupala. The main thing here was Satan himself, upon whose appearance those present had to kneel and glorify him with the prayer: “Our Satan, who art in hell...” After such a greeting, witches and sorcerers laid gifts at his feet, mainly the bodies of murdered babies. After new members of the sect were introduced to Satan, the feast began. During it, not simple human dishes were served (as at ordinary witchcraft gatherings), but the most disgusting ones: fried human flesh, crow stew, boiled moles and frogs.

Then the dance began, during which, to the deafening sounds of flutes and drums, the participants in the gathering, writhing obscenely, jumped backwards until their ranks closed, and then the most unbridled orgy began.

The culmination of the Sabbath was the solemn worship of Satan, who during this ceremony sat on his throne, turning into a huge shaggy goat with flaming eyes and horns glowing with icy light. All those present had to approach him on their knees in order to kiss him on the tail; he also emitted foul winds from time to time. The Satanic mass ended with the solemn reproach of God and the trampling of crosses and consecrated hosts. When Satan left the coven, the witches still had to settle many different matters: brew themselves an ointment, talk about their immediate plans. At dawn, those gathered set off on their return journey.

Hans Baldung Green

The famous painting by the German Northern Renaissance artist Hans Baldung Grin (1485-1545) depicts two witches sending out bad weather. They arrived on a goat, which lay down between them. With the help of spells and a witch's decoction, witches prepare bad weather, and now blood-red thunderclouds appear in the sky.

Accusing witches and sorcerers of “inflicting damage by witchcraft at the instigation of the Devil,” the most vile crimes were attributed to them.

The judges diligently noted all the magical means used by sorcerers: incantations and spells, drawn or scrawled signs, dolls depicting people who were being damaged, a wide variety of poisons, tinctures and ointments, magic wands and magic needles, poisonous worms and insects, poisoned spirit and the notorious "evil eye". These and many other means were used by witches when building their intrigues against people, animals and all things.

Most often, witches were accused of causing illness. Even today, the name of sudden pain in the lower back reminds us of this: “witch’s lumbago.” They were also blamed for male impotence, female infertility, congenital deformities, sudden clouding of the eyes, and various mental illnesses. Under torture, the accused confessed to even more vile crimes, for example, poisoning pregnant women or strangling newborns, whose bodies were needed to prepare an ointment that allows them to fly, or a decoction that makes vineyards wither.

Damage to livestock was also among the devil's favorite machinations. Witch hunters immediately began looking out for the culprits if cows' milk suddenly turned sour. After all, witches and sorcerers mix poison into the grass and cast spells on the livestock!

As soon as the witches rubbed the magic ointment on the animals, they could be paralyzed. And then: peasants kept finding bloody carcasses of animals in the pasture, torn to pieces by witches or sorcerers who turned into wolves. In addition, in the treatises on witches it was said that the hatred of the witch sect is directed not only at people and animals, but also at all of God’s creations. Hence the corrosive questions of the judges: did the accused encroach on the established world order? Didn't they, for example, cause a thunderstorm by hitting the water with a whip? Didn't they make hailstones from water and stones? Was the pot knocked over, causing frost to destroy the plants and fruits underneath? Didn’t they happen, at the instigation of the Devil, to revive mice, rats, midges and other field pests from dirt and sewage, thus causing hunger? The inquisitors worked tirelessly until the suspect of witchcraft, under torture, “repented” of all these, and even much worse, sins.

Medieval engraving

In the second half of the 15th century, witch hunts gradually spread to the entire north of Europe, first to southern Germany, then to the Rhineland and northern Germany. The most zealous advocates of this persecution were the learned Dominican monks Heinrich Kramer (lat. Heinrich Institoris) and Jacob Sprenger. However, both met with misunderstanding and resistance from German bishops, princes and city authorities.

Then the enraged Institoris, who had served as inquisitor of Upper Germany since 1479, went to Rome to seek help from the pope himself. His trip was a success. On December 5, 1484, Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492) issued the so-called “Bull on Witchcraft” (“Summis desiderantes affectibus” - “With all the thoughts of the soul”). In it, he unconditionally repeated everything that the fanatical Institoris assured him of: witches are now multiplying throughout Germany; The Church and the Christian faith are in mortal danger. He, the supreme shepherd of all Christians, calls on all those in authority to resolutely support the “beloved sons” of Institoris and Sprenger in exposing and eradicating the diabolical conspiracy. The bulla, propagated thanks to printing, became widespread and attracted everyone's attention.

Sprenger and Institoris skillfully took advantage of this circumstance, supplementing the papal word with a huge treatise on witches, published in 1487 under the title “” (“Malleus maleficarum”). This disastrous book, consisting of 3 parts, 42 chapters and 35 questions, combined all the knowledge of theological scholars about witches and all the practical experience of fighting them. The authors’ efforts paid off: over the course of two centuries, “The Witches’ Hammer” was published 29 times, becoming a kind of bible for witch hunters.

Pope Innocent VIII
author of the "Bull on Witchcraft"

Pope Innocent VIII, the author of the notorious “Bull on Witchcraft,” called on the German authorities to persecute and mercilessly exterminate witches. The monks Sprenger and Institoris, on the basis of the bull, published a treatise called “The Hammer of the Witches.” Today it is difficult for us to understand the reasons for the success of this book, because even if we forgive the authors all the superstitions of that time, “The Witches Hammer” will remain one of the most disgusting creations of world literature. He is disgusting primarily because of his obsession. Under the cover of theological learning, the authors indulge in descriptions of the most vile debauchery and perversion. The endless hatred of the authors of this “pious work” towards women is also disgusting. With what contempt it describes these “imperfect creatures”, stupid, lustful, treacherous, vain, curious, talkative, deceitful, unstable in faith - what a prey for the Devil! Finally, the fanatical ruthlessness of the authors is disgusting. Sprenger and Institoris teach spiritual and secular judges to resort to the most unimaginable meanness and cruelty in order to hunt down and exterminate witches and sorcerers. In this matter, in their opinion, even deliberately false promises are good. However, it was not the “Witches Hammer” that became the reason for the declared witch hunt: as we could see, there were already plenty of these reasons. The appearance of this treatise only marked the historical moment when the stronghold of reason finally fell and the obsession with witchcraft, like a poisoned cloud, hung over the Christian world of the West. And this happened not in the era of the “dark Middle Ages,” as many believe, but already at the dawn of the New Age, the time of the birth of the ideas of freedom and the first great victories of the inquisitive human mind!

Paintings on the theme “Witches and the Inquisition”

Today the next issue of “AiF” No. 19 dated May 10, 2017 was released and we have prepared questions and answers for this issue of the crossword puzzle.

Horizontally:

1. Boast fuel. 14 letter answer: COMPLIANCE
4. Square-cluster... planting potatoes. 6 letter answer: METHOD
9. Who “ensures immortality after death” for our smaller brothers? 12 letter answer: TAXIDERMIST
10. Language transformation. 7 letter answer: TRANSLATION
12. Soap, but not opera. 4 letter answer: FOAM
13. The art of hitting notes with movements. 5 letter answer: DANCE
14. “He will rush... on a dolphin, blowing a silver horn.” 5 letter answer: YOUTH
16. How much compensation did Ostap Bender receive from Alexander Koreiko? 7 letter answer: MILLION
20. Who is placed over the monks? 6 letter answer: Igumen
22. “Aspen weapons” against vampires. 3 letter answer: KOL
23. “No need to frown, ...!” 4 letter answer: LADA
27. Bouncer blank. 5 letter answer: BUG
28. In which of our regional centers is the route across the border? 11 letter answer: KALININGRAD
31. Where will mice definitely not be left without food? 5 letter answer: BARN
32. Which Martha became the third wife of Ivan the Terrible? 8 letter answer: SOBAKINA
34. Last name of Pope John Paul II. 7 letter answer: VOYTYLA
35. What flower is associated with the goddess Diana? 6 letter answer: LILY OF THE LILY
39. Crispy for a sweet tooth. 4 letter answer: MERINGE
40. “In big trouble and... fatter.” 5 letter answer: SKIN
41. “Artificial interruption” of power. 9 letter answer: COUP
42. Sean Connery wears a skirt on special occasions. 4 letter answer: KILT
43. “He who has manure on his hands has manure on his lips...” (Finnish proverb). 3 letter answer: FAT
45. A fabulous hard worker who repaid his employer for his stinginess. 5 letter answer: BALDA
46. ​​A cartoon lion who went on vacation to Africa. 9 letter answer: BONIFACE
47. Where is Raymond Pauls from? 4 letter answer: RIGA
48. Which lizard was once Australia's top predator? 5 letter answer: VARAN
49. What is listed on the stock exchange? 5 letter answer: PROMOTION
50. “Taxi driver without a license” in driving jargon. 7 letter answer: BOMBIL
51. “Guarantee” that you will keep your mouth shut. 4 letter answer: GAG
52. Game of throwers. 5 letter answer: DARTS

Vertically:

1. Loss “in a state of passion.” 12 letter answer: SELF-CONTROL
2. Table protector. 8 letter answer: TABLECLOTH
3. Russian artist who had a hand in the creation of budenovka. 8 letter answer: VASNETSOV
5. Cult film "... Jurassic period". 4 letter answer: PARK
6. What metal did alchemists associate with Saturn? 6 letter answer: LEAD
7. Who plays the saxophone in the film “Silver Lily of the Valley”? 6 letter answer: BUTMAN
8. “Pass us by and forgive us our happiness” (classic novel). 5 letter answer: IDIOT
11. Which European country has the longest maritime border in the world with Canada? 5 letter answer: DENMARK
12. It's hot in hell. 5 letter answer: HOT
15. Night state of a healthy brain. 5 letter answer: PEACE
17. Artistic enamel. 7 letter answer: FINIFT
18. An employee helping to “settle scores.” 9 letter answer: ACCOUNTANT
19. A bird that swallows prey without removing its beak from the mud. 5 letter answer: BEKAS
21. “Bloody Steel” from Pushkin’s “Black Shawl”. 5 letter answer: BULAT
22. “Area of ​​an official.” 7 letter answer: OFFICE
24. What is the cult treatise “The Witches Hammer” dedicated to? 11 letter answer: DEMONOLOGY
25. Smoke over boiling water. 3 letter answer: PAIR
26. Nutmeg thickets. 11 letter answer: VINEYARD
28. From what marsh plant do magicians make the “rod of the ruler of the sublunary world”? 5 letter answer: KAMYSH
29. Venetian ruler. 3 letter answer: DOJ
30. “The French Spencer Tracy,” who had a whirlwind affair with Marlene Dietrich. 5 letter answer: GABEN
33. Who “brings light to people”? 8 letter answer: ELECTRICIAN
36. “Lard in a frying pan.” 7 letter answer: CREAM
37. How do they pay the dealer? 5 letter answer: TOKEN
38. Which vegetable should you not eat if you have kidney problems? 7 letter answer: TOMATO
39. “Golden Capital” of Siberia. 7 letter answer: BODAIBO
41. What do you wear “at night”? 6 letter answer: PAJAMAS
44. Which Tom was played by Matt Damon in Anthony Minghella's crime drama? 5 letter answer: RIPLEY
46. ​​Braid decor. 4 letter answer: BOW

"Witches Hammer"(German "Hexenhammer"; Latin "Malleus Maleficarum")- the legendary book of European inquisitors of the Middle Ages. In the 15th-16th centuries, its mention caused nothing but horror. The book that “killed” thousands of people across Europe now only attracts people who are interested in mysticism or history. What is she like?

This book was written in 1486 by two Dominican monks, Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer. Its authors were already well-known “witch hunters” (although many church ministers spoke harshly about their “dirty” activities), and the approval of Pope Innocent VIII finally made “The Hammer of Witches” a reference book for inquisitors (in addition, the style of presentation in the book was close to secular and was equally accessible to ecclesiastical and civil judges). The Witches' Hammer has been reprinted more than 30 times, mostly in German and French.

The authors of the publication had a rather subtle understanding of demonology; it was not difficult for them to combine ancient legends and modern church knowledge in order to set out all the principles of the fight against witches. The witch hunt manual consisted of three parts.

First was aimed at the psychological and social aspect of judges, it outlined the church's point of view on the essence of witchcraft, where it was declared the worst of crimes and mercilessly punished. It was believed that in addition to harming people, another task of witches was to multiply evil spirits (demons, werewolves, evil spirits) on Earth and create cursed places.

Here, witches were divided into three types: those who engaged in sabotage, those who possessed exclusively the gift of healing (the medieval nobility usually kept such people at their court) and the latter had both types of witchcraft. There was also a higher category of witches - they possessed a special devilish power acquired as a result of devouring children (this trait is mentioned in the folklore of almost all peoples of the world, especially in fairy tales).

Based on the exclusive guilt of the accused, any witnesses were allowed to testify in court, incl. criminals; excommunicated, false witnesses, prostitutes, foreigners, etc. The entire first part is written according to the system of answers to the proposed questions.

Witch trial

Second part intended for potential victims and hunters, it covers the theory of the existence and activities of witches. This is the largest and most important part of the book, it contains eighteen chapters on methods of witchcraft sabotage and another eight chapters on ways to eliminate or cure witchcraft. Categories of people who are not subject to witchcraft are also mentioned here: inquisitors, fighters against witches, as well as people protected by sacred rites (through holy water, salt, willow branches) and angels. One chapter is devoted to male sorcerers.

Most of the chapters in this part talk about such sexual affairs of witches as intercourse with demons and incubi (as well as the birth of children from them), love witchcraft over people and forcibly seducing them into sexual intercourse, removal of genital organs in men and delay in childbearing in women. Witchcraft of another nature is also described: werewolves and turning people into animals, sending diseases, transferring from place to place, moving into someone else’s body, killing (read eating) or dedicating babies to demons, controlling the forces of the elements.

Among the means of healing, pilgrimages to holy places, full confession, prayer exercises with Christian symbols, and exorcism are indicated everywhere. But only the witch herself who performed the witchcraft can return the genital organ or human appearance (an option is that the witchcraft can dissipate after her death). And in order to resist crop failure, hail or livestock diseases, all believers had to go around the cursed places in a religious procession.

The third part based on God's commandment “Don’t leave the witches alive”. It consists of 35 questions and is entirely devoted to the legal side of the issue (similar in structure to the code) - evidence of guilt in witchcraft, rules of trials, methods of passing sentences, torture, interrogations, etc. Despite the fact that many chapters in this part are devoted to acquittals and mitigating sentences, they were rarely passed, which cannot be said about the death penalty.

“The Hammer of the Witches” questioned such methods of testing for the purity of the soul as testing by fire, boiling water, hot iron, placing on scales and immersion in water, which had been successfully used previously; according to the book, the judge receives the right to judge the guilt of the witch (which actually sentenced the girl). It was also stipulated here that the witch could not be tried without providing her with a lawyer and having her own confession (which, however, was easily extracted in the torture chambers), but the accused was not supposed to know the names and identities of the witnesses.

Execution of witches by cleansing fire

Despite the fact that the book accuses witchcraft, its main idea is that a woman is practically guilty before God by her very existence, and having contacted the devil, she is unworthy of life on earth. If you look at it, this creation is very superficially connected with church commandments, but the authors tried their best and, having built numerous sophisms, sublime and confusing phrases in the book (in places illogical and contradictory to each other), they achieved their goal by clouding people’s common sense, which led to fatal consequences.

The Inquisition, using this guidance, destroyed, according to scattered data, from several tens to hundreds of thousands of innocent women (which is why it is believed that Europe has lost the basis of the female gene pool and natural beauties). Today we can only marvel at the fatal power of this book and rejoice that the wave of witch hunts did not reach Russian lands.