The Misogyny of Witchcraft Main Menu Introduction Heinrich Kramer (1430-1505) and Malleus Malleficarum Malleus Maleficarum and Misogyny A noble science? Witchcraft and mental illness The beginning of the end List of works in the exhibition Further reading

Johann Weyer (1515-1588)

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De praestigiis daemonum
1586

In direct opposition to Kramer and the ideas presented in Malleus Maleficarum were the writings of Johann Weyer, a Dutch physician who, with the publication of his most influential work, De Praestigiis Daemonum, et Incantationibus, ac Veneficiis Libri V [On the Illusions of the Demons and on Spells and Poisons], in 1563, presented the view that witchcraft was not a heresy against the Church, or the manifestation of pacts with the Devil, but rather was an indicator of mental illness. He claimed that the crime of witchcraft was literally impossible, so that anyone who confessed to it was more than likely suffering some kind of mental disturbance. Historians believe that Weyer was the first to use the term “mentally ill” to describe those women accused of witchcraft, and it is women to whom Weyer refers, because for him witchcraft was both sex- and age-specific. Weyer backed his claims with descriptions of case histories from his own medical experience, and thus the text contains some of the earliest references to psychological treatments. Weyer’s work was influential for contemporary theologians and jurists who took up the idea that manifestations of witchcraft were the result of mental illness.

The second image displays the appendix, Pseudomonarchia Deamonum, in which Weyer lists the names and titles of evil spirits, and the powers that each supposedly wielded.


 

This page has paths:

  1. Witchcraft and mental illness Sue Luftschein

Contents of this path:

  1. Johann Weyer, De praestigiis daemonum, Title page
  2. Johann Weyer, De praestigiis daemonum, Pseudomonarchia daemonum