Hans Peter Broedel's The Malleus Maleficarum and the Construction of Witchcraft is a scholarly historical study analyzing the notorious 1487 witch-hunting manual not as a straightforward record of belief but as a text actively constructing a particular theology of witchcraft, tracing how its authors selectively drew on and reshaped existing theological and legal material. Broedel's authority rests on close textual and historiographical method situating the Malleus within its specific institutional and intellectual context rather than treating it as representative of a uniform medieval consensus, since the Malleus's own extreme positions were in fact contested by other churchmen of its own time. This is a widely respected corrective to the older assumption that the Malleus simply reflected settled medieval Christian doctrine on witchcraft.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Reliability tier 1: a scholarly monograph from an academic press offering a close textual and historiographical corrective, a widely respected reassessment of its subject. NotesStudy of how the Malleus assembled its picture of witchcraft, and of the authorship question.
Citation
AuthorHans Peter Broedel
PublisherManchester University Press
Publication Year2003
Source Typeacademic monograph
Claims Backed By This Source (16 claims)
This source backs 16 claims across the atlas. As facts: 13 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate. Plus 2 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
- Historical Figures, 5 claims: 4 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Esoteric Texts, 4 claims: 2 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 1 general references.
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