A fonte de todo mal: sexualidade e bruxaria no Malleus Maleficarum

Abstract

Published at the end of the 15th century, the Malleus Maleficarum became known for defending atrocious methods in the fight against witchcraft, and for accusing women of being the main supporters of magical practices. Several characteristics were attributed to witches, but above all that of being evil and lustful. The work had great circulation and impact on the perception of what this female witchcraft was. For this reason, the purpose of this research is to understand how the exercise of female sexuality influenced the construction of accusations of witchcraft. Through the analysis of the discourse that Kramer and Sprenger made about the existing differences between male and female genders, the objective is to explain the reasons that made women be more associated with sex than men, how this occurred, and why women represented a huge danger in their eyes. It is possible to state that female sexuality was considered the source of all evil, since for the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum, as witches acted mainly through sex and against it, they contaminated themselves, contaminated humanity, and postponed the Judgment Final.