The Malleus Maleficarum – or The Hammer of Witches: On page after page, this famous work on demonology describes the witch and her evil nature in minute detail. Ever since Eve tempted Adam to eat from the apple of knowledge, women’s treacherous and perfidious natures have been a source of trouble to mankind.
The author of The Hammer of Witches, Heinrich Kramer, is convinced that this is the exact reason why people accused of sorcery are so often women. That it’s the very nature of woman … to lead man astray. The figure of the witch is a dark and twisted mirror image of society’s ideal woman serving her husband and family. As a servant of the devil, however, this God-fearing, subservient woman will deceive her husband, rob him of his virility and eat their children. And in the cauldron where she faithfully cooked the family’s meals, she’ll be brewing sorcerous concoctions and potions instead.
Some think that Heinrich Kramer goes too far in his disdain for women, but most agree that they are, in body and soul, powerless to resist the devil and his demons.