중세 말 근대 초 기독교인들의 마녀에 대한 집단심성

The purpose of this study is to examine some intellectuals ideas of witches in the 15th century and the Christians view of witches from the end of medieval times to the beginning of modem times through Malleus Maleficarum. Satan was a necessary factor to explain God s existence in Western Medieval times. Antagonism between God and Satan, good and evil, was distinguished by human beings psychology. The reason behind humanity s sin and its unexplainable fear of Satan rested in human ideas. Witches appeared in this dualistic diagram. People started to think of witches as Satan s servants who afflicted people and disturbed God s work in cooperate with Satan. Strong medieval Christianity wanted to place God s power in high contrast to Satan, as if it had already predicted confused future due to religious reformation and war. It wanted to attribute the political, social, and economical distress at the end of medieval times to Satan and his fiance witches. Malleus is the unchallenged work among many about witches from the Medieval Christians period. This book, written by Institoris and Sprenger, German theologians and heathen examiners, explains necessity of witches existence, witches evil acts, and judicial devices for eliminating them in detail. It is thought that Satan makes a contract with witches and has a harmful effect on the material world through them. There, God s permission for their acts is a necessary factor. Malleus emphasizes the contradictory permission of God for witches and their actions in reverse. This is because witches acts everywhere are unexplainable, unless the almighty God permits that Satan and witches tricks are performed. Writers of Malleus establish a diagram Satan, witches and God s permission for their acts and present the theoretical ground for getting rid of witches and insist that they witches should be killed. At the time when judgment about witchcraft was limited to the worldly court of law, it was meaningless and unnecessary to make witchcraft equal to Satanism. However, Christian ideas dominated intellectual the medieval people s world view, who were dependent upon Christianity. Malleus solidified the Christian ideology about witches, created the judicial framework for witch-hunting. It was also indicative of the ministers and theologians religious ideas, the individuals who represented the elite of society in the 15th century.