The Witch Trials in Salem
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But, in fact, the witch-craze was neither a lynching party nor a mass suicide by hysterical
women. Rather, it followed well-ordered, legalistic procedures. The witch-hunts were well-organized
campaigns, initiated, financed and executed by Church and State. To Catholic and Protestant witch-
hunters alike, the unquestioned authority on how to conduct a witch huntes the Malleus Maleficarum,
or Hammer of Witches, written in 1848 by the Reverends Kramer and Spregner (the ,,beloved sons" of
Pope Innocent VIII.) For three centuries this sadistic book lay on the bench of every judge, every
witch hunte. In a long section on judicial proceedings, the instructions make it clear how the ,,hysteria"
was set off:
The job of initiating a witch trial was to be performed by either the Vicar (priest) or Judge of
the County, who was to post a notice to direct, command, require and admonish that within the space
of twelve days..
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