mer & Sprenger 1486) This can be seen to be symbolic of the power witches were thought to possess and represents the pinnacle of this "gynophobic" society. (Shan 2002: 7) Put plainly, witches were out to destroy the power of men and believed to be able to overpower and control men through the Devil. The "Malleus Maleficarum" was the most popular book of all time, excluding the bible, printed in four languages and thirty-five edition in four years. In this bizarre detail, the true picture of society begins to unfold.
             The society at the time of the "witch craze" was theocratic, meaning that God's laws were common law, with no separation of Church and State. At the time, practicing or believing in witches was believed to be "making a pact with the Devil" and turning one's back on God, and thus the law. Witchcraft and necromancery was therefore a crime, a heretic crime no less and punishable by death. Witches were thought to have denounced their citizenship as human beings and so were given
             ...