What is a Witch & Witchcraft? The Formicarius of Johannes Nider

Who invented the Witch and Witchcraft? The Early Modern Witch Trials would claim the lives of between 40,000-60,000 people between 1450 and 1700. But, where does the concept of the "witch" actually emerge? 50 years before the Malleus Maleficarum, Johannes Nider would pen the Formicarius in which he amalgamated several disparate heresy narratives into one: a women-led sorcery-heresy marked by demonic pacts which sought to destroy Christendom. In effect, Nider would invent the concept of the "witch" and "witchcraft as we know it in the Formicarius.

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Recommended Reading:

Nider - Formicarius - https://www.google.com/books/edition/...

Chêne - Le Formicarius de Jean Nider O.P. († 1438). La société chrétienne au miroir de l’Observance. Volume 1. Tradition, sources, enseignements. Volume 2. Édition et traduction

Tschacher - Der Formicarius des Johannes Nider von 1437 / 38
Studien zu den Anfängen der europäischen Hexenverfolgungen im Spätmittelalter