# Why \`Hammer' of Evil-Making Women?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hammer-of-evil-making-women/135961
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 8, 2002, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hammer-of-evil-making-women/135961 "2002-11-08T23:26:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hammer-of-evil-making-women/135961/1 "2002-11-08T23:26:14Z")
Presumably, if you can help me out here, you already know of the _Malleus Maleficarum_. It’s not clear to me what the hell hammers have to do with witches. Any clues?
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hammer-of-evil-making-women/135961/2 "2002-11-08T23:29:38Z")
What do you do with a hammer? You use it to pound or knock something down, or break something up. The title means the book can be used to knock down and break up witchcraft.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hammer-of-evil-making-women/135961/3 "2002-11-08T23:42:02Z")
Then why isn’t it _Malleus Maleficaris_?
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2002, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hammer-of-evil-making-women/135961/4 "2002-11-09T01:55:09Z")
My latin grammar is appalling, but if I may offer a wild-ass guess, the intent is analogous to a construction such as, uh, “Slayer of Souls,” and the association is a general rather than possessive.
Could be an element of transliterated german idiom in there as well… (I’m thinking of Goethe’s usage of “hammer”.)
I apologize for the speculative nature of this post. Carry on.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2002, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hammer-of-evil-making-women/135961/5 "2002-11-09T03:12:43Z")
There is a bit of an obtuse pun involved, as one of the first prominent figures in the Inquisition was nicknamed “The Hammer”, though I don’t recall if he was one of the men credited with “authorship”. In the Catholic mind of the time, witchcraft and “heresy” were very intermingled, as clearly this was all the Devil’s work, and they saw no need to distinguish between witchcraft and theological impurity.
The _Malleus_ is often mentioned as a source book as regards witchcraft practices of the time, but that is largely by default, there just isn’t anything with what we might think of as “historical” value. No diaries, no records, no Guild of Witches and Warlocks bylaws.
Kind of like putting together a biography of Lex Luthor from Superman comics.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2002, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hammer-of-evil-making-women/135961/6 "2002-11-09T05:01:01Z")
> [@](#):
>
> What do you do with a hammer? You use it to pound or knock something down, or break something up.
Damn right!
> [@](#):
>
> what the hell hammers have to do with witches. Any clues?
Speaking for myself–anything I can get by with!😃