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The Malleus Maleficarum prints scholastic demonology that cites Thomist headings

In 1486–87 the Malleus Maleficarum was printed, a completed inquisitorial handbook that leans on scholastic angelology and the Summa’s demonology cluster. In the causal graph this event strengthens Judicial independence erosion (court capture), a driver that strengthens Rule of Law Gap from the Highest Governance Score — a worsening welfare path.

Sources: [1][2]

Read the full account

In 1486–87 the Malleus Maleficarum was printed, a completed inquisitorial handbook that leans on scholastic angelology and the Summa’s demonology cluster. Aquinas did not write the Malleus. Reception is the path.

Context

Witch manuals are not the Summa. They are a later judicial use of scholastic permission to take spiritual harm as a crime. Confidence medium on unique causal share, high that the handbook names scholastic authority.

Thomas Aquinas is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

Why it matters

A printed witch-handbook using Thomist headings is a judicial-harm reception, not an autograph.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Thomas Aquinas

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.2 · verified

    Named Dominican master as heading of later editions and papal acts. Printers, popes, and editors publish the instrument.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Malleus Maleficarum (public-domain English)Project Gutenberg · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — AquinasStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorThomas Aquinas
  2. contributed toFactThe Malleus Maleficarum prints scholastic demonology that cites Thomist headings
  3. strengthensDriverJudicial independence erosion (court capture)
  4. strengthensIndicatorRule of Law Gap from the Highest Governance Score

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). The Malleus Maleficarum prints scholastic demonology that cites Thomist headings. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/aq-malleus-1487-reception

https://factrail.ai/facts/aq-malleus-1487-reception

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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