Different visions of the world and of the body

Abstract

The aim of this research work is to show different ways of understanding the body which were predominant at the end of the 15th century and presented in Malleus Maleficarum or The Hammer of Witches written by the Inquisitors Henrich Kramer and James Sprenger and in other contemporary writers. The former is a guiding element indicating how the Church represented by these authors perceived the transformations at the end of the century. It also shows the Church’s thought on the manner man should deal with his body. A concept of man and his body outside the religious understanding was sought in the writings of the latter authors. This form of interpretation was only possible because of a new social order forming itself in this period.