Summis Desiderantes

What goal do you think Pope Innocent VIII was trying to achieve when sanctioning the writing of the Malleus Maleficarum through his papal bull, Summis Desiderantes, in 1484?

Pope Innocent VIII could have had obviously had many goals in issuing Summis Desiderantes; however, in my opinion, one goal is much more evident than the rest. Pope Innocent VIII had one of the most corrupt papacies on record (atheism.about.com/library/ glossary/western/bldef_innocentviii.htm). Also, during the time of his papacy, the accusations of witchcraft were growing quickly throughout Europe, but mainly in Germany. Personally I think that his issuing of Summis Desiderantes was an attempt to better his "approval ratings".

Innocent's papacy was littered with scandals and secrets. Before being elected as pope, Innocent had three children from different mothers. This was not announced until his position as pope had been secured. He was not a wealthy man; however he insisted on living like one. He had many new offices created within the church only to be auctioned off to the highest bidder; this put rich people in charge of the church rather than the religious leaders of the time (atheism.about.com/library/glossary/western/bldef _innocentviii.htm). The pope had, at one point, wanted to launch a crusade against the Turks; however, he settled for a treaty paying him a very large sum of money. In my opinion, Pope Innocent VIII either did not have very much common sense or did not have very much respect for the position to which he had been appointed. This shows through in that despite the embezzlement charges against Institoris, he was still allowed to maintain his position in the church as an inquisitor. Innocent eventually sank so low as to pawn the papal tiara to a Roman merchant. I think that the irresponsibility and greediness of Pope Innocent VIII led the people of the Catholic Church to question his ability to lead it. Innocent knew he must do something to change their opinion.

As the accusations of witchcraft grew broader, I think that Innocent viewed this as an opportunity to regain the support of the people. If he could just meet a certain quota of condemned witches then the people would see that he really was trying to do good in the world. Obviously he could not convict all of the witches himself, so he decided to issue the Summis Desiderantes. This document deputized Institoris and his partner, Jacob Sprenger, the authors of Malleus Malificarum, as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summis_desiderantes). Whether or not this happened because of Pope Innocent, I do not know; however, I think we all can agree that the inquisitors took the persecutions a little too far. It seems like, as far as Institoris was concerned, every woman was a witch. All that he had to do was prove it. In actuality, he really didn't even have to prove that they were witches. If there was no confession after a year in jail, they were allowed to torture alleged witches. According to common belief during that time, tears were a gift from God, so if a person didn't cry during torture, they were a witch and if they did cry, it was merely a spell that the witch had cast to make it appear as if they were crying. Either way, they would be burned. If they did not feel like waiting a year, the judges in such cases were allowed to lie to defendants by offering light punishment in exchange for a confession. This method of accusing and convicting witches brought many, probably innocent, people to death. Though it was effective in the conviction of so called "witches",