The Formicarius, (The Anthem Hope), a long, moralizing dissertation in the form of dialogue between a theologian and a student, was written in 1435-1437 by Johannes Nider during the Basel Council. It was printed in 1475 and is the second printed book ever in which witchcraft is discussed.
Nider treated witchcraft specifically in the fifth part of the book. Unlike later books on the same theme, no emphasis was placed on the idea of the witch's babbling. Nider also proved skeptical about the claim that witches could fly at night. The Formicarius is an important work because it shows that witch processes and tortures of people suspected of witchcraft were already in the early fifteenth century.
Nider was one of the first who transformed the past beliefs about sorcery in the "more modern" perception of witchcraft. Before the fifteenth century, magic was thought to be practiced by well-trained men who performed complicated rituals. In Nides Formicarius, on the other hand, the witch is described as unskilled and usually a woman. The idea, expressed in this book, that a person could decide to use magic simply by dedicating himself to the devil, fears the people of that age. It would be one of the many factors that led people to begin to fear magic. The idea that a magician was primarily female was also shocking to many. Nider explained that women were able to do such acts by pointing out their inferior physical, mental and moral abilities.
The work is further important for the information found on infamous figures from that time. One of them was the wizard Scavius who allegedly managed to escape his enemies by changing himself into a mouse.
Scavius was responsible for the guardianship of Stedelen in witchcraft.
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