Malleus Maleficarum

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The Malleus Maleficarum, usually translated as the Hammer of Witches, is the best known treatise about witchcraft. It was written by German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinized name Henricus Institor) and first published in the German city of Speyer in 1486. Some characterize the book as a compendium of preexisting demonological literature of the 15th century, as opposed to an original work. In 1484, two years before the work’s publication, Pope Innocent VIII authorised Kramer to investigate alleged witchcraft in the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus. Kramer presented his text as an official position of the Catholic Church. The book was condemned by top theologians of the Inquisition at the Faculty of Cologne for recommending illegal procedures and for inconsistencies with existing Catholic demonological doctrines. Kramer was not disciplined by the Church and even enjoyed considerable prestige thereafter. The Malleus classifies sorcery as heresy, a severe crime...

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