Malleus Maleficarum
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.
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. However, Kramer received praise for his work by Pope Innocent VIII in the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus. Kramer was never removed and even enjoyed considerable prestige thereafter.
The Malleus classifies sorcery as heresy, a severe crime at the time, and recommends that secular courts prosecute it accordingly. The Malleus suggests torture to get confessions and death as the only certain way to end the "evils of witchcraft". When it was published, heretics were often sentenced to be burned alive at the stake, and the Malleus suggested the same for "witches". Despite its condemnation by some members of the church, the Malleus was very popular.
Jacob Sprenger was credited as a coauthor from 1519 onward, although his role in the text and authorial relationship with Kramer is subject to debate.
The book was later revived by royal courts during the Renaissance, which contributed to the increasingly brutal prosecution of witchcraft during the 16th and 17th centuries.
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