Description
The Malleus Maleficarum or “Hammer of Witches” is the most efficient known and a very powerful treatise on witchcraft. It endorses extermination of witches and for this purpose develops a detailed legal and theological theory. It was once a bestseller, second only to the Bible in relation to sales for almost 200 years. It was once written by the Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer and first published in 1487. The Malleus elevates sorcery to the criminal status of heresy and prescribes inquisitorial practices for secular courts with a purpose to extirpate witches. The really helpful procedures include torture to effectively obtain confessions and the death penalty as the only sure remedy against the evils of witchcraft. At that time, it was once typical to burn heretics alive at the stake and the Malleus encouraged the same remedy of witches. The book had a strong influence on culture for several centuries. It was once later used by royal courts all through the Renaissance, and contributed to the increasingly more brutal prosecution of witchcraft all through the 16th and 17th centuries.
