Malleus Maleficarum [The Hammer of Witchcraft - Maleficas, & earum hæresim, ut phramea potentissima conterens.] [The Hammer of Witches]

324 pp. Based on the 1928 translation of Rev. Montague Summers, edited by D.P. Curtin. Woodcut illustrations reproduced from the 1626 Compendium Maleficarum. A treatise on the prosecution of witches (or, at least, those accused of witchcraft), written by a German Catholic clergyman named Heinrich Kramer, but rejected by the clergy at the University of Cologne. The common English translation of the title is The Hammer of Witches. A posthumous author credit has been given to Jakob Sprenger, though there is cause to believe this is an erroneous attribution. Whatever the case, its publication exacerbated the proliferation of witch trials over the next two centuries, and its advocacy of torture and deception to obtain convictions in these trials is partly responsible for the frequently brutal nature of inquiries and punishments.