Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch's Hammer): A Manual of Terror in 16th Century Europe
The infamous Malleus Maleficarum led to the murder of tens of thousands of women accused of witchcraft.
In 1487 during the Inquisition, two Dominican friars, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger published the witch-hunters’ book, Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches). The misogynistic manual promoted the idea that women are inherently evil and form pacts with the devil. As a justification for Kramer’s unfair trials and horrific acts of torture, the book incited church authorities and civic judges to murder 60,000 victims for witchcraft in the 16th and 17th centuries.
”They [witches] take the unguent which . . . they make at the devil’s instruction from the limbs of children, particularly of those whom they have killed before baptism, and anoint with it a chair or a broomstick; whereupon they are immediately carried up into the air.” Heinrich Kramer.
About the Malleus Maleficarum
The purpose of the Hammer of Witches was to prove the existence of witches, help hunters identify them, and suggest methods for trying and torturing the accused until they confessed. It includes passages about sorcery and spells, gives details on types of magic, and provides methods for questioning witnesses and interrogating and torturing suspects. Kramer wrote some of the material in the book based on the witch trials he conducted.

Prior to the witch hunters’ handbook, lack of support for Kramer’s cruel extremism led Kramer to appeal to Pope Innocent VIII. The Catholic leader deplored the perceived spread of witchcraft in Germany. In a 1484 papal bull decree, the Pope legitimized Kramers methods and gave him full authority to execute the search for witches. Some people suggest that Kramer paid the pope money for this bull that authorized widespread prosecution and execution of suspected witches. Three years later, the Hammer of Witches emerged.
Eventually, Hammer of Witches made its way into the hands of 30,000 witch hunters, thanks in part to Johann Gutenberg’s new publishing press. Twenty-eight editions of the book printed between 1487 and 1600. It became a handbook for the Inquisition in general, not just for witch trials.
Sttill, many clergies did not support the ideas presented in the manual. In one example, the authors asked the Dominicans of the Inquisition at the University of Cologne for their endorsement. However, the authorities rejected the request. Instead, they condemned the manual for unethical and illegal methods and for contradicting Catholic doctrine on demonology.
Who Wrote the Witch-Hunter’s Handbook?
Heinrich Kramer and Johann Sprenger authored the Hammer of Witches. Both of them were Dominican friars. Ironically, the Dominicans are a Catholic religious order that Saint Dominic, the patron saint of falsely accused people, founded. He represented kindness and compassion.
Kramer was a Theology professor at the University of Salzburg, Austria. Later, he became an inquisitor in Austria’s Tyrol region, Bohemia, Moravia, and Salzburg. However, he became notorious for his witch hunts.
Kramer began a crusade to stamp out what he said was a widespread problem of witchcraft. When he faced sharp criticism for his unjust and extreme persecutions, he decided he needed to put out a persuasive treatise on the subject. That’s when he collaborated with Sprenger and published Malleus Maleficarum.
Ultimately, Kramer, also known as Henricus Institor, said that he tried 100 witches and burned half of them to death.
By contrast, historians believe the co-author, Johann Sprenger, never tried any witches. He earned his Master in Theology degree, and in 1480, became the Dean of Faculty of Theology at the University of Cologne, Germany. In 1841, he received an appointment as an inquisitor.
Scholars debate Sprenger’s level of contribution to the text. They suggest that Kramer may have used Sprenger’s name and prestige to bolster the reputation of his book. If so, it is unlikely that he contributed much to the content.

Kramer’s Obsession with Women as Evil
In the 16th and 17th centuries, authorities used the witch hunters’ handbook to justify unofficial kangaroo courts during a period of intense persecution of women who made up about 80 percent of those who faced execution for witchcraft.
Although Kramer did not exclude men as witches altogether, his book vilified women extensively. As such, many people believe that the author was waging war on women rather than witches. Indeed, his highly misogynistic attitude against women shines through in the Malleus Maleficarum:
“They have slippery tongues, and are unable to conceal from the fellow-women those things which by evil arts they know; and, since they are weak, they find an easy and secret manner of vindicating themselves by witchcraft.
She is more carnal than a man, as is clear from her many carnal abominations. . . . There was a defect in the formation of the first woman, since she was formed from a bent rib, that is, a rib of the breast, which is bent as it were in a contrary direction to a man. And since through this defect she is an imperfect animal, she always deceives.
When she hates someone whom she formerly loved, then she seethes with anger and impatience in her whole soul, just as the tides of the sea are always heaving and boiling.”
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