The Malleus Maleficarum ("The Hammer of Witches", “Witch Hammer”, or the "Hexenhammer") is arguably the most infamous treatise on prosecuting witches to have come out of the European witch craze which began in the late Middle Ages and peaked during the Renaissance . It is a comprehensive witch-hunter’s handbook first published in Germany between 1486 and 1487 that grew into fourteen editions from 1487 to 1520 and then sixteen editions from 1574 to 1669 in France, Italy, and Germany (Monter 24, Russell 79). These editions spread throughout Europe and had a profound impact on witch trials on the Continent for about 200 years. This work is notorious for its vivid misogyny and equating witchcraft with heresy.
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Both Kramer and Sprenger were prolific writers, and part of the Malleus Maleficarum is an absorption of a comprehensive manuscript on witchcraft written by Kramer in 1485. Generally based on the biblical pronouncement, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18), the book also draws on the works of Aristotle, the Scriptures, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas for support. The misogyny of the Malleus can’t be denied; the authors' belief that women were inferior, weak, and easily corruptible creatures is emphasized often throughout the writing.
Taken as a whole, the Malleus Maleficarum declares that some things confessed by witches, such as animal transformations, were mere delusions induced by the devil to ensnare them, while other acts, such as flight, causing storms and destroying crops, were real. The book dwells at length on the immoral acts of witches, their ability to create impotence in men and even gives space to the question of whether demons could father children of witches. The writing style is serious and utterly humorless – even the most hard to believe statements are presented as reliable information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum
