The Malleus
Maleficarum (Hexenhammer in German) is a
witchhunting manual from the 1400s. It is a disturbingly evil book
that has lead to the death of thousands during the witchhunts (though
some sources do debate its impact). It was written by Dominican
clergymen Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, though Kramer appears
to have written the bulk of it. Allegedly, Sprenger’s name was
attached to give it more credibility, because Kramer was a known pest
in his area.
It was the first
book to deal with witchcraft, though an earlier work, the
Formicarius, touched on the topic. The story goes that the entire
existence of the book was is the result of Kramer being angry at not
being allowed to ask probing, inappropriately sexual questions to a
woman during a heresy trial. So he went back to Cologne and wrote an
entire book to explain his views.
It is almost three
separate books in one, and each section isn’t really related to any
of the others. They were intended for different audiences. Book one
was a theological text aimed at showing "proof" of the existence of
witches. Book two was about the powers of the witch and pact that she was supposed to have made with either Satan or a demon. The text is
unclear and often seems to conflate the two. Book three is legal and
aimed at giving judges the proper “rules” to follow when dealing
with a suspected witch.
Originally written
in Latin and drawing heavily from the works of Aquinas, the book
embraces the quaestio format, to an almost nauseating degree,
often veering into random topics that only barely relate to the
question posed.