Malleus Maleficarum

Full title: Malleus Maleficarum
Author: Heinrich Kramer
Published: First Edition 1487 in Germnay
Format: Deadtree 
Content: The Malleus Maleficarum (meaning "Hammer of the Witches" in Latin; "Der Hexenhammer" in German) is a treatise on the prosecution of witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, a German Catholic clergyman. The book was first published in Speyer, Germany in 1487. Jacob Sprenger is also often attributed as an author, but some scholars now believe that he became associated with the Malleus Maleficarum largely as a result of Kramer's wish to lend his book as much official authority as possible. 
The main purpose of the Malleus was to attempt to systematically refute arguments claiming that witchcraft does not exist, discredit those who expressed skepticism about its reality, to claim that witches were more often women than men, and to educate magistrates on the procedures that could find them out and convict them. 
==Consequences==
Between 1487 and 1520, twenty editions of the Malleus were published, and another sixteen editions were published between 1574 and 1669. However, there is scholarly agreement that publication of the Malleus Maleficarum was not as influential as earlier modern historians originally thought. According to MacCulloch, the Malleus was one of several key factors contributing to the witch craze, along with popular superstition and tensions created by the Reformation.
In 1490, only 3 years after it was published, the Catholic Church condemned Malleus as false. In 1538 the Spanish Inquisition cautioned its members not to believe everything the Malleus said, even when it presented apparently firm evidence.
Today it is seen as a tract of evil for the persecution and murder of totally innocent people. Real witches are nothing like that is described and are not so easily found. Even if not the heavy influence it once was though to be the author has blood on his hands. We have learned, you pay for that.
Category:Intangibles
Category:Books
Category:Historical
Category:Bureau 13