Malleus Maleficarum

The Malleus Maleficarum usually translated as the Hammer of Witches is the best known treatise on witchcraft. It was written by the German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinized name Henricus Institor) and first published in the German city of Speyer in 1486. It has been described as the compendium of literature in demonology of the 15th century. The top theologians of the Inquisition at the Faculty of Cologne condemned the book as recommending unethical and illegal procedures as well as being inconsistent with Catholic doctrines of demonology.