Werner Sprenger

The Malleus Maleficarum, usually translated as the Hammer of Witches, is the best known treatise about witchcraft. It was written by German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinized name Henricus Institor) and first published in the German city of Speyer in 1486. Some characterize the book as a compendium of preexisting demonological literature of the 15th century, as opposed to an original work. Kramer presented his text as an official position of the Catholic Church. The book was…