Before 1400, very few people in Europe were prosecuted for witchcraft. The punishment for those that did find themselves in trouble was usually no worse than a day in the stocks. Then in 1487, the Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches, was published. This notorious treatise on witchcraft was perhaps the single greatest influence on the sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe-wide witch hunt frenzy, and it’s no exaggeration to say that it profoundly shaped the course of European history.
In the 250 years after it was written by Heinrich Kramer, a Dominican friar and inquisitor who went by the Latinised name Henricus Institor, around 110,000 people were put on trial as witches, and it’s believed somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 were executed, as many as 85% of them women.
Over time, the Malleus Maleficarum quickly became an influential guide for so-called witch hunters, inquisitors, and judges involved in witch trials. This is the astonishing story of one of the most troubling and controversial books ever written.
The Malleus Maleficarum: A Historical Context
The late fifteenth century was a period of profound social anxiety, religious uncertainty, and intellectual upheaval throughout much of Europe. Emerging from the medieval period into the early modern age, the era was marked by the aftermath of the Black Death – which killed between a third and a half of Europe’s population – the turbulence of political realignments such as marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in Spain, and fears of moral and spiritual decline. Against this backdrop, authorities increasingly began to identify and persecute potential threats to orthodoxy. Heinrich Kramer began with witches.
Who was Heinrich Kramer?
Born around 1430 in Schlettstadt in medieval Germany (the town is now called Sélestat, and today is actually located in northeastern France), he joined the Dominican Order as a young man. At some point in the late 1460s or early 1470s he became an Inquisitor for huge swathes of Austria and the Kingdom of Bohemia. An inquisitor was an official appointed by the Church whose mission was to identify, investigate, and prosecute those accused of heresy. He believed that witches posed a significant spiritual threat to Christian society. A threat that had to be urgently addressed.
After facing criticism due to a number of failed witch trials in Innsbruck – everyone he arrested was set free – he wanted to validate and strengthen his authority in pursuing suspected witches.
Kramer therefore wrote the Malleus Maleficarum primarily as a response to these failures, to establish his own authority on the subject and to provide what he saw as a comprehensive manual for other inquisitors and judges who were to follow in his footsteps.
Kramer’s purpose was clear. To provide a guide that would empower the Church and secular courts to root out and eliminate what he saw as an epidemic of witchcraft.
Kramer and Sprenger
Jacob Sprenger’s involvement in the Malleus Maleficarum is a subject of significant historical debate. He was also a Dominican inquisitor, and while his name appears alongside Heinrich Kramer’s on the 1484 papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, which authorised the two men to combat witchcraft, it’s not known to what extent Sprenger actively contributed to the writing of the book. Scholars argue that Sprenger’s name was most likely added to lend credibility and authority to the text, as he was a respected theologian and dean of the University of Cologne at the time.
Yet while Kramer and Sprenger are often credited as co-authors of the Malleus Maleficarum, there’s actually little evidence to support Sprenger’s direct involvement in its creation. Some scholars believe his participation was non-existent, minimal or possibly even honorary.
The Purpose of the Malleus Maleficarum
The Malleus Maleficarum was much more than a ‘how to’ guide. In fact it shaped attitudes and influenced legal proceedings for the next two centuries. It established the idea of witchcraft as representing a serious threat to society, and provided a systematic approach to its eradication. As a widely printed work, it remained in circulation for decades after its publication, and in many ways galvanised a collective European anxiety about witch-like threats lurking everywhere, from peasant villages to royal courts.
On an increasingly nefarious and practical level, with its religious justifications and elaborate instructions for investigation, the book fuelled a witch-hunting fervour that contributed to tens of thousands of trials, tortures, and executions. Its legacy would come to define an era of terror in early modern Europe, marking it as a deeply important document in the history of religious persecution and the criminalisation of superstition.
The Content of the Malleus Maleficarum
The Hammer of Witches was divided into three main sections, each serving a particular purpose in addressing witchcraft.
Part I – The Theoretical Concept of Witchcraft
This section aimed to persuade sceptical readers that witchcraft was not only real but also a serious threat to society. Using medieval theology, folk tales and philosophy, the author sought to prove that witches existed and that their powers to perform maleficium (harmful magic) – granted through pacts with the Devil – were a danger to Christian communities. It encouraged readers to fear their hidden influence.This part was primarily directed at clergy, and attempted to discredit those who denied the existence of witchcraft, viewing such denial as heresy.
Part II – Manifestations & Methods
The second section moved into more vivid accounts of the alleged practices of witches. It described how witches supposedly recruited new members, cast spells, engaged in intimate acts with demons, and caused misfortunes ranging from crop failures to sudden death. The tone was relentlessly misogynistic, attributing witchcraft’s prevalence to women’s supposed moral and intellectual weakness. It also offered remedies to prevent witchcraft or help those affected by it.
Part III – Legal Procedures
The final section of Henricus Institor’s Malleus Maleficarum served as a kind of legal handbook for judges and inquisitors involved in witch trials. It provided a step-by-step guide for conducting witch trials, including methods for initiating the process, gathering accusations, interrogating witnesses (including the use of torture), and formally charging the accused. This part was designed to help secular and church authorities with the detection and prosecution of witches, offering legal procedures and guidelines for trying and sentencing those accused of witchcraft. The text in this section became a chilling procedural manual that would be used by both secular and ecclesiastical courts for centuries.
The Decline of Witch Hunts
In part prompted by the Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason, scientific inquiry, and empirical evidence, the initial scepticism about witches and witch hunts that Kramer sought to quash, returned by the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, and the the credibility of the Malleus Maleficarum had waned. Witchcraft laws were gradually repealed, and the text came to be seen as a relic of a darker, more fearful age.
The Legacy of the Hammer of Witches
The impact of the Malleus Maleficarum is a brutal reminder of the enduring power of misinformation and the importance of critical thinking. The book serves as a stark warning about unchecked authority, and the consequences of allowing fear and superstition to drive people to calamity.
While Heinrich Kramer died over five hundred years ago, his work is still studied today by historians, scholars, and students of religion, law, literature, and gender studies. It’s an important and chilling example of how propaganda based on fear and zealotry can fuel a campaign of terror, and this fanatical publication ultimately led to the persecution and execution of tens of thousands of innocent people.