Malleus Maleficarum, title page for the 1520 edition. This work, the title of which translates as 'Hammer of Witches', was first written in 1486 and p

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Malleus Maleficarum, title page for the 1520 edition. This work, the title of which translates as 'Hammer of Witches', was first written in 1486 and published the following year. It is a treatise on the prosecution of witches, and was written by German priest Heinrich Kramer, with Jacob Sprenger added as a co-author after 1519. This work contributed to the increasingly brutal methods used during the 16th and 17th centuries to uncover, convict and punish those suspected of witchcraft. The full Latin title here translates as 'The Hammer of Witches which destroyeth Witches and their heresy as with a two-edged sword'.

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