The Malleus Maleficarum: The Hammer Of Witches

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The Malleus Maleficarum (Latin for “The Hammer of Witches”, or “Hexenhammer” in German) is one of the most famous medieval treatises on witches. It was written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, and was first published in Germany in 1487. Its main purpose was to challenge all arguments against the existence of witchcraft and to instruct magistrates on how to identify, interrogate and convict witches. The Malleus Maleficarum (Latin for “The Hammer of Witches”, or “Hexenhammer” in German) is one of the most famous medieval treatises on witches.

It was written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, and was first published in Germany in 1487. Its main purpose was to challenge all arguments against the existence of witchcraft and to instruct magistrates on how to identify, interrogate and convict witches. It served as a guidebook for Inquisitors during the Inquisition, and was designed to aid them in the …show more content…

It has been said that the book is one of the most blood-soaked works in human history. When I first started the assignment, I really had no idea what it was or what it represented. The Witches Hammer to me is just another way that officials were trying to get rid of people that they were scared of or those in the communities around them that were different from them.

They wrote this book so that they could legally pursue those that followed different beliefs than their own and this made it seem “right”. With this being said, I feel that this book has helped others learn about the history of Witchcraft and it did shine some light on the persecution that stemmed from the ideologies in this publication. In Modern Wicca and Pagan practices, this book is still considered a

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