Occult lore
Malleus Maleficarum
Direct answer
Malleus Maleficarum: The Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches, is a treatise on the prosecution of witches written by the Dominican inquisitor Heinrich Kramer and first printed about 1486.
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At a glance
- Also called
- hammer of witches, the hammer of witches, heinrich kramer, witch hunting manual
- Found in
- Spells & Occult Terms
- Related
- Witch Trials, Maleficium, Witchcraft, Witch
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What does Malleus Maleficarum mean?
The Malleus Maleficarum is a long Latin treatise in three parts. The first argues that witchcraft is real and that to deny it is heresy. The second describes what witches are supposed to do and how to counter it. The third tells judges how to conduct a trial, including the use of torture and of deception in questioning. It claims that women are far more prone to witchcraft than men, and is notorious for the reasons it gives.
Later editions name a second author, Jakob Sprenger, but many scholars think his part was small or none. The book was reprinted many times and was used by Catholic and Protestant judges alike, though it was one manual among several.
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What sets Malleus Maleficarum apart
The book's argument rests on a trap that its author states openly: since witchcraft is real, anyone who doubts it is defending heresy. Its second distinctive feature is procedural. Kramer advises judges to promise a suspect her life and then pass her to another judge to break the promise, and to treat silence under torture as a sign of the devil's help. It was a private man's manual, written after his own prosecutions had been stopped, and its authority was never as great as its later fame suggests.
- Author: Heinrich Kramer, also called Institoris
- First printed: Speyer, about 1486
- Language and parts: Latin, in three parts
- Papal bull it prints: Summis desiderantes affectibus, 1484
- Named co-author: Jakob Sprenger, whose part is disputed
- Written after: the failed trials at Innsbruck, 1485
Often mistaken for something else: Canon law and the instructions of the Inquisition were official rules for church courts; the Malleus was one inquisitor's book, influential and never binding.
The story behind Malleus Maleficarum
Kramer wrote the book after a failed prosecution at Innsbruck in 1485, where the local bishop stopped his trials and asked him to leave. It was printed at Speyer about 1486, prefaced by a papal bull of 1484 that had authorised his work. The approval it claimed from the theology faculty at Cologne is disputed. It was reprinted until 1669, and the Spanish Inquisition warned its judges against trusting everything in it.
Why Malleus Maleficarum matters
Malleus Maleficarum is the best known text of the witch hunts, and reading what it truly says, and how limited its standing was, corrects several common legends.
How to read Malleus Maleficarum
Readers meet it in histories of the trials and in fiction, and need its date and authorship to weigh what is claimed about it.
Malleus Maleficarum in practice: an example
A historian who finds a judge of 1590 citing rules for questioning a suspect from its third part is seeing how the book was used in practice.
Where readings of Malleus Maleficarum go wrong
The book is read here as a document of a persecution. Its claims about women and about witches are false, and its methods were cruelty.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
Recorded here as history and lore. No rite is taught on this page.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Spells & Occult Terms
- Aliases
- hammer of witches, the hammer of witches, malleus maleficarum meaning, heinrich kramer, witch hunting manual
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What does Malleus Maleficarum mean?
It is Latin for the Hammer of Witches, more exactly of female evildoers. The feminine form of the title reflects the book's claim that witches are mostly women.
Who wrote the Malleus Maleficarum?
The Dominican inquisitor Heinrich Kramer, also called Institoris. Jakob Sprenger is named beside him in later editions, and scholars dispute how much he contributed.
Did the Catholic Church endorse the Malleus Maleficarum?
Not as an official text. It carried a papal bull as a preface, but it was never adopted by the Church, and the Spanish Inquisition advised caution about it.
