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.

Some modern scholars believe that Jacob Sprenger contributed little if anything to the work besides his name, but the evidence to support this is weak. Both men were members of the Dominican Order and Inquisitors for the Catholic Church. They submitted the Malleus Maleficarum to the University of Cologne's Faculty of Theology on May 9, 1487, seeking its endorsement.

While general consensus is that The Catholic Church banned the book in 1490 by placing it on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("List of Prohibited Books"), the first Index was, in fact, produced in 1559 under the direction of Pope Paul IV. Therefore such claims are dubious, at best.

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The Malleus Maleficarum was

written by
- Heinrich Kramer
- James Sprenger
translated by
- Montague Summers
transcribed by
- Wicasta Lovelace
- Christie Rice
coded for web site publication and e-book by
- Wicasta Lovelace
downloads by
- Ian Patton - English version PDF
- Fredy Nuñez Munarriz - Spanish version PDF
"Thanks" are due to
- Richard Brent - for providing invaluable assistance in nailing down some of the mythology and misinformation surrounding the Malleus Maleficarum, especially in regard to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, and the Letter of Approbation. Richard insisted that the Malleus had not been included on the original 1559 publication of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum and provided links to reference sources that, in my mind, settled the issue of whether the Malleus was placed on the list of prohibited books, as well as whether or not the Letter of Approbation was a forgery.
- Antonio Benvenuti - for first pointing out to me in February of 2008 that the Index Librorum Prohibitorum was not published until 1559. Quite frankly, I ignored it for some time as a semantic argument, assuming, like most people, that if the Malleus wasn't placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1490, as is often alleged, that it was placed on the Index at some point in the following centuries. Seven months later, Richard Brent was almost solely responsible for convincing me otherwise, once and for all, but I would be remiss if i didn't mention Antonio and credit his original, if unsubstantiated, assertion.

Welcome

The Malleus Maleficarum online project was started by Wicasta Lovelace. The full text of the Malleus Maleficarum was transcribed by Wicasta and Christie Jury in the hopes of expanding general knowledge of the work. The transcription project was began in 1998, and was completed in 2000.

Neither Wicasta nor Christie claim to be experts on the subject of the Malleus Maleficarum, and have never presented themselves as such. Their hope was simply to make the work available on the Internet as a reference resource.

Please Note: This web site is not affiliated with the Catholic Church in any way, shape or form. In fact, both Wicasta and Christie are Pagan. This web site is made available as a reference for a historical artifact, nothing more. We are certainly not responsible in any way, shape or form for the Malleus Maleficarum itself or any of the harm that came from it. In the end, if anyone wants to lodge a formal complaint about the Malleus Maleficarum or the Catholic Church in general, the appropriate place to do so would be the official Vatican web site – http://www.vatican.va/ – which could properly be considered the official web site of all Catholics. Recriminations about The Burning Times or the Malleus Maleficarum are misplaced here. You’re preaching to the choir.