*from the CD cover*
The Malleus Maleficarum is the most solid, the most important work in the whole vast
library of witchcraft. One turns to it again and again with edification and interest. From
the point of psychology, from the point of jurisprudence, from the point of history, it is
supreme. It is hardly too much to say that later writers, great as they are, have done little
more than draw from the seemingly inexhaustible wells of wisdom which the tow Domin-
icans, Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, have given us in the Malleus Maleficarum.
What is most surprising is the modernity of the book. There is hardly a problem, a com-
plex, a difficulty, which they have not foreseen, and discussed, and resolved. .
Here are cases which occur in the law-courts to-day, set out with the greatest clarity,
argued with unflinching logic, and judges with scrupulous impartiality. .
The Malleus acquired especial weight and dignity from the famous Bull of Pope Inno-
cent VIII, Summis desiderantes affectibus of 9 December, 1484, in which the Pontiff,
lamenting th power and prevalence of the witch organization, delegates Heinrich Kramer
and James Sprenger as inquisitors of these pravities throughout Northern Germany, par-
ticularly in the provinces and dioceses of Mainz, Cologne, Tréves, Salzburg, and Bremen,
granting both and either of them an exceptional authorization, and by Letters Apostolic
requiring the Bishop of Strasbourg, Albrecht von Bayern (1478-1506), not only to take all
steps to publish and proclaim the Bull, but further to afford Kramer and Sprenger every
assistance, even calling in, if necessary, the help of the secular arm. .
This Bull, which was printed as the Preface to the Malleus, was thus, comments Dr.
H.C. Lea, “spread broadcast over Europe.” In fact, “it fastened on European jurispru-
dence for nearly three centuries the duty of combating” the Society of Witches. The Mal-
leus lay on the bench of every judge, on the desk of every magistrate. It was the ultimate,
irrefutable, unarguable authority. It was implicitly accepted not only by Catholic but by
Protestant legislature. In fine, it is not too much to say that the Malleus Maleficarum is
among the more important, wisest and weightiest books of the world. .
Throughout the centuries witchcraft was universally held to be a dark and horrible
reality, it was an ever-present, fearfully ominous menace, a thing most active, most peri-
lous, most powerful and true. Some may consider these mysteries and cantrips and invo-
cations, these sabbats and rendevous, to have been merest mummery and pantomime,
but there is no question that the physiological effect was incalculable, and harmful in the
highest degree.  It was, to use a modern phrase, “a war of nerves.” Jean Bodin, the famous
juris-consult (1530-90) whom Montaigne acclaims to be the highest literally genius of his
time, and who, as a leading member of the Parliament de Paris, presided over important
trials, gives it as his opinion that there existed, not only in France, a complete organization
of witches, immensely wealthy, of almost infinite potentialities, most cleverly captained,
with centres and cells in every district, utilizing an espionage in every land, with high-
placed adherents at court, with humble servitors in the cottage. This organization, witch-
craft, maintained a relentless and ruthless war against the prevailing order and settled
state. No design was too treacherous, no betrayal was too cowardly, no blackmail too base
and foul. The Masters lured their subjects with magnificent promises, thy lured and de-
luded and victimized. Not the least dreaded and dreadful weapon in their armament was
the ancient and secret knowledge of poisons (veneficia), of herbs healing and hurtful, a
tradition and a lore which had been handed down from remotest antiquity. .
Little wonder, then, that later social historians, such as Charles Mackay and Lecky,
both absolutely impartial and unprejudiced writers, skeptical even, devote many pages,
the result of long and laborious research, to witchcraft. They did not believe in witchcraft
as in any sense supernatural, although perhaps abnormal. But the centuries of which they
were writing believed intensely in it, and it was their business as scholars to examine and
explain the reasons for such belief. It was by no means all mediaeval credulity and ignor-
ance and superstition. Mackay and Lecky fully recognized this, as indeed they were in all
honesty bound to do. They met with facts, hard facts, which could neither have been acci-
dents nor motiveless, and these facts must be accounted for and elucidated. The profound-
est thinkers, the acutest and most liberal minds of their day, such men as Cardan: Trithe-
mius: the encyclopedic Delrio: Bishop Binsfeld: the learned physician, Caspar Peucer:
Jean Bodin: Sir Edward Coke, “father of the English law”; Francis Bacon; Malebranche;
Bayle; Glanvil; Sir Thomas Browne; Cotton Mather; all these, and scores besides, were
convinced of the dark reality of witchcraft, of the witch organization. Such a consensus of
opinion throughout the years cannot be lightly dismissed. .
It is hardly disputed that in the whole vast literature of witchcraft, the most prominent,
the most important, the most authoritative volume is the Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch
Hammer) of Heinrich Kramer (Henricus Insitoris) and James Sprenger. The date of the
first edition of the Malleus cannot be fixed with the absolute certainty, but the likeliest year is
1486. There were, at any rate, fourteen editions between 1478 and 1520, and at least six-
teen editions between 1574 and 1669. These were issued from the leading German, French
and Italian presses. ---Montague Summers .