The Witch Hammer: The Purpose Of The Witch's Hammer

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The Witch 's Hammer

The Witch 's Hammer, also known as The Hammer of witches,The Malleus Maleficarum (in Latin) or “Der Hexenhammer” (in German) is an infamous treatise on witches. The treatise was written in 1486 by Henrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, and it was published for the first time in Germany in 1487. Both Henrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger were members of the Domenican Order and inquisitors of the Catholic Church. In modern time some scholars believe that Jacob Sprenger contributing little to the work besides his name, but there is not much evidence to support this.

The purpose of the Witch 's Hammer was to teach Inquisitors how to discover witches, the desciption of witches, and tactics for the interrogation of witches. It also holds many descriptions on different ways to torture and punsih those accused of the witchcraft.
The book was written shortly after Kramer had been expelled from Innsbruck. This was done by the local bishop after Kramers attempt to conduct his own witchcraft prosecution.

One of the main points of the book, and the main content of first part of the book is the description of the reality and Biblical truth behind the existence of Witches and sorcerers.
At the time when “The Witch 's Hammer” was written, many in the Christian Community(like scholars and theologians) doubted the exixtence of witches and had an oppionion that such belief was superstition. According to the book it was concidered heretic not to believe in witches.
So the