The Malleus Maleficarum, usually translated as the Hammer of Witches, is the best known treatise about witchcraft. It was written by the German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinized name Henricus Institor) and first published in the German city of Speyer in 1486. Some characterize it as the compendium of preexisting demonological literature of the 15th century.
Kramer presented his text as an official position of the Catholic Church. The book was condemned by top theologians of the Inquisition at the Faculty of Cologne for recommending illegal procedures, and for being inconsistent with existing Catholic doctrines of demonology. However, Kramer had received praise for his work by Pope Innocent VIII in the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus. Kramer was never removed and even enjoyed considerable prestige thereafter.