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The Malleus Maleficarum usually translated as Hammer of Witches is the best known and the most important treatise on witchcraft first published in German city Speyer in 1486 and written by Catholic clergymen Heinrich Krämer (Henricus Institoris)  and most likely Jacob (Jacobus) Sprenger  who were professors of theology and inquisitors. It endorses extermination of witches and for this purpose develops a comprehensive legal and theological framework that is misogynistic. It was a bestseller, second only to the Bible in terms of sales for almost 200 years.

Malleus elevates sorcery to the criminal status of heresy and prescribes inquisitorial practices for secular courts in order to extirpate witches. The recommended procedures include torture to effectively obtain confessions and death penalty as the only sure remedy against evils of witchcraft. At that time, it was typical to burn heretics alive at the stake and Malleus encouraged the same treatment of witches.

The book had enormous influence in its time that continued for a couple of centuries. Amongst the authors on witchcraft it had an ultimate authority and even 17th century "dominican chroniclers, such as Quétif and Échard, number Kramer and Sprenger among the glories and heroes of their Order". Malleus was ubiquitous, but at the end of the 16th century its role as a theoretical authority was superseded by Demonolatry by witch-hunter Nicholas Rémy and Magical Investigations by Jesuit Martin del Rio.

There is no consensus to what extent Sprenger contributed to the work.