The Middle Ages and witches in a literary treasure of world literature! The Malleus Maleficarum, also known as The Hammer of Witches, written by inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger in the 15th century, remains to this day one of the most famous books on witchcraft worldwide.

The book consists of three main sections, addressing both witch hunters and ordinary people of the time. The first section examines, through brief questions and answers, whether witches are real or a product of fantasy, concluding that they exist beyond any doubt, just like the Devil, from whom they draw their powers.

In the second section, the authors present through incidents the activities of witches, as well as methods by which someone can protect themselves from them. In the third section, the inquisitors explain the tortures and trials that the accused for witchcraft must endure for their guilt to be recognized, as well as any other measures that must be taken in the Church's war against the Dark Arts.

The text has been used for centuries by Christians as a reference source on demonology, although it was not directly used by the Inquisition, which became notorious for its tortures and killings. After its publication, witchcraft became more widely accepted as a real and dangerous phenomenon.

Ultimately, the Church would characterize witchcraft as the greatest of crimes and sins and elevate it to the level of heresy – as a result, persecutions and punishments became increasingly brutal. “If God, through an angel, does not compel Satan to deny his assistance to the witch, she will be so insensitive to the pains of torture that she would prefer to have her hands and feet torn off rather than confess the truth!”