Up until that time, churchmen probably used their common sense in cases of sorcery that came before them but once they had this document, officially sanctioned by the pope, things changed. Sprenger, who came from Basle, was a Dominican inquisitor, high ranking academic and a mystic.

Kramer was a Dominican and inquisitor from Lower Alsace. The treatise was written by two professional experts, Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger. Malleus Malificarum was commissioned by Pope Innocent VIII, who was determined to take a strong stand against the witchcraft, especially in the Holy Roman Empire. No, it was destined to become the legal procedure manual. Not just a fifteenth century All You Ever wanted to know about Witchcraft but were afraid to ask with FAQs such as ‘Whether witches can by some Glamour Change men into Beasts’. The literal translation of the title is The Hammer of Evil but the more common translation was The Witch Hammer and this document became the bible of inquisitors and witchfinders throughout the Christian world. At least 30 editions were published between 14. It was first published in about 1486 and became a regular bestseller.

Most people have never heard of this treatise but it is arguably the most important document in the history of witchcraft. That was how I came across the legal treatise Malleus Maleficarum.

In writing about a medieval clairvoyant in The Silver Bride, charges of witchcraft in Mistress to the Crown and more recently in my new mss on the death of Shakespeare’s patron, I have had to research sorcery in the Middle Ages and Tudor eras.

Mistress to the Crown by Isolde Martyn