The Malleus Maleficarum (translated: The Hammer of Witches) is an infamous polemic on witchcraft by Heinrich Kramer, a German inquisitor of the 15th century. It endorsed the extermination of witches, and gave detailed legal, moral and theological justifications. However, shortly after its publication in 1486, the Faculty of Cologne condemned the book as recommending unethical and illegal procedures, as well as being inconsistent with Catholic doctrines. Nevertheless, in 1696, wiccaphobia over took the puritan villagers of Salem, Massachusetts and sadly the rest was history.more