Episode #237 - What is the Hammer of the Witches?

In 1487 a scandal prone Dominican inquisitor published one of the most notorious witch-hunting manuals in history. The Malleus Maleficarum , or Hammer of the Witches, argued that Europe was under siege by witches and that these witches were almost exclusively female. The book was one of the first widely available texts that presented witchcraft as a uniquely female evil. By the end of 1500's women…