Author · Germany · 1430–1505
Heinrich Kramer
A historical witness to persecution: religious authority and misogyny organized into prosecutorial argument.
Heinrich Kramer, also known by his Latin name Henricus Institoris, was a German Dominican friar, theologian, and inquisitor. He is best remembered for his writings on witchcraft, religious doctrine, and the defense of the medieval Catholic Church.
His most famous and controversial work is Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches), first published in 1487. The treatise discusses witchcraft, demonology, and the prosecution of alleged witches, and became one of the most influential texts associated with the European witch hunts.
Kramer also wrote theological and polemical works, including Several Discourses and Various Sermons upon the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist (1496), a treatise against the ideas of Antonio degli Roselli published in 1499, and The Shield of Defence of the Holy Roman Church Against the Picards and Waldenses. His writings reflect his lifelong concern with heresy, religious authority, and Catholic doctrine.
Reading the machinery of persecution in 2026
Kramer's writing shows how an accusation can be made to look like an entire system of knowledge. His arguments about witchcraft join authority, prejudice, and prosecution. Read him critically today to examine how such reasoning works, whose testimony it discounts, and how it protects itself from challenge.
