Pope Innocent VIII
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Pope Innocent VIII, born Giovanni Battista Cybo, was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 29 August 1484 to his death, in July 1492. Son of the viceroy of Naples, Cybo spent
Innocent VIII in a medal designed by Niccolò di Forzore Spinelli
Malleus Maleficarum, 1520 edition
Monument to Innocentius VIII in Saint Peter's Basilica
Malleus Maleficarum
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The Malleus Maleficarum, usually translated as the Hammer of Witches, is the best known treatise about witchcraft. It was written by German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer and first published in th
Pope Innocent VIII
…the bull failed to ensure that Kramer obtained the support he had hoped for, causing him to retire and to compile his views on witchcraft into his book Malleus Maleficarum, which was published in 1487. Kramer would later claim that witchcraft was to blame for bad weather. Both the papal letter appended to the work and the…
Title page of an edition dated 1669
Burning of three alleged witches in Baden, Switzerland (1585), by Johann Jakob Wick
The execution of alleged witches in Central Europe, 1587