Two Dominican members of the Inquisition compiled the Malleus Maleficarum in 1486. The text was known as the Hammer of the Witches. It was a guidebook to witchcraft and the prosecution of witches. It had a powerful influence on those who identified accused witches and prosecuted and sentenced them. It was not translated into English until 1584 but it exerted an influence over witchcraft trials that happened nearly 100 years after it had been compiled.
DAEMONOLOGIE
This text was written by James VI , later James I of England, on his studies of witchcraft in 1597. It claimed to have brought attention to and reinforce the prevailing attitude to witchcraft and fan the flames of witchcraft hysteria among the general public. In it were beliefs in many of the alleged acts of witchcraft and defense of the test known as swimming.
CANON EPISCOPI
The Canon Episcopi is of unknown origin and uncertain date. It stated that witchcraft was a delusion and that any belief in the act was of an infidel. This statement was incorporated into the canon law in the middle of the 12th century that witchcraft was not thought of as heresy, but of a fevered imagination. The canon episcopi denied the existence of witchcraft and referred to the deluded women thinking that they had the ability to ride on animals to night time services dedicated to their mistress, the pagan goddess Diana. The imagined activities described in the canon were part of the basis of future charges, unwittingly having helped promote the movement against witchcraft. The canon episcopi was a much respected document for a long dime, but attitudes to witchcraft gradually changed and it became discredited.
THE DISCOVERY OF WITCHES
The Discovery of Witches was a pamphlet written by the witch finder Matthew Hopkins in 1647. He wrote the pamphlet after he began to become discredited about his defense of himself and of his methods.
