The Witch's Hammer

This probably isn't going to be as thrilling as the title leads you to believe. It's history lesson time. The Witch's Hammer, or originally known as the Malleus Maleficarum, is the medieval how-to-guide on finding and killing, you guessed it, witches. Some people who are fans of Dan Brown might remember this lovely little script mentioned in the book and the movie The Da Vinci Code. Yes, this book is offensive to me on some level due to the fact that I am Wiccan, but at the same time, I find it completely fascinating from a theological and historical aspect. I mean, come on, this book dates back to a time when only a privileged few could read because everything, literally EVERYTHING was written in Latin. The original text dates back to 1487 and was meant to refute all of the accusations the church was facing about the existence of witchcraft. People were beginning to doubt that it was real, well know the church couldn't have that, now could they? So now its Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger to the rescue. Granted it was mostly Heinrich's doing. Anyway, the entire book is divided into three sections; asserting that the Devil exists and witches are there to help, the how-to's about what exactly witches do to help, and how to properly take care of a witchcraft situation. It's pretty interesting stuff when all is said and done and you can head over to the wikipedia page for more fun information.
I just recently managed to find a copy of it in my local Barnes and Noble. Even when I looked in bigger stores, I couldn't find this thing to save my life, so if you ever see it and have any interest in it whatsoever, snap it up while you can because you're not likely to find it too many other places.