There is, so far as I know, no good analysis, in any English book, of the contents of the Witch-Hammer; but such may be found in Roskoff's Geschichte des Teufels, or in Soldan's Geschichte der Hexenprozesse.

Its first dated edition is that of 1489; but Prof.Burr has shown that it was printed as early as 1486.

It was, happily, never translated into any modern tongue.
With the application of torture to thousands of women, in accordance with the precepts laid down in the Malleus, it was not difficult to extract masses of proof for this sacred theory of meteorology.

The poor creatures, writhing on the rack, held in horror by those who had been nearest and dearest to them, anxious only for death to relieve their sufferings, confessed to anything and everything that would satisfy the inquisitors and judges.

All that was needed was that the inquisitors should ask leading questions( 251) and suggest satisfactory answers: the prisoners, to shorten the torture, were sure sooner or later to give the answer required, even though they knew that this would send them to the stake or scaffold.