The Malleus Maleficarum was the first hand book printed on the topic of satanic witchcraft (1486), and was seminal in the spread of witch hunting in Early Modern western Europe. The main author was a Dominican friar and inquisitor named Heinricus Institoris, and a major influence on the work’s composition came from an inquisition he conducted in Innsbruck in 1485, where a major difference of views about witchcraft between Institoris and the local bishop completely derailed the proceedings. As a result of this disagreement, a large archive of documents about the proceedings has been preserved in the episcopal archives, and though their existence has been known since the late 19th century, the texts have not been fully published prior to the upcoming edition by C.S. Mackay. These texts allow us to see how Institoris put together accusations of witchcraft on the basis of his theories, and how the entire proceedings came to a very dramatic conclusion through the behind-the-scenes efforts of the bishop to undermine the inquisitor. For some pre-Halloween fun, we’ll talk about strange theories about witch craft and stranger Latinity.