Heinrich was having a bad time. For two years, he had been an inquisitor in southern Germany

and was involved in the witch trials that had begun to sweep Western Europe. But Heinrich

ended up not being a good fit for his role. Although he had a profound sense of duty, he lacked any sense

of professionalism. For one thing, he had become deeply obsessed with the sex life of one of the

women he accused and brought to trial. It was all too much, and his unhinged displays were deeply

embarrassing. Because of this, the bishop, his boss, set free every last woman on trial that day,

fired Heinrich and publicly declared him to be insane. Heinrich, who had been looking forward to

making a name for himself, was mortified, inconsolable even. The next course of action it was decided

would be to put his truths down on paper.

He would write a book.

The year was 1486, and it would be a clapback that would echo for centuries to come.

Heinrich took to his study and got out his ink.

His order of business, create a guidebook that would help solve for this world that he felt was perverted by women.

He wrote hundreds of pages on how to spot treacherous ones, on how women often caroused with the

devil, on how they practiced witchcraft, and were generally up to evil doings.

It acted as a guide for identifying witches, and suggested different kinds of torture,

prosecution strategies, and punishments kinds of torture, prosecution strategies,

and punishments for those convicted of the charges outlined in its pages.

The ones he cautioned his readers to fear the most, he wrote, were the concubines,

domineering spouses, and midwives.

The latter he wrote was the worst of the worst.

Heinrich wrote that midwives not only killed babies at birth but hungered to drink their blood.

...