Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) is the most important witchhunter's bible, used by both Catholics and Protestants. First published in 1486, it remained in use for three hundred years and had a tremendous influence in the witch trials in England and on the continent. This book was used as a judicial case-book for the detection and persecution of witches, specifying rules of evidence and the official procedures by which suspected witches were to be tortured and put to death. Thousands of people (mostly women) were murdered as a result of the procedures described in this book, for no reason other than a strange birthmark, living alone, mental illness, cultivation of medicinal herbs, or simply because they were falsely accused.