Summis desiderantes
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Summis desiderantes affectibus is a papal bull issued on December 5, 1484 by Pope Innocent VIII. It condemned an alleged outbreak of witchcraft and heresy in the region of the Rhine River valley, and deputized Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, authors of the Malleus maleficarum, as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany.
This papal bull led to one of the severest witchhunts in European history[citation needed].
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