One of the most important and timely books published in 2006 is ironically a complete and authoritative English translation of Malleus Maleficarum*, often called "The Hammer of Witches," which was first published in 1486.

This treatise documents the medieval Inquisition, which predated the Spanish and Roman Inquisitions, and began roughly with the papal bull of 1199 by Pope Innocent III, in which heresy was equated with treason and thus awarded the death penalty. There is a magnificent introduction by translator Christopher Mackay.

Why is this 520-year-old book so important today? We stand at a crossroads of modern civilization. The Bush Administration as well as Republican presidential candidate John McCain openly espouse the legitimacy of the use of torture, based on two fundamental claims.

First, they assert that our enemies are more evil than any previously encountered, and therefore we are justified in jettisoning two centuries of enlightenment in which the United States of America was morally superior to any despotic regime that would stoop to the barbaric practice of torture.

Second, they claim that torture is effective in extracting truthful information. Both claims are prima facie preposterous. The brilliance of Malleus Maleficarum is that it reveals with clarity that dark aspect of human nature that is not simply capable of employing torture, but which is capable of doing so in a calculated, premeditated and intentional manner.

For 250 years, the medieval inquisitors used torture and the threat of torture to extract detailed "confessions" out of accused witches. The crimes for which witches were tortured and often burned to death were performing magic, which no modern American would for one second believe is real. The inquisitors believed that a Satanic sect existed, comprised of individuals whose goals were to conduct several hallmark crimes that defined witchcraft, including flying through the air to attend rituals with other witches, sexual relations with the devil, performing magic, renouncing the Church, and killing babies.

There is no evidence that any such sect ever existed, and to the modern mind, most of the activities that define witchcraft are physical impossibilities. That human beings were tortured and killed by representatives of the Church for these imaginary crimes attests to the power of mass delusion, especially when it is reinforced by authorities like the Church, universities or the government.

That thousands of individuals confessed in great detail to crimes that we know today are supernatural fantasies shows the power of torture to extract false confessions that the victim hopes will end the torture, and which reflect more closely the torturer's delusions than any reality.

It is to be hoped that the United States moves forward into the 21st century. However, we are perilously close to regressing 800 years into medieval barbarism.

* Malleus Maleficarum. 2006. Edited and translated by Christopher S. Mackay. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.