In 1631, at the epicentre of the worst excesses of the European witch-hunts, Friedrich Spee, a Jesuit priest, published the "Cautio Criminalis", a book speaking out against the trials that were sending thousands of innocent people to gruesome deaths.

Spee's insistence that suspects, no matter how heinous the crimes of which they are accused, possess certain inalienable rights is a timeless reminder for the present day. The "Cautio Criminalis" is an important and moving work in the history of witch trials and a revealing documentation of one man's unexpected humanity in a brutal age.