Cautio Criminal: Seu de Processibus Contra Sagas Liber appeared in the German university town Rinteln at the peak of that country's witch trials in 1631. It argued that the plague of witches was the product of the trials themselves, and urged princes to oversee the trials closely or end them entirely. The anonymous author was quickly identified as Spee (1591-1635), a 40-year old Jesuit priest and professor of moral theology. Not surprisingly, he got into a bit of trouble about it. Hellyer (history of science, Brandeis U.) translates the 1632 second edition. The cover and title page show the author as Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld; Library of Congress catalogs this name as Friedrich Spee. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)