Johann Sprenger
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Johann Sprenger was a German Dominican friar and theologian who, along with Heinrich Kraemer, co-authored the Malleus maleficarum (c. 1486). This book served as a standard handbook on witchcraft for centuries and significantly fueled the witch-hunting hysteria in Europe. Pope Innocent VIII authorized Sprenger and Kraemer to combat witchcraft in Germany. The Malleus maleficarum codified beliefs about witchcraft, emphasizing its reality and depravity, and condemning disbelief in demonology as heresy. It also outlined legal procedures for witch trials, sanctioning torture to obtain confessions and urging secular authorities to assist in exterminating those believed to be in league with Satan. The book was widely accepted by both Roman Catholics and Protestants as an authoritative guide on Satanism and Christian defense.1
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Malleus maleficarum…the work of two Dominicans: Jacob Sprenger, dean of the University of Cologne in Germany, and Heinrich (Institoris) Kraemer, professor of theology at the University of Salzburg, Austria, and inquisitor in the Tirol region of Austria. In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued the bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, in which he…
Read More…the work of two Dominicans: Jacob Sprenger, dean of the University of Cologne in Germany, and Heinrich (Institoris) Kraemer, professor of theology at the University of Salzburg, Austria, and inquisitor in the Tirol region of Austria. In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued the bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, in which he…
Read More- magicLate medieval and early modern Europe
…Hammer of Witches,” 1486) by Jacob Sprenger and Henry Krämer describes witchcraft in great detail (e.g, the witches’ sabbath, a midnight assembly in fealty to the Devil); moreover, this oft-reprinted volume is responsible for the misogynist association of witchcraft with women that becomes the dominant characteristic in the early modern…
Read More…Hammer of Witches,” 1486) by Jacob Sprenger and Henry Krämer describes witchcraft in great detail (e.g, the witches’ sabbath, a midnight assembly in fealty to the Devil); moreover, this oft-reprinted volume is responsible for the misogynist association of witchcraft with women that becomes the dominant characteristic in the early modern…
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