Jacob Sprenger | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1436 or 1438 |
| Died | 6 December 1495 (aged 57 or 59) Strasbourg, Free Imperial City of Strasbourg,Holy Roman Empire |
| Other names | Jakob Sprenger |
| Occupations |
|
| Known for | Association withMalleus Maleficarum |
Jacob Sprenger (1436/1438 – 6 December 1495) was aDominican inquisitor and theologian principally known for his association with an infamous book on witch-huntingMalleus Maleficarum (1486). He taught at theUniversity of Cologne.
Sprenger was born in 1436 or 1438 inRheinfelden,Further Austria.
Sprenger was admitted as a novice in theDominican house of Rheinfelden in 1452 and became a zealous reformer. He founded an association of theConfraternity of the Holy Rosary inStrasbourg in 1474.
He became a Master of Theology and then in 1480 Dean of the Faculty of Theology at theUniversity of Cologne and was a popular lecturer.[1]
In 1481 he was appointed as anInquisitor for the Provinces ofMainz,Trier andCologne, a post that demanded constant traveling through an extensive district.[2]
Sprenger was named along withHeinrich Kramer in the 1484papal bullSummis desiderantes ofPope Innocent VIII and reprinted in the infamousMalleus Maleficarum.[3] All editions after 1519 named Sprenger asHeinrich Kramer's co-author.[4]
It has been claimed that Sprenger cannot be linked to any witch trial, that his personal relationship to Kramer was acrimonious, and that Sprenger used his powerful position whenever he could to make Kramer's life and work as difficult as possible.[5] Some scholars now believe that he became associated with theMalleus Maleficarum largely as a result of Kramer's wish to lend his book as much official authority as possible.[6]
In a 1631 work most concerned with innocence, and opposed to theMalleus Maleficarum,Friedrich Spee attributes authorship of the book to "Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer."[7] Though Spee was Jesuit (not Dominican) and his work was written more than a century afterMalleus Maleficarum, both Spee and Sprenger were professors of theology in Cologne and both travelled extensively in many of the same areas. Some of Spee's fellow professors in Cologne were appalled by Spee's book and thought it should be listed on thepapal Index of Forbidden Books. This would suggest that, whether or not Sprenger initially endorsed or opposed the work of Heinrich Kramer, the book carrying Sprenger's name did eventually find a degree of influence among the Catholic theologians in Cologne.[8]
TheHarvard President andPuritanIncrease Mather cited "Sprenger" as a reference to theMalleus Maleficarum in an influential pro-witch-hunting work published in 1684,[9] as well as another work published in 1692, the same year as theSalem Witch Trials: "Witches have often (as Sprenger observes) desired that they might stand or fall by this trial by hot iron, and sometimes come off well."[10]
Sprenger died on 6 December 1495 inStrasbourg.
