Heinrich kramer biography
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Witches presenting wax dolls to the Devil as part of a diabolical act, featured in the History of Witches and Wizards (): (accessed 14/11/19)
Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger’s Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches), published in , is undoubtedly one of the most important texts in the history of witchcraft study. It serves effectively as a manual for hunting and persecuting witches. Through P.G. Maxwell-Stuart’s comprehensive edit and translation of the Malleus, we can learn of what led to the Malleus’ writing, the attitude towards witchcraft and the persecution of witches in late 15th-century Europe, and the effect on the perception of witchcraft that the text had.
Why was the Malleus Maleficarum written?
The Malleus Maleficarum is as much a handbook for inquisitors as it is a personal swipe at Kramer’s opposition.
Title page of an Early Modern Malleus Maleficarum from the Wellcome Collection, () (accessed 16/12/19)
Heinrich Kramer was born in Schlettstadt around and entered the Dominican order there. He was named inquisitor for southern Germany in , and was involved with witch trials within two years. Jacob Sprenger was born around in Basel, and, like Kramer, became a member of the Dominican order and an inquisitor in the Rhineland in He had a brief coo
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Kramer, Heinrich (ca. )
Dominican inquisitor who played a leading part in the great witchcraft persecutions as author of the infamous Malleus Maleficarum, (literally, the Witches' Hammer), the authoritative sourcebook for inquisitors, judges, and magistrates.
Born at Schlettstadt, in Lower Alsace, near Strasbourg, Kramer entered the Dominican order, where he progressed so rapidly that he was appointed prior to the Dominican House in Schlettstadt while still a young man. He became preacher-general and master of sacred theology (two Dominican Order distinctions) and around was appointed inquisitor for the districts of Tyrol, Salzburg, Bohemia, and Moravia. He received praise from Rome and from the archbishop of Salzburg, becoming spiritual director of the Dominican church in Salzburg.
In Pope Innocent VIII was responsible for the famous bull Summis desiderantes affectibus of December 9, which deplored the power of the witch organization and redefined witchcraft in such a way as to bring it into the scope of the Inquisition. The pope also delegated Kramer and Sprenger as inquisitors throughout northern Germany, especially in Mainz, Cologne, Treves, Salzburg, and Breman.
In Kramer wrote a treatise on witchcraft that initially circulated in manuscript; it was published i