James Sprenger
From Free net encyclopedia
James (or Jacob/Jakob/Jacobus) Sprenger was born in Basel between 1436 and 1438. He was admitted as a novice in the Dominican house of this town in 1452. He became a zealous reformer within the Order. Later he became a Master of Theology and then Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Cologne. He was appointed by Pope Sixtus IV as the General Inquisitor for Germany, around 1475. In 1480 he was appointed dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University. His lecture room was thronged and the following year he was appointed Inquisitor Extraordinary for the Provinces of Mainz, Trèves, and Cologne. His activities in this post demanded constant travelling through the very extensive district. A work from 1719 reports that Sprenger was known in the Dominican house for "his burning and fearless zeal for the old faith, his vigilance, his constancy, his singleness and patience in correcting novel abuses and errors." In 1486 he collaborated with Heinrich Kramer to write the Malleus Maleficarum. He died suddenly in 1494.
External links
- Introduction to the Malleus Maleficarum (1928 edition) by Montague Summers, including some biographical facts and sources about Sprengerde:Jakob Sprenger (Inquisitor)