What infuriates Sprenger and Kramer most of all is the fact that most people do not fully realize how dangerous witchcraft is, how it has become a widespread evil.
They decided to complain to Pope Innocent VIII himself about such a "bleak" situation in European countries. The Holy Father was horrified by their stories - he had no idea how widespread the atrocities had reached, perpetrated with impunity by witches and sorcerers. The Pope decided that the complainants were God's true messengers.
The Holy See, it must be said, has long thought about carrying out a great mission and was looking for the right person for it - businesslike, dexterous, grasping, unprincipled. In Rome, they remembered how in the Netherlands it suffered a crushing defeat when the authorities dispersed all the inquisitors. The same happened in France, however, with the exception of Toulouse, where the Inquisition wielded as fiercely as in 1233.
Pope Innocent VIII finally settled on Jacob Sprenger. Firstly, he is a German, a Dominican monk, which means that he can well count on the support of this militant order, which inspires fear everywhere, all its strict monasteries and schools.
Secondly, he is an excellent scholastic, knows by heart the "Sum of Theology" of Thomas Aquinas, and sprinkles texts and quotes.
In the spirit of the followers of Thomas Aquinas, he is horrified by the terrible, not life but death, struggle between God and Satan, and his hand constantly reaches out to the burning torch in order to quickly bring it to the fire and burn as many human bodies as possible, in which the Devil possessed.
TUTORIAL FOR WITCH HUNTERS
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The Hammer of the Witches was first published in 1486 and is undoubtedly the most significant and most sinister treatise in the history of demonology. It is a fierce, ruthless criminal code that has effectively opened the floodgates for inquisitorial hysteria across Europe.
This textbook for "witch hunters" only until 1522 withstood thirty editions, and in the period from 1574 to 1669. - sixty more. It has appeared several times in English, German, French and Italian.
THE HAMMER OF THE WITCHES - A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION
The Hammer of the Witches became a vital source of inspiration, the basis for all subsequent treatises on witchcraft and the fight against it. He retained his unshakable position even after such generally recognized priorities in this area as the Spanish Jesuit Del Rio (1599) and the French monk Nicola de Remy (1595). It is especially interesting to note the epigraph sent down to this book: "Disbelief in witches is the highest heresy!"
DOUBT IN GOD'S WORD
From the first page of his work, Sprenger sets out in detail, one by one, all the reasons why devilish miracles are heretical delusions. The Bible says, he teaches, that witches and sorcerers exist, and therefore any person who questions the words of Scripture is a heretic. If, according to this "theoretician", the slightest doubt in the word of God is tantamount to heresy, then the judges need not hesitate long over the punishment.
The first part of his work speaks of witchcraft, which has reached terrifying proportions everywhere, which must be fought with the most decisive methods (read - by burning at the stake). In the second, the authors list all the known fables about the atrocities of witches: a pact with the Devil, flying through the air, werewolf, causing storms, death of livestock and destruction of crops - the whole set of witchcraft.
The third part is purely legal. It concerns the proper conduct of the trial, the questioning of witnesses, the testimony of the accused under torture and the final judgment. According to many theologians, this book is full of all sorts of nonsense, absurdities and contradictions.
HEINRICH KRAMER
Jacob Sprenger's co-author, Heinrich Kramer, began his anti-theology work in Tyrol, where he earned the universal hatred of the entire local population. Once, in order to justify his witch hunt in front of his fellow countrymen, Kramer persuaded a dissolute woman to hide in his big oven every day and, with his snarling spells, give visitors the impression that the devil was raging there. With her changed, thunderous voice, in the presence of witnesses, she slandered many people whom Kramer tortured and ultimately sent to the stake.
Bishop Brixen managed to get rid of this rascal with great difficulty, although the Inquisition interceded for him, and expelled him from his diocese. However, he received an award for his deeds from the hands of the Archduke Sigismund himself.
INNOKENTY VIII AND ITS BULLA
Pope Innocent VIII sat on the papal throne for only eight years, from 1484 to 1492. BUT under him, one of the most important documents in history on the fight against witchcraft and magic was adopted and made public, the famous bull, which he personally drew up, as soon as he received the highest ecclesiastical authority in the Vatican. "This papal edict developed the principles of jurisprudence for the next three centuries to fight the Devil and save all mankind from his clutches … It, in fact, served as an excuse for the ruthless and merciless persecution of sorcerers and witches," wrote the German demonologist Hansen.
Pope Innocent VIII was far from the first fighter against witchcraft; he kept many apostolic epistles on this topic in his archives.
Still, he distinguished himself from this area. “He sounded the alarm, calling for a fierce fight against these 'terrible' crimes,” wrote Walter Scott.
To each edition of the "Hammer of the Witches" in each country was necessarily added as an appendix and the highest approval of the bull Pope Innocent VIII.
HERESY IN FRANCE
For the first time, witchcraft began to be associated directly with heresy in France in the 13th century. The theological basis for this was the constant, incessant discussions of prominent theologians of that time - from the Archbishop of Paris, Guillaume of Auverne and to Thomas Aquinas, from I. Duns Scotus to Cabriel Viel.
Based on these lengthy considerations, the clergy and judges of the Inquisition and the Church created a detailed, paragraph-by-paragraph concept of the so-called contractual relationship of apostates with the Devil, which served as a reliable justification for conducting witch trials. With this formulation in hand, the University of Paris in 1398 first began to associate witchcraft not with magic, but with religion. Thus, it turned into an anti-Catholic heresy, submitted to the Inquisition, which, I must say, since the pacification of sectarian movements in the south of France, has found itself out of work. But this situation did not last long. An epidemic of "witch hunts" began.