Editing Jacob Sprenger (section)

==Associated authorship of ''Malleus Maleficarum''==
Sprenger was named along with [[Heinrich Kramer]] in the 1484 [[papal bull]] ''[[Summis desiderantes]]'' of [[Pope Innocent VIII]] and reprinted in the infamous ''[[Malleus Maleficarum]]''.<ref>The ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' states that ''Innocent's Bull conferred upon Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, inquisitors, to deal with persons of every class and with every form of crime (for example, with witchcraft as well as heresy), and it called upon the [[Bishop of Strasburg]] to lend the inquisitors all possible support.'' {{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Witchcraft}}</ref> All editions after 1519 named Sprenger as [[Heinrich Kramer]]'s co-author.<ref>{{BBKL|i/Institoris|band=2|autor= Reinhard Tenberg|artikel=Institoris, Heinrich|spalten=1307-1310}} states that Sprenger worked on the compilation with Kramer from around 1485 to 1487.</ref>

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.<ref>K. B. Springer, ''Dominican Inquisition in the archidiocese of Mainz 1348-1520'', in: ''Praedicatores, Inquisitores, Vol. 1: The Dominicans and the Medieval Inquisition. Acts of the 1st International Seminar on the Dominicans and the Inquisition, 23–25 February 2002'', ed. Arturo Bernal Palacios, Rome 2004, p. 345-351.</ref> Some scholars now believe that he became associated with the ''Malleus Maleficarum'' largely as a result of Kramer's wish to lend his book as much official authority as possible.<ref>See for example Hans Peter Broedel, ''The "Malleus Maleficarum" and the Construction of Witchcraft: Theology and Popular Belief'' (2003) p. 19.</ref>

===Friedrich Spee in Cologne===
In a 1631 work most concerned with innocence, and opposed to the ''Malleus Maleficarum'', [[Friedrich Spee]] attributes authorship of the book to "Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer."<ref>Cautio Criminalis,(2nd Edition,1632)[https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=am1jAAAAcAAJ&pg=GBS.PA171 p. 171]. The location is Dubium XXIII, part V. Note, per Marcus Hellyer's tranlastion, p. xiv, Spee's 2nd edition  was probably printed samizdat in Cologne though the title page claims Frankfurt. In Hellyer's translation, the names Sprenger and Institoris are not listed in the index but can be found in the text p. 93. Additional references can also be located in Hellyer's index under ''Malleus Maleficarum''. </ref> Though Spee was Jesuit (not Dominican) and his work was written more than a century after ''Malleus 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 the [[Index of Forbidden Books|papal 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.<ref>Marcus Hellyer translation Cautio Criminalis (2003) p.xiv</ref> 

===Salem Witch Trials===
The [[Harvard]] President and [[Puritan]] [[Increase Mather]] cited "Sprenger" as a reference to the ''Malleus Maleficarum'' in an influential pro-witch-hunting work published in 1684,<ref>Increase Mather, Remarkable Providences (1684) [https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=mzspT9uXw7AC&pg=GBS.PA140 p.140].</ref> as well as another work published in 1692, the same year as the [[Salem 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."<ref>Cotton and Increase Mather, Farther Account of the Trials of New-England Witches (1862 London reprint) [https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=1loToSsb-ecC&pg=GBS.PA272 p.272.]</ref>