Jesuit Prison Ministry in the Witch Trials

Description

This study is the first examination of Jesuit prison ministry in the Holy Roman Empire during the period of witch trials. It provides new insights into the prisons where the persons detained for witchcraft were incarcerated as well as their trials and the applied torture and executions, as seen through the Jesuits’ eyes. In the context of these trials, the Cautio Criminalis appeared, written by the noble Jesuit Friedrich Spee SJ (1591–1635), dealing with the question of the legality of the trials and the related prison ministry, and printed pseudonymously by a Lutheran printer in 1631 and again in 1632. For the first time, the study offers a complete biography of Spee, who was nearly forced to leave the Society of Jesus; it traces the book’s publication, and provides a detailed analysis of the prison visits of his confreres. The book also details Spee’s criticism of prison ministers and questions about the guilt or innocence of the imprisoned, tortured and executed women and men of this tragic period in European history.