James Sprenger

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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."

Contrary to popular opinion, Sprenger is not the co-author of the Malleus Maleficarum. All editions after 1519 named him as Heinrich Kramer’s collaborator but it seems highly unlikely that he was. Sprenger was not interested in witches at all and cannot be linked to a single witch trial. His personal relationship to Kramer was acrimonious and Sprenger used his powerful position whenever he could to make Kramer’s life and work as difficult as possible. The reason why he became associated with the Malleus Maleficarum is due to Kramer’s attempts to lend his book as much official authority as possible. He forged a recommendation for the Malleus from the theology faculty of Cologne University and by naming the renowned theologian and dean of Cologne University Sprenger as co-author he could not only increase the prestige of his work but also get personal revenge on one of his most persistent clerical adversaries.^{[citation needed]} Sprenger died suddenly in 1494.