Kaspar Reinhard

Kaspar Reinhard (also Reinhardt ) (* 1596 in Werl , † 1669 ) was a lawyer in Kurkölner services and is a particularly witches Commissioner become known.

Life

Reinhard came from a respected family in Werl and had family connections with Caspar von Fürstenberg . He studied law and is therefore usually referred to in the sources as a licentiate . He was consul in Werl and was one of the witch commissioners (Commissarius inquisitionis) appointed by Elector Ferdinand of Bavaria for the Duchy of Westphalia . He was responsible for Attendorn , Drolshagen , Wenden , Allendorf and the Balve office .

With several hundred cases, he was responsible for an unusually high number of witch trials and convictions, even for the times. One focus of his activity was the office of Balve.

In the course of 1630, at the height of the witch hunt in the Duchy of Westphalia, the complaints against him before the electoral councilor in Bonn increased. This included the pastor of Drolshagen Nikolaus Rottger. When he had to fear for his life himself, he fled from Reinhard's reach. In a complaint it was said: "that he was already having over 800 burned, causing horrible torture to the poor sinners". The Jesuit Turck was probably referring to him when he wrote: "It is certain that in the Duchy of Westphalia almost 500 people were sentenced to the stake by one and the same witch judge." Even if the numbers mentioned are too high, it was he is one of the most fanatical witch hunters and known beyond the borders of the country. He was remembered for decades. In 1653, a defendant remembered his mother and grandmother, who "executed years ago at Inqusition domini Commissarii Reinhards".

attack

The fear of him was so great that an assassination attempt was carried out on him in the Balve office. His colleague, the witch commissioner Heinrich von Schultheiß , passed this on in his writing on witch trials. After that, a woman, her husband and several others decided to kill the inspector. The couple probably belonged to the urban upper class and the man was not suspected, but was "well suffered" by Reinhard. They had won over a servant to carry it out by pointing out that he himself was threatened. People suspected of witchcraft who had previously been in hiding also took part in the act. They used the opportunity when Reinhard had dinner with the mayor and the pastor to do their thing. The perpetrators shot the inspector through the window with firearms. Reinhard was only injured. A clerk and a servant were fatally wounded. Three of the perpetrators were caught. Heinrich von Schultheiss was a judge in their trial. He sentenced two men to quartering and cycling . One woman was executed as a witch with a sword and her body was later cremated.

swell

• Heinrich von Schultheiß: A detailed instruction as in Inquisition things of the increased vice of magic against the magic of the divine majesty and the enemies of Christendom without the danger of the innocent to proceed ... Cologne 1634, p. 488-490 ( digitalisat ).

literature

• Gerhard Schormann: The war against the witches. The extermination program of the Electors of Cologne. Göttingen 1991, p. 69 f., P. 83.
• Rainer Decker: The witch hunts in the Duchy of Westphalia. In: Alfred Bruns (Red.): Witches. Jurisdiction in the Sauerland region of Cologne. Schmallenberg 1984, p. 201.
• Rainer Decker: Opponent of the great witch hunt in the Duchy of Westphalia and in the Hochstift Paderborn. In: Hartmut Lehmann, Otto Ulbricht (ed.): From the nonsense of the witch trials. Opponents of the witch hunt from Johann Weyer to Friedrich Spee. Wiesbaden 1992, p. 189 f.