Michael Stappert
Michael Stappert (* probably around 1585 to 1590 in Meiste bei Rüthen ; † 1663 in Grevenstein ), also Michael Stapirius , was a German Catholic pastor and wrote a pamphlet on the witch trials . He was pastor in the Sauerland town of Hirschberg (Warstein) in Westphalia until 1621 , then in Grevenstein (Meschede) and was an opponent of witch hunts alongside Johann Weyer , Anton Praetorius and Friedrich Spee .
Life
During the time of the witch persecution as a pastor in Hirschberg, Stappert originally demanded the extermination of witches in his sermons . The first doubts arose when the witch judge Dr. Heinrich von Schultheiß 1616–1617 carried out witch trials against at least 13 people.
As a pastor, he had to offer spiritual comfort to the convicts before the execution of the death sentence. He learned from them that the only way to get the defendants to confess was through torture .
Some of the accused asked Stapirius not to share their statements with the court because if the confession was withdrawn, they would be tortured again. They would rather die without further agony.
Stappert gained this knowledge in 1616–1617 at witch trials in Kallenhardt , Hirschberg, Hellefeld and Allagen . In 1617 Steffen von Niederbergheim fell victim to the witch hunt. In the years 1628–1629 he was involved in witch trials in Balve , Anröchte , Calle and Hirschberg. He held talks with the defendants, their relatives, prison guards and other clergy about the truth about the trials and the torture . This led to his change of opinion, which he wrote down in 1628/1629. He turned against the merciless torture and condemnation of innocent people as witches to be put to death at the stake:
- The ninth case also occurred in Hirschberg at the same time. At the same time in the same year as previously stated [note: 1616] a woman by the name of Agatha Kricks was miserably tortured in Hirschberg. In this torture and torture she also had to confess that she could do magic and that she had harmed this and that. When I came to her as a pastor in prison, she complained that she was innocent with the following words: “During the torture I had to say that I could do magic. But the righteous God in heaven knows about my innocence and that I had to lie to myself, and if I were a sorceress, I wanted to confess it like the others and confess such things to you as my confessor. "Meanwhile she said to me:" Oh Pastor, how am I supposed to do it? ”I urged her not to allow herself to be further seduced by the devil, but rather her sin in the inner judgment of her heart and conscience before God as well as in the outward judgment before men , Judges and lay judges, confess. She replied and said: "Oh God, oh God, if I were guilty, I wanted to and should do it, but because I am not guilty, I should lie to my confessor and say that I am guilty while I am I am innocent? ”She continued:“ Pastor, you have admonished me enough, I want to excuse the Lord before God on the last day. And if I was guilty and refused to confess it to my confessor when I was dying, what consolation should that be for my bliss? I must die as a sorceress in front of everyone, and in such a case I would be worthy of eternal damnation. Now God knows that I am not guilty, and I want to live and die on it. "
- (from: Hermann Löher, Wehmütige Klage , under The ninth case also went to Hirtzberg at the same time , translated into today's German)
He wrote a text that was not published until 1676 by the Amsterdam citizen Hermann Löher in his book Hochnötige Unterthanige Wemütige Klage Der Pious Invalid . In chapter 13 Löher calls it the Glasses Marter Tractat . Michael Stapirius is mentioned on the title page of Löher's book.
There is no record of how Löher came into possession of Stapirius' writing and whether he took over its model completely and verbatim. It becomes clear that Löher added frequent comments.
In his treatise, names of victims and judges are mentioned who still occur in the area today.
The only copy of Löher's writing in Germany is in the archives of the St. Michael-Gymnasium in Bad Münstereifel .
Commemoration
The Michael-Stappert-Haus, Antoniusstrasse 8, 59872 Meschede (Grevenstein), and a bronze relief on the witch tower in Rüthen remind of his work.
swell
- Hermann Löher: Serious Subjects Furious Lament of the Pious Invalid , 1676
literature
- Alfred Gottschlich: From the history of Hirschberg , ed. Sauerländischer Gebirgsverein, Abt. Hirschberg, 1985, p. 28 ff
- Friedrich Albert Groeteken : The witch trials at Hirschberg in the Sauerland , in: Heimatborn, monthly journal for local history for the Sauerland and the Soester Börde, 1930
- Rainer Decker: The witch hunts in the Duchy of Westphalia , in: Alfred Bruns: Witches - Jurisdiction in the Sauerland region of Cologne. Documentation for the exhibition in the Schmallenberg-Holthausen Slate Mining Museum from July 21 to August 4, 1984 , p. 207
- Rainer Decker: Michael Stappert's spectacles tract as part of Hermann Löher's wistful lament . In: Annalen des Historisches Verein für den Niederrhein Vol. 206, Issue 1/2003, online as an introductory chapter in the edition by Thomas Becker: Hermann Löher, Hochnötige ... "
Web links
See also: witch theorists .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Stappert, Michael |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Stapirius, Michael |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German pastor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1590 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rüthen |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1663 |
| Place of death | Grevenstein |