Nicolas Jacquier

Nicolas Jacquier (also Nicolaus Jaquerius , Nicolaus Jacquier , Nikolaus Jaquier , Nicholas Jacquier , Nikolaus Jacquier ; † 1472 in Lille ) was a French Dominican and inquisitor . He became known as a witch theorist .

Life

Jacquier took part in the Basel Council since 1432 , where he even appeared as a member of the deputatio fidei in May 1440 . In Arras he witnessed the persecution of the Vaudois ( Waldensians ) in 1459 . In 1464 he lived in the Dominican convent of Lille. He acted as an inquisitor against heretics in Tournai in 1465 and in Bohemia from 1466 to 1468 . In 1468 he was again occupied as an inquisitor in Lille.

In his text Flagellum haereticorum fascinariorum , which in the text itself is dated 1458 and was first printed in 1581, Jacquier explained the witchcraft as heresy and thus justified the persecution of witches .

In his book he gives the confession of guilt of the Benedictine monk Edelin (also: de Line, Magister Guilhelmus) to deter dissenters . This had spoken out against the witch madness and claimed that the magic flight and heretic sabbath are only based on imagination. Edelin was convicted of heretics in 1453 in Évreux. His memory was never forgotten, because the witch hunters in Jacquier's entourage threatened like-minded people with a similar fate in many countries.

In his book "Heretic Scourge", Jacquier complains about the resistance that the inquisitors encountered. "Very many people claimed that the devil's sabbath was just a deceptive dream ... The devil could also fool the cronies gathered there (on the devil's sabbath) into illusions of innocent and unsuspecting people who were not actually present; that's why they were Report of a defendant that he saw this or that acquaintance on the heretic Sabbath, inconclusive. "

With this objection the persecution of the magic sect is called into question. That is why Jacquier recommended: "If the person accused of complicity says that the devil has only made his image appear, one reply to him that the devil could not have done this without God's permission." The accused could not argue against this.

In his book "Heretic Scourge", Jacquier complains above all about clergymen who oppose the Inquisition. This mainly related to the northern provinces of France.

With the intervention of the King of France and a ruling by the parliament in Paris in 1491, Jacquier and the persecution of heretics in Arras failed.

Works

• Flagellum haereticorum fascinariorum (literal translation: scourge of the heretical gangs; 1458, first printed in 1581 in Frankfurt am Main)
• He also wrote handwritten theological tracts that have been handed down .

literature

• Latin entry in Fabricius' lexicon of writers
• Joseph Hansen, sources and studies on the history of the witch madness ..., Bonn 1901, p. 133f. (Biography), pp. 133-145 (excerpts from the flagellum )
• Kurt Baschwitz, Witches and Witch Trials. The story of a mass madness and its fight, Bindlach 1990, p. 83 ff
• Werner Tschacher, Der Formicarius des Johannes Nider from 1437/38 , Aachen 2000, p. 462 ISBN 3826581415 (with further literature)