Holy Roman Empire / Germany: Notable Philosophers and Theologians and Religious Figures

Organized chronologically by birth year / date of publication

1200 - 1285 - St. Albertus Magnus (All Facts)

• German Dominican Friar, Bishop, Philosopher, and Scientist

• He mentored St. Thomas Aquinas

• He brought works of Aristotle, recently available in new Latin translations from Arab sources, into scholasticism, the study of the meaning of Christian teaching

1260 - 1328 - Meister Eckhart (All Facts)

• German Dominican (Catholic) Theologian, Philosopher, Priest, and Mystic

  • He was a celebrated mystic

  • He presented himself in Avignon in France to face his critics at the convocation called by Pope John XXII, who condemned 28 of the namesake’s views in his “In Agro Dominico” Papal Bull

• He saw the soul as the divine spark which enabled man to know God

  • To reach God meant

    • turning inwards, doing nothing, owning nothing, and knowing nothing

    • being free of desire, even the desire for sanctity and God

      • This particular belief set him apart from many monks who had chosen poverty and self-abnegation

• He argued that the sacraments, though they played a part as preparation, must be cast off if man was to have direct access to God

  • This view was seen as the most direct threat to the authority of the Church and what Pope John XII saw as heretical

• He died in Avignon in France

1325 - 1397 - Henry of Langenstein (All Facts)

• German Scholastic Philosopher, Theologian, and Educator

• He taught at the University of Paris in France, where he attempted to end the Great Schism, but his arguments were not accepted by King Charles VI of France

• He was promptly dismissed from the University of Paris and France altogether

1401 - 1464 - Nicholas of Cusa (All Facts)

• German Philosopher

• He wrote that the Earth, and not the heavens, revolved daily, a refutation of the accepted Ptolemaic System

• His idea was based upon philosophic notions, however, and not on observable scientific data’

• He was also appointed cardinal by Pope Nicholas V and sent on a successful mission to lead reform in Germany

1430 - 1505 - Heinrich Kramer (All Facts)

• German Dominican Theologian and Inquisitor

• He was authorized by Pope Innocent VIII to stamp out witchcraft in Germany in the 1400s

• He and his co-inquisitor had burnt 41 witches who had confessed to having sex with the devil

1433 - Nicholas of Cusa: The Catholic Concordance / De Concordantia Catholica (ALl Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author argued for the General Council’s authority over the Pope

• Despite this, the council’s lack of power led the namesake author to reverse his position on this issue four years after the publication of the namesake

1436 - 1495 - Jakob Sprenger (All Facts)

• German Dominican Theologian and Inquisitor

• He was authorized by Pope Innocent VIII to stamp out witchcraft in Germany in the 1400s

• He and his co-inquisitor had burnt 41 witches who had confessed to having sex with the devil

1440 - Nicholas of Cusa: Of Learned Ignorance (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author argues against the possibility of ever attaining eternal truths

1486 - Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer: Hammer of Witches / Malleus Maleficarum (All Facts)

• Work which suggests that witches

  • really do fly

  • raised hailstorms and hurtful tempests and lightnings

  • caused sterility

  • made horses go mad under their riders

  • ate children

  • had sex with the devil

  • engaged in sexual orgies

  • engaged in cannibalistic orgies

• Work which provides voluminous evidence of these practices, mostly obtained from torturing suspected witches

• Work which described witchcraft, condemned its practices, and encouraged its suppression