Preaching on Witchcraft? The Sermons of Johannes Geiler of Kaysersberg (1445–1510)

Abstract

The famous preacher Johannes Geiler was installed in the Strasbourgian pulpit in 1478. His extensive programme was to bring true purification to the whole body of the urban society. Standing in the reform tradition of the councils of Constance and Basel, Geiler wanted to model Strasbourg into a city of God, ruled by the Ten Commandments. Distracting, infecting elements should be either converted to Christian life or be banished. The sinful and unpersuadable members of the city body like sodomites and witches should be eradicated. In line with Jean Gerson, Johannes Nider and Bernardino of Siena, and knowing the new concepts of witchcraft mediated by Heinrich Institoris, Johannes Geiler battled against all kinds of superstition, against beneficia, maleficia, learned and popular magic. His sermons show how the old scholastic concepts of magic and superstition started to intermingle with the new ideas about diabolic witchcraft. Thus, preachers of reform like Johannes Geiler of Kaysersberg acted as mediators of the new concept, even if they were not ardent followers of the Malleus Maleficarum.