Johann Baptist Fickler, Bavarian Anti-Witch Writer

Dr. Johann Baptist Fickler (b. May 1534) was a well-educated councillor who "demanded the ruthless persecution and eradication of witches and sorcerers throughout the land."

The mischief wrought by such spawn of the Devil was one of his favorite topics, the academic and legal implications of which he had often discussed. . . . He was an expert in the field. It is true that his instructions to judges and lawyers on the punishment of witches and magicians, worked out in his nocturnal sessions, were numbered among those works for which no publisher could be found. Nevertheless, he was to list them in his autobiographical notes along with all his other works, no doubt concerned that nothing should be lost to posterity.

Fickler was responsible for the records of the Pappenheimer trial, and had been the personal tutor of Duke Maximilian of Bavaria (Kunze 19, 20, 69).

Lost?

Johann Baptist Fickler, Bavarian Anti-Witch Writer copyrighted 1996-1998 to Shantell Powell.