The Legal Knowledge of Clergy and Theologians in 17th Century Germany

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K23146
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0105:Law and related fields
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: MAEDA Hoshi 北海道大学, 法学研究科, 協力研究員 (60844587)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-08-30 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 魔女裁判 / 刑事裁判 / 聖職者

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Through the materials of two clergy, Michael Stappert and Anton Praetorius, who described the witch trials, this study researches the extent to which the clergy in this time had legal expertise. They seem to have made little use of their criminal legal expertise, at least in their criticism of the witch trials. This does not immediately indicate jurisprudential ignorance on the part of the clergy in this time, as in the case of Adam Tanner and Friedrich Spee, who criticized the witch trials with jurisprudential arguments. However, the study does provide some suggestion of the level of jurisprudential knowledge of the clergy in the early modern Europe.

Free Research Field

基礎法学／西洋法制史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、それまで等閑視されてきた、宗教的・神学的な知が近世における刑法(学)の発展にどのような意義を持っていたのかということを、その知の担い手たちに着目して明らかにしようという大きな研究の一環である。この研究が完成することにより、従来考えられていた刑法(学)の発展の像を大きく修正することができ、ひいては近代刑法(学)の評価にも関わると思料する。