It's Friday the 13th and I'm doing some Fact checkin'! Yes, there really was a man named Heinrich Kramer.
He was born around 1430 in what is now Selestat, Alsace, France.
As a young man, he became a member of the Dominican Order of Friars, known as Friar Preachers, Black Friars, or Jacobins, a Roman Catholic religious order founded in 1214 by St Dominic de Guzman.
In 1474, he was appointed inquisitor for the districts of Tyrol, Salzburg, Bohemia, and Moravia.
He began his campaign of terror against witches during the 1480s.
In the 1480s, he co-authored 'Malleus' with Jacob Sprenger. Claims to have tried nearly one hundred women, of who half were sentenced to death.
1484, eight women were executed at Ravensbury, near Constance. When Kramer arrived in town, armed with papal bulls, he started preaching the dangers of Witchcraft, inciting the townspeople to accuse their neighbors. Eight women were convicted and burned for fornication with the Devil, as the town officials explained to Archduke Sigismund of Tirol when he arrived to investigate.
In 1485, Kramer moved his activities to Innsbruck. Interrogating fifty women, the Bishop of Brixen called Kramer "a senile old fool' and expelled him from the town. Hallelujah!
In 1485 he drew up a treatise on Witchcraft. Partnering with Jacob Sprenger.
In 1495, Kramer was summoned to Venice to give very popular public lectures.
In 1497, Kramer returned to Germany, where he lived at the convent of Rohr.
On January 30, 1500, he was appointed nuncio and inquisitor of Bohemia and Moravia by Alexander VI and further empowered to process against heretics, Witches, and Pagans.
FINALLY...God forgive me! He died in 1505 while living in Bohemia.
The moral of the story... There will always be ignorant people in powerful positions, and history will repeat itself. (Salem Witch trials began in 1692) For those on the receiving end of these historical tyrants, aka Victims...it is when you choose to stand up and step away from your fear that you will then be empowered by the LIGHT that they pray you will never realize is already in you!