Johann Georg Gödelmann

Johann Georg Gödel man (also: Godelmann; born May 12, 1559 Tuttlingen, † March 20, 1611 in Dresden ) was a German jurist, diplomat and witches theorists.

Life

Godelmann came from an influential family and enrolled on September 18, 1572 at the University of Tübingen, where he the academic degree of bachelor and on February 16, 1576 acquired the Magister on March 31, 1574. He moved for a law degree in November 1578 at the University of Wittenberg, where he was a pupil of Joachim von Beust and Matthias Beck beings.

In June 1579 he continued his studies at the University of Rostock and went in July 1580 at the University of Basel. Here he received his doctorate at September 1, 1580 as a doctor of law degree in 1583 and received a professorship at the Rostock Academy, where he had already been working as a lecturer since 1579. After he had held in Rostock lectures on Roman Law Lehn and criminal law, he was appointed in 1587 by the City of Riga with the defense of their interests.

In 1592 he became privy councilor to the elector Christian II of Saxony and ambassador at the court of Emperor Rudolf II. Especially with his commitment to fighting caused by the witch-craze witch trials he made himself as a humanist in the legal history of a name. He refused to jump to conclusions from the results of torture and warned against drawing from the results, the conclusion of the hasty death penalty. Among the witches theorists Anton Praetorius was influenced by Georg Gödel man.

His attitude in the trial of the Saxon Chancellor Nikolaus Krell is controversial. In his writings he dealt mainly with the Roman law and he was in 1597 appointed Hofpfalzgraf.

Witches theorists

The Mecklenburg lawyer held the witches ' flight to the witches' sabbath " louder devil dream, deceit and imagination. Like fantasy is that some believe that the witches and wizards in cats, dogs and wolves can be changed. "

For weather spell he wrote, " yet Weather Make God and none of man's work is. - In respect of which no judge can torment someone on such points, kill much less because derselbigen not a word in the embarrassment Halsgerichtsordnung ( the Carolina) is thought of. "

He spoke out against the well water sample, but not consistently against torture and the death penalty ( see Tractatus de magis, veneficis et lamiis, III, III 10, 11). Compared to the doctor and witches theorist Johann Weyer, who began to be shaken by his ideas to the witch craze fundamentally, the lawyer Gödel man called only to comply with witch hunts to the statutory requirements of the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina.

But so concise ads for torture knows the Carolina, Chap. 44 does not, as Godel man to lead them, for example, in III, 10, 27-29.

Other examples he found in the Malleus Maleficarum ( malleus maleficarum ) of Heinrich Kramer. In his Latin written work which he had written for judges, Gödel man but rather called on to act prudently in the treatment of the accused.

This concern was supported by the German translation ( first edition: 1592) counteracted the Hessian Superintendent George Nigrinus ( 1530-1602 ). Consciously wanted this also address non-lawyers and raises awareness of a broad, just reading competent public for the theme of " witches". Nigrinus added Gödel 's work, in part by tendentious asides and by a letter leaflet and a preface, in which he called on the authorities of the city of Frankfurt and elsewhere with zeal for example, " all sins and vices to control and punish them according to her assets: then why not the witchcraft? Where it has been revealed and attested? "

Selections

• Disputation de magis, veneficis, maleficis et lamiis, praeside Ioanne Georgio Godel Manno ... respondent Marco Burmeistero ... habita Rostochii XXVI. Feb. anni LXXXIIII. in collegio fratrum, Frankfurt am Main 1584, German [ tendency translation ] Frankfurt 1591
• De lites conte statione, Rostock 1578
• Prolegomena lectonium in Ciceronis libros de legibus, Rostock 1583
• Oratio de legum Romanorum dignitate adversus eos qui vel whether legum multitudinem, vel varias opiniones jurisconsultorum, a studio juris abhorrent, Rostock 1583
• De jure patronatus, Rostock 1585
• De jure studiis privatis in recte institudendis, Rostock 1588
• De Magis, Veneficis Et Lamiis, Recte Cognoscendis & Puniendis, Libri Tres, His AccessIT ad Magistratum Clarissimi et Celeberrimi ICD St. John Althusij Admonitio, Vol 1, Vol 2 and Vol 3, Frankfurt 1591; German Translation =
• From Zäuberern / witches and fiends / Warhafftiger and Wolgegründter report Mr. Georgii Gödel Manni / beyder rights Doctorn and Professorn in the High School to Rostoch / how sameness recognize and zustraffen: Allen Beampten to our times / by due to many unequal and contested Meynung / very useful unnd necessary zuwissen / Jetzund but all fanciers / with prescientific concerning authoris ... auffs industrious verteutschet / gemehret with a special union council shock and bedencken / anything by M. Georgium Nigrinum [ ... ]. Frankfurt / Main 1592