Jacques Sprenger was born with Basle between 1436 and 1438. He died in 1496.

It is a inquisitor Dominicain which would have written with Henri Institoris (Heinrich Kramer) the Malleus Maleficarum ( the Hammer of the Sorcière S ) published in Strasbourg in 1486: a work on sorcery ordered by the Innocent pope VIII. This Doctor of Divinity, prior of the Dominican convent of Cologne, professor with the faculty of this city was an extremely educated man. Admittedly, it obtained the title of inquisitor in the Rhenish area, but it would not have played a very active part in the Chasse for the witches.