Poena Omnipotenta, or The Triumph of Punishment: A Poetic Commentary on the Cautio Criminalis of Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld

ISBN-13: 9781451577556 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 156 str.

Jabez L. Van Cleef

Opis

In the darkest hours of the 17th century German witch hunts, Spee, a Jesuit priest, meditated on the confessions of accused women and resolved to subject the church's torture practices to a rigorous logical analysis. The result is a cogent and persuasive argument against all torture, and a demonstration of the overarching power of the human spirit in a time of trial. This book combines poetic meditations on Spee's uniquely compassionate essays with starkly lit photographs (from a state collection in Toledo, Spain) of many of the torture instruments used by church functionaries.