The papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus allegedly gives full papal approval for the Inquisition to prosecute what was deemed to be witchcraft in general and for Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger specifically.

Kramer, born in Sélestat, Alsace, had joined the Dominican Order at an early age and while still a young man had been appointed Prior of the Dominican house of his native town.

At some date before 1474, he had been appointed Inquisitor for the Tyrol, Salzburg, Bohemia and Moravia.

His eloquence in the pulpit and tireless activity received recognition at Rome and he was the right-hand man of the Archbishop of Salzburg.

By the time of the Bull Summis desiderantes of Pope Innocent VIII in 1484 he is already associated with Jacob (also known as Jakob) Sprenger to make one of the first attempts at prosecuting alleged witches and sorcerer in the Tyrol region.

It is not a success: expelled from the city of Innsbruck and dismissed by the local bishop as a "senile old man", Kramer is opposed by the local clergy partly because of his eccentric behavior (as the Bishop of Innsbruck's verdict indicates), and partly because he didn't hold any official position as an Inquisitor despite his efforts to make himself into one.

Some scholars have suggested that following the failed efforts in Tyrol, Kramer and Sprenger  requested and received  the papal bull in 1484.