KANNEMANN, JOHANN. - Preacher and polemicist, born around 1400 in Lower Saxony, died after 1469. In 1440, already a lector, he entered the University of Erfurt. He became regent of studies in Magdeburg (1446-49), professor of theology in Berlin (1457), and inquisitor against the Waldensians in the diocese of Brandenburg (1458). In 1461 he was head of a group of reformed convents in the province of Saxony. His transition from the Conventual Franciscans to the Observants must be placed before this date. In 1469 he is last recorded in Wismar, preaching a crusade against the Hussites.
Among his numerous writings are: *De Passione Domini* (Cologne 1474; Basel 1500); the *Defensorium pro seipso*, a justification of his preaching against those who accused him of denigrating ecclesiastical authority; *Scutum defensionis super privilegiis fratrum*; and various treatises on the Ten Commandments, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, etc., of which manuscripts are preserved in German libraries.