KANNEMANN, JOHANN. - Preacher and polemicist, b. ca. 1400 in Lower Saxony, d. 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 bishopric of Brandenburg (1458). In 1461 he was head of a group of reformed convents in the province of Saxony. His transition
from the Conventual Friars Minor to the Observants must be placed before this date. In 1469 he is mentioned for the last time in Wismar, as preacher of a crusade against the Hussites.
Among his numerous writings may be noted: De Passione Domini (Cologne 1474; Basel 1500); the Defensorium pro seipso, in justification of his preaching against those who accused him of disparaging ecclesiastical authority; the Scutum defensionis super privilegiis fratrum; and various treatises on the Ten Commandments, the Pater noster, the Ave Maria, etc., manuscripts of which are preserved in the libraries of Germany.