The Witch Crazes and Hunts in early modern Europe was a phenomenon that was integrated with misogyny, which was greatly influenced by a variety of factors that was apparent during this time period. During the Witch Crazes, women were generally the main targets as they were seen as inferior to males based on religious beliefs and would be accused of witchcraft that was justified by stereotypes and prejudices against women during the time. Through analysing multiple primary sources including The Witch Persecution at Wurzburg, the Witch Persecution at Trier and Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger’s Malleus Maleficarum, societal normalities during this time are reinforced, highlighting the popular belief that women were intellectually weaker than …show more content…
Lastly, this essay will examine societal attitudes continuing to be afraid of independent and powerful women who did not conform to traditional gender roles, resulting in witch hunts being used as a tactical method to maintain social control over women and reinforce male dominance, controlling and suppressing women who challenged the patriarchal and hierarchy of society. In order to understand the community during the early modern Europe, it is crucial to explore society’s strong belief in religion and the impact that religious mindsets had towards differing groups within the community. Religion greatly influenced society as depicted by the Bible being the most sold book for centuries. Due to this mass belief in religion, the Malleus Maleficarum held religious connotations towards women, stating that the first women were formed incorrectly and will always be imperfect and deceitful, referring to the biblical figure Eve. As a result of this mindset, women developed a stigma of being the inferior gender and therefore more …show more content…
This text cultivated the belief that women were connected and associated with the Devil. Due to the mass influential text, inquisitors would use this as a method to identify, interrogate and prosecute individuals accused of being a witch. The influence of “The Hammer of the Witches” arose from widespread use by authorities, which led to witch trials and executions. This reading highlights misogyny by noting women to be defective, prone to failure, less intelligent and deceitful. It should be recognised that the Malleus Maleficarum mentions “persons of both sexes”, insinuating that females are not the only ones who can be accused of witchcraft, however, males can be incriminated for being a warlock. This wording is significant in examining this time period and understanding if the treatment women received was a result of misogyny or if it was due to varying factors throughout society. It should be noted however, that the Malleus Maleficarum was written by two Dominican inquisitors, as established by Scholar Beat Kümin. It was due to this book, “the standard checklist of witch stereotypes” was created which was specifically associated with females and their dealing with the Devil. Kümin establishes that women would be unfairly linked with witchcraft due to “perceptions of their susceptibility to sexual temptation,
European witch hunts. The aim of this essay is to examine the relationship between gender and witchcraft, as well as the rise in misogyny in early modern Europe. This will be achieved by looking at scholarship surrounding the impact of the witch-hunting treatises by Johannes Nider, Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, respectively titled, the Formicarius and the Malleus Maleficarum. Alongside an examination of the question: “what did gender have to do with witch hunting in early modern Europe” by arguing
What does magic, death and early modern Europe all have in common? Witches. In pop culture today witches are seen as ugly, sometimes green women with pointed hats. In early modern Europe witches were seen very differently and deadly. Witchcraft trials were rampant throughout Europe from the 14th to the 16th century’s. Peak witch hunting mania hit mostly between 1580 to 1630. Some estimated 50,000 people persecuted as witches were hanged, burned and tortured to death. The reason has mystified historians
Comparing the Salem Witch Trials, European Witchcraft Craze and the McCarthy Hearings The evidence of witchcraft and related works has been around for many centuries. Gradually, though, a mixture a religious, economical, and political reasons instigated different periods of fear and uncertainty among society. Witchcraft was thought of as a connection to the devil that made the victim do evil and strange deeds. (Sutter par. 1) In the sixteenth, seventeenth, and twentieth century, the hysteria over
(Clark). Women were far more likely to be accused of being a witch than men were. Out of the 200,000 trials, 80% of the accused were female, and of the 100,000 executed, 85% were also female (Clark). This was do to the reason that society feared and resented independent women, therefore, this was an attempt at keeping the female gender at a status below that of males. First of all, it is important to define what exactly a witch was: Witches were no longer simply people who used magical power
Keith Thomas has argued that “The idea that witch-prosecutions reflected a war between the sexes must be discounted, not least because the victims and witnesses were themselves as likely to be women as men”. As Wolfgang Behringer describes it as, the study of European witchcraft was revolutionized by a “paradigm shift,” which involved the acceptance of anthropological and sociological practices, a greater care to archival sources, and an attention in focusing on history “from below.” One area that
During the reign of the Stuart dynasty, the idea of witchcraft and “witch hunts” became paramount within English society. By accusing certain outcasts of witchcraft within the villages, it often provided the common people of England a scapegoat when trying to rationalize unexplainable events, such as a premature death or a bad harvest. Over the course of this paper, I plan to show what sorts of people, mainly women, were being persecuted for witchcraft and the reasoning behind why these women were
The Influence of Witchcraft on Feminism The witch-hunt that blazed a trail across Europe (and indeed the world) over the 15th to 18th centuries stripped women of much of the power they had historically held. Not 100% of all accused Witches were female but 75% to 90% of accused witches in Europe were in fact women (Levack, 1987, p.124). Prior to the 15th century, rural European women were highly revered and respected pillars of rural community life. Women were not only considered as mothers
that signs of mental illness and abnormal behavior have been documented as far back as the early Greeks however, it was not viewed the same as it is today. The mentally ill were previously referred to as mad, insane, lunatics, or maniacs. W.B. Maher and B.A. Maher (1985) note how many of the terms use had roots in old English words that meant emotionally deranged, hurt, unhealthy, or diseased. Although early explanations were not accurate, the characteristics of the mentally ill have remained the
rumors created by the Catholic Church to promote Christianity and punish those who held on those beliefs that did not align with the church. The history of witchcraft, the implausible and impossible feats that were associated with witches, and the modern day practices of witchcraft reflect a lie that caused tremendous tragedy, which destroyed thousands upon thousands of lives worldwide due to a silly hoax. Witchcraft has been in practice for centuries upon centuries, having been traced back to the
The Salem Witch Trials Situation and Politics At The Time The period just prior to the Salem Witch Trials as cited by Blumberg (2007) was marred by conflict and war with England’s rival France. The English rulers William and Mary started a war with France in 1689, known as King William’s war to the colonists. This war ravaged areas of New York, Nova Scotia and Quebec, propelling refugees into Essex county and Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The refugees created a strain on Salem’s