While reading the texts on which hunts in the 15th century it becomes clear that the reason witch hunts existed was because of the extreme dislike for women at this time. The reading titled “The Malleus Maleficarum” was a popular text in Europe in the 15th century that goes into detail on some of the reasons why women are more likely to be witches. In the beginning, the text states that women “know no moderation in goodness or vice”. The text explains this by stating that women are very easy influence into becoming a witch which implies that women tend to struggle thinking for themselves. The text continues to list off reasons that women are more likely to be witches stating that women are “liars by nature”, have “weak memories” and are “very
impressionable”. We can infer that Europeans generally thought that women were incapable of resisting the devils urges since women were seen as lacking intelligence. We can infer that this view of women lead people to to view women as inferior and a nucience in society. All these factors combined lead me to believe that women were hunted and accused of being witches because of a general dislike for the entire gender in 15th century Europe.
Escaping Salem, the Other Witch Hunt of 1692 was written by Richard GodBeer. Many know about the Salem Witch Trails of 1692, however not many knew about the Witch Trials that happened in Stamford, Connecticut that same year. Richard GodBeer takes it upon himself to explain in depth the story of Kate Branch. GodBeer begins the book by describing the setting of the book, it was June in 1692 and the narrative would take place in a small town off the northern shore of Long Island. (Godbeer, 1) After the introduction of few characters one being Ebenezer Bishop, the first incident of a Witch encounter happens. As Bishop is walking, he hears a scream of immense pain and fright. This is when the main characters of the book are introduced. The young
Were the witch-hunts in pre-modern Europe misogynistic? Anne Llewellyn Barstow seems to think so in her article, “On Studying Witchcraft as Women’s History: A Historiography of the European Witch Persecutions”. On the contrary, Robin Briggs disagrees that witch-hunts were not solely based on hatred for women as stated in his article, “Women as Victims? Witches, Judges and the Community”. The witch craze that once rapidly swept through Europe may have been because of misconstrued circumstances. The evaluation of European witch-hunts serves as an opportunity to delve deeper into the issue of misogyny.
To begin, one of the causes of the Salem witch trial was the age, gender, and marital status. In Document B, twenty-four accusers were females. Twenty-three of the twenty-nine were under twenty years old, and twenty-eight of the thirty-four accusers were unmarried. 80% of females were 40 years old, and 75% of the females were either married or widowed. It’s interesting to mention that 23 of the accuser were females that were single, and 13 females that were at least between the ages of 16-20.
Throughout the late 17th century and into the early 18th century witchcraft prosecutions had been declining. This trend was the result of a multitude of social developments which altered the mentality of society. One of the predominant factors in this decline was the Scientific Revolution, the most important effect of these advances was making society question concepts of witchcraft. Along with this new mental outlook, we see that the Reformation had a similar effect on social opinion concerning witchcraft and magic. These two developments changed societies view on the occult and this led to a wider scepticism concerning witchcraft, this favoured those who had been accused and therefore caused a decline in prosecutions. Beyond the two trends mentioned however, it is important to consider judicial reforms and an improved socio-economic situation which reduced tensions within society. These two changes were certainly not as influential as the Scientific Revolution and the Reformation but heavily altered the circumstances in which accusations were normally made. With the altered social attitudes and mental outlook these changes in living situations all contributed to bring about the decline in witchcraft prosecutions.
The Salem Witchcraft Hysteria was a product of women’s search for power. This claim is supported by Lyle Koehler, from A Search for Power: The “weaker sex” in seventeenth-century New England (University of Illinois, 1980), explained and argues why this is true. Koehler mentions that the women were in search for more power and respect and power equality. She mentioned that the men were afraid of witches because they felt they were superior to them which brought in the question of who really was the superior gender. But really, the women accused others as being witches so as to gain more power from men. Basically, this showed that the women were not afraid of controlling or taking the power from men. In the seventeenth century, the men had power; so therefore, women did anything and would do anything to gain more power than the men. In puritan society, the only women with any significant power were mothers. They had powers not only in their homes but also in the public as long as they accused people of being witches. They also implicated others to achieve this power. An example that Koehler gave would be sociologist Dodd Bogart’s conclusion that “demon or witch charges are attempt to restore “self-worth, social recognition, social acceptance, social status and other related social rewards” is pertinent to the Salem village situation.
In the Malleus Maleficarum, Sprenger and Kramer’s basic argument about the origins of witchcraft is that witchcraft is found chiefly in women due to several reasons that focus on characteristics of women. Sprenger and Kramer argue that witchcraft in women is more probable because women were very naïve and impressionable, carnal lust is never satisfied in women, and they are of lower intelligence and weaker memories than men.
The term witchcraft is defines as the practice of magic intended to influence nature. It is believed that only people associated with the devil can perform such acts. The Salem Witch Trials was much more than just America’s history, it’s also part of the history of women. The story of witchcraft is first and foremost the story of women. Especially in its western life, Karlsen (1989) noted that “witchcraft challenges us with ideas about women, with fears about women, with the place of women in society and with women themselves”. Witchcraft also confronts us too with violence against women. Even through some men were executed as witches during the witch hunts, the numbers were far less then women. Witches were generally thought to be women and most of those who were accused and executed for being witches were women. Why were women there so many women accused of witchcraft compared to men? Were woman accused of witchcraft because men thought it was a way to control these women? It all happened in 1692, in an era where women were expected to behave a certain way, and women were punished if they threatened what was considered the right way of life. The emphasis of this paper is the explanation of Salem proceedings in view of the role and the position of women in Colonial America.
There is almost no question that the lifeblood of the Roman state was war, and that the decisions made by Roman politicians were usually in the interest of keeping this blood flowing. Through all of the endless warfare Rome managed to conquer most of the territory surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and ruled most of this large swath of land by the proxy of co-opted local elites. Therefore it is difficult to imagine how Rome managed to keep its citizenry in check without instilling a powerful sense of fear in them. Despite being such a war like nation the Romans did not run a police state. They did brutally police their citizenry when they saw a threat to the state from within regarding cult like behavior from religions they would have considered strange.
Puritans believed in the devil and his role as strong as they believed in God and his role. For many centuries, Puritans had the idea that the weakest individuals in society often committed diabolical acts and sins. Furthermore, Satan selected the most vulnerable individuals to do his bidding, among these individuals, women were often held responsible for many sins, including witchcraft. (Godbeer 12). According to Richard Godbeer, in his book, The Salem Witch Hunt, “it was Eve who first gave away to Satan and seduced Adam.” (Godbeer 12). In 1692, witchcraft became a panic among Puritan society. Even though both men and women were accused of witchcraft, women were seventy-six percent more likely to be accused in Salem than men. (Godbeer 12). Puritan society was a male dominate society and men looked down upon women. There were two particular reasons to why women were often accused of being witches. The first reason, was in due to the Puritan belief that women were the source of evil. The second reason was because of certain events that associated with accusations. These events were being of relatively low social status and income, being rich or financially independent and being a midwife or nurse.
The epoch of Medieval European history concerning the vast and complicated witch hunts spanning from 1450 to 1750 is demonstrative of the socioeconomic, religious, and cultural changes that were occurring within a population that was unprepared for the reconstruction of society. Though numerous conclusions concerning the witch trials, why they occurred, and who was prosecuted have been found within agreement, there remain interpretations that expand on the central beliefs. Through examining multiple arguments, a greater understanding of this period can be observed as there remains a staggering amount of catalysts and consequences that emerged. In the pursuit of a greater understanding, three different interpretations will be presented. These interpretations, which involve Brian Levack’s “The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe,” Eric Boss’s “Syphilis, Misogyny, and Witchcraft in 16th-Century Europe,” and Nachman Ben-Yehuda’s “The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th centuries:
Bloodlust shone in their eyes, the anticipation of the sickly intriguing spectacle to come enthralled them, while their murmurings grew louder and louder until it became a primeval roar of wants and expectations. Atrocities of such a nature became very common under the pretense of the persecution of witches. The New King James Bible states that: “You shall not permit a sorceress [witch] to live” (Exodus 22:17). Using these words as excuses, societies such as the Puritans executed untold numbers of people in the name of justice. These series of persecutions began the witch hunts. Usually, brutal torture, imprisonment, or death awaited those accused of witchcraft. Imagine if such atrocities became regular occurrences for the ‘modern day’ societies around the globe. In India these witch hunts occur frequently and without consequence. Witch hunts occur in rural Indian societies, with no real access to knowledge or authority. The Salem depicted in George Millers The Crucible, shared many resemblances to its Indian counterpart. Relatively secluded societies with no real access to knowledge besides what they already determined for themselves, and a distinctive lack of plausible authority. The Indian and Salem witch hunts share extremely similar physical characteristics and social implications, yet the motives behind their executions may differ.
There have been various explanations by different historians for why the majority of Witches accused were woman. One of the first models concerning Witchcraft and gender to be produced was the ‘Witch-cult‘ idea. This theory was devised by Margaret Murray in the early 20th century and revolved around the idea of Witchcraft being an actual pre-Christian religion. This pagan woman-based religion centred around ‘The Horned God’ who from the Christian point of view was Satan. Murray writes that the ‘God of the old religion becomes the Devil of the new.’ This religion concerned woman in that it was being supressed by the Christian Church which was a male dominated organisation with an exclusively male hierarchy. In effect the whole Witch-hunt affair was a persecution of woman by men, both being polar opposites even in religion. Murray’s thesis proved very popular with radical feminists from the 1960s onwards, providing the feminist movement with a sort of rallying point, further exaggerating the sex specific elements in the Murray model. Murray’s thesis however, was attacked from day one and continues to be discredited to this day due to the lack of evidence in support of it and th...
This website provides so much information that I would have never figured out without this. They included 2 primary sources. One that showed the petition prisoners signed to bail out of jail, and one that showed the Act to Reverse the Attainders of George Burroughs and Others For Witchcraft. This resource gave the primary sources and information I needed.
In the three documents, “Bull Summis desiderantes” written by Innocent VIII, “The Ant Hill ”, written by Johannes Nider and Extracts from “The hammer of witches” written by Malleus Maleficarum, regarding the hunting of witches, the beliefs of witchcraft and the trail process for those accused of witchcraft all show a great deal of evidence that those accused of witchcraft had no chance at a fair trial.
Witchcraft persecution peaked in intensity between 1560 and 1630 however the large scale witch hysteria began in the 14th century, at the end of the Middle Ages and were most intense during the Renaissance and continued until the 18th century, an era often referred to as the Enlightenment or Age of Reason. Representation of witches, nay, representation in general is a political issue. Without the power ot define the female voice and participate in decisions that affect women -similar to other marginalised groups in society- will be subject to the definitions and decisions of those in power. In this context, the power base lay with men. It can be said that the oppression of women may not have been deliberate, it is merely a common sense approach to the natural order of things: women have babies, women are weak, women are dispensable. However the natural order of things, the social constructs reflect the enduring success of patriarchal ideology. As such, ideology is a powerful source of inequality as well as a rationalisation of it. This essay will examine the nature of witchcraft and why it was threatening to Christianity.