Misogyny may not have peaked during the Renaissance era, but with the generally accepted idea that women were flawed, immoral, and responsible for the downfall of humanity, it is strong competition. for other periods. On a line graph, the witch craze would certainly be an example of legalized violence against women. When King James VI of Scotland wrote Daemonologie (1597), a treatise on witches and wizards, he was inspired by stereotypes about women set by philosophers such as Aristotle and Galen. Reginald Scot, one of the voices of reason, wrote: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584, which logically debunks the idea of supernatural powers, but it could not overcome earlier errors about women and witches contained in such texts. like The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches' Hammer) (1486), nor could it compete with the policies of James when he ascended the English throne in 1603. Every era has its scapegoat, but since the enslaved women from Greek society to Burned or hanged during the Renaissance, women suffered more than their unfair share of the blame. There is no pivotal point that can be specified as the beginning of misogyny; Some feminist historians argue that most ancient societies were of matrifocal or even matriarchal origins, and that women's loss of prominence occurred when patriarchies became established. Of pre-Hellenic Greece, Robert Graves states that "Central Asian invaders began to substitute patrilineal for matrilineal institutions and to reshape myths to justify social change" (10). Graves speaks specifically of myth, but the status of women in society is reflected in the dominant religious ideology of the time. Under the influence of the invaders, the goddesses lost their importance and power, and this loss was reflected in the treatment of mortals. women. In the Golden Age, Greek society was heavily dominated by men; women were cloistered and considered mere vehicles for producing heirs. Aristotle, when he declared that women are inferior replicas of men, helped make misogyny a tenet of Western philosophy. In “The History of Animals,” he demarcates the characteristics of males and females: “For man has the most perfect nature of all animals [. . .] Woman is more compassionate than man[. . .] [but] She is also more envious, more quarrelsome, more slanderous and more quarrelsome [. . .] more inclined to lie [. . .] more easily deceived. A man is “more willing to render assistance in times of danger and is more courageous” (qtd. in Aughterson 44). Aristotle predates the advent of Christianity's distrust of women, but his assessment of women aligns with commonly held views of Christianity. Christian era. The pro-woman faction of the Renaissance points out that Adam is more at fault than Eve because he was fully aware of his action in eating the fruit, but Eve continues to be the perfect example of a woman who allows herself easily deceived. Aristotle neglects the myth of Eve of his time, that of Pandora. Pandora is blamed for releasing the evils of humanity, not because she was deceived, but because she was curious and opened the box she had been told not to touch. Epimetheus (in hindsight), her husband, is the one who was deceived; he was warned by his brother Prometheus (foresighted) to have nothing to do with the beautifulPandora because it would bring ruin to men. Epimetheus ignored his brother's advice and played his own role in allowing death, disease, and a myriad of other misfortunes into the world (Morford and Lenardon 67). Pandora, like Eve, received brutal criticism for her role in the curse of humanity. --regardless of the fact that both were acting on impulses implanted within them; Pandora was created curious and Eve was predestined to be disobedient. In matriarchies, goddesses held the highest position of power in the pantheons but were demoted when men took over. Hera grew from a figure of stature and power to a tenacious harridan as the wife of Zeus (Spretnak 88). Artemis, originally the patron saint of procreation, became the Eternal Virgin, an arrogant goddess who had a man torn apart for catching a glimpse of her while she was bathing (75). Even goddesses who seem to retain their importance only do so through circumnavigation; Athena is born from the head of Zeus after having ingested her mother. She is the goddess of wisdom, but only because she comes from the head of the supreme god who is the repository of all knowledge. It is interesting to note that the women who enjoyed a certain degree of independence in Greece were the hetaera, a form of high authority. -prostitute or concubine class. Hetaerae were not citizens, but they were protected by law, could own property, could be seen in public, and often attended dinners and other receptions with their clients; they were generally better educated than the Greek matron and trained in the fine arts. Their services were for the rich and powerful, and Aspasia, a famous hetaera, was the wife of Pericles for many years. No link has been made between these ancient courtesans and the negative images applied to women, but the hetaera, independent and educated, capable of choosing her partner, is the incarnation of the stereotype of the bad girl promulgated during the Renaissance and other eras. Cataloging the spiritual and emotional flaws of women, Aristotle also described the physiology of women. Like physicians and laymen for centuries after him, Aristotle subscribed to the humoral theory expounded in the Hippocratic Corpus (c. 600-300 BCE) (Antiqua Medicine). The humors were aligned with the four elements that made up the universe – earth, air, fire and water – and governed the human body. This theory was later promulgated by the philosopher/physician Galen (130-210 CE) who diagnosed that illnesses, both emotional and physical, resulted from an imbalance in elemental states. Galen's humoral pathology dominated the medical field until the 19th century (Briggs 162). In his work On the Usefulness of Parts of the Body, Galen writes: Now, just as humanity is the most perfect of all animals, so, within humanity, man is more perfect than woman [. . .] its production is necessarily more imperfect, and it is therefore not surprising that the female is less perfect than the male to the extent that she is colder than him. (quoted in Aughterson 47) Men, as perfect creatures, were hot and dry and capable of burning off the bad vapors resulting from humoral fluctuations. The women were cold and wet; their bodies were incapable of absorbing unhealthy vapors, as were those of men. God made women imperfect “mutilations” of men, so that their low status had the seal of approval of the highest authority (48). Diseases were blamed on humoral imbalances until medieval times and beyond. During the "dark" ages, womenhave not regained much of the power they wielded in matriarchies, but they have not been as vilified as they would be in the Enlightenment that followed. Women were still widely seen as incompetent, even evil (the serpent in the Garden of Eden was often depicted in medieval art as having a woman's face), but they were allowed to practice the healing arts that had been their domain since centuries: the dispensation. medicinal plants and act as midwives. There were Marian cults that worshiped the Virgin, and Mary Magdalene was also an extremely popular figure. Wives were still under the jurisdiction of their husbands, but in England widows could pay dues to the crown to avoid remarrying someone not of their choice; some took great advantage of this option (Coss 25). In the late 13th or early 14th century, a disciple of the German physician Saint Albert the Great, wrote De Secretis Mulierum (The Secrets of Women). This disciple, rightly nicknamed "pseudo-Albert", who was strongly inspired by Aristotle, the Arab physician and philosopher, Avicenna, and Averroes, another Arab philosopher, perpetuated centuries-old errors concerning the female physiology and spiritual inferiority (Lemay 3-4). Like Galen's humorous theory, the inaccuracies of De Secretis Mulierum would have a lasting effect on the way women were perceived; it was again reprinted in 1580 with comments from two competing but anonymous authors (2). Commentators defer to Aristotle, but point out the differences between the ancient philosopher's beliefs and those of 16th-century physicians, but since the beliefs of both sides were highly inaccurate, the question of who to give credit becomes moot. .De Secretis Mulierum deals with the female body and its functioning; it details issues such as uterine defects, why malformed children are conceived, and how astrology determines the disposition and health of the unborn child. It is a book written by a man, to be read by men; by the 15th century, male physicians treating women in childbirth was a common practice (34). It draws on the misogynistic tradition that has existed for centuries; pseudo-Albert writes: “the old women [. . .] who do not menstruate, poison the eyes of children lying in their cradle with their gaze” (129). It is shown that beliefs have not changed substantially since the days of Aristotle or pseudo-Albert; a 16th-century commentator writes: “according to Aristotle . . .] the woman is a failed male, that is to say that the matter which forms a human being will only give birth to a girl when nature is hindered in its actions [. . . ] it has been said that woman is not human, but a monster.” The misogynistic tone of De Secretis Mulierum, built on historical ideologies, in turn influenced later literature that was harmful and degrading to women, namely the Malleus Maleficarum, written in the late 15th century by two German priests, Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger. Although the books belong to two different genres, Helen Rodnite Lemay asserts that the authors of the Malleus used the Secretis "as an ideological basis for concluding that women are subject to witchcraft, for which they deserve death." Intellectually, both texts employ Aristotelian and medieval natural philosophy to arrive at the same conclusions about women. Pseudo-Albert and the priests also shared a similar intellectual training acquired in a religious community, combining science, medicine and theology which supportedall their misogynistic views (50-51). Note that nature is a “she,” an apparent contradiction since nature is a “she.” hates women. Lemay draws parallels between De Secretis and the Malleus, emphasizing that the latter has a more “vituperative” tone. Pseudo-Albert and his commentators claim that women are unfit to learn because of the coarseness of their brains (52). Heinrich and Kramer assert that women “are weaker mentally and physically,” “intellectually like children,” “have weak memories; and it is a natural vice with them not to be disciplined” (Kramer & Sprenger 44-45). The elderly woman who can harm infants by looking at them transforms into the malicious and vengeful midwife of the Malleus who intentionally harms babies; “certain witches[. . .] have the habit of devouring and eating children” and “this form of homicide is more associated with women than men” (66). The list of associations between the two texts is long, but the Malleus Maleficarum occupies the top. hateful literature against women; Even King James is not as violently verbal in his assault on the witches as Kramer and Sprenger. The Malleus was written in response to a papal bull issued by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484 calling for a way to prevent people from "departing from the Catholic faith" when they, among other evil practices, " abandon themselves to demons, incubi and others. succubi, and by their incantations, spells and other charms and cursed professions. Although Pope Innocent named "many persons of both sexes" as being at fault, and when the final version of the Malleus was published, men were somehow omitted in the vast majority of accusations against witches (xliii ). The anti-feminist rhetoric of ancient Greece was now reinforced. with arguments drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as Christian and Roman rhetoricians. Kramer and Sprenger cite their sources: Ecclesiastes 25, “All wickedness is a small thing compared to the wickedness of a woman”; Saint John of Chrysotom, “What is woman if not [. . .] an inevitable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger”; Cicero: “The many lusts of men lead them to one sin, but the lust of women leads them to all sins; for the root of all woman's vices is avarice”; and Seneca: “When a woman thinks alone, she thinks badly. » Both priests reluctantly admit that there are women who deserve praise, but warn that even "a good woman [is] subject to carnal lust" (43). Ordinary women were simply stupid and carnal, but the woman who was in league with the Devil surpassed him in the extent of her sin; “The crimes of witches are so heinous that they surpass even the sins and fall of evil angels.” Of the fourteen kinds of magic, witchcraft was the worst; practices such as ceremonial magic* or astrology and augury may be found lawful upon inspection: “But the works of witches are never lawful” (82). Men who used much the same tactics as witches were excused; alchemists were seen as performing scientific experiments, and astrologers such as John Dee established horoscopes at the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Prejudice against earth magic survived for centuries into the Renaissance period; until the repeal of the Witchcraft Acts in 1952, it was forbidden to practice the Art of the Sage in England. All women are suspect in the world painted by Malleus, but among witches, midwives are the most dangerous of the lot; “No one does more harm to the Catholic faith than midwives” (66). In addition to eating babies or turning them into fat for use in potions, midwives were also known to offer their prey to the Devil as sacrifice. In Eve's Herbs, John M. Riddle explains why the Catholic Church emphasized the killing, rather than the delivery, of babies by midwives; women who practiced *Ceremonial or high magic is linked to sorcerers and magicians; stylized words and rituals are more important than potions and working with herbs. Earth magic or low magic was practiced by witches who drew on earthly power or sources. Herbalists not only knew how to perform abortions, but also could have prescribed contraceptives to their patients (112-113). The doctrine of the Church was clearly opposed to this; in the 13th century there was to be no human interference in the process of procreation (92). The midwife and the witch entered God's territory by practicing certain aspects of his profession. Fear of women interfering with procreation manifested itself in other dastardly acts committed by witches. De Secretis Mulierum speaks of "certain women" who know how to act on the penis by placing iron in their vagina during sexual intercourse, which results in "great wounds" on the male member (88). In the Malleus, the fear of being emasculated by women reaches a psychological peak when it is described how a witch can cast a "glamour" and make the penis disappear completely (58, 119). Misogynistic misconceptions, which began centuries earlier, evolved into sublime ridicule, but with the serious credence that the population of Western Europe and England placed in such tales, women were not laughing. In addition to describing the habits and abilities of witches, Kramer and Sprenger provide advice on how to conduct interrogations and trials of the accused; the hypocrisies of those who espoused misogyny are never so clearly delineated. A woman “is a liar by nature”, is “more gullible [. . .] and impressionable”, and presents “a defect [. . . ] since it was formed from a bent rib", but the ecclesiastical and civil courts were enjoined to use all possible means to secure the confession and execution of a witch - even if this involved lie and attack his supposed gullibility (43-46). A defamed man could hope for purgation to escape excommunication and the label of heretic; there was no such hope for a witch (242).St. Augustine decreed that sentence could not be passed on a person unless he had been proven guilty or confessed (235). Kramer and Sprenger agree that a witch should not be put to death without her own confession, so the aim is to assure the court of an admission of guilt. Since witches can stubbornly remain silent, call for help from their master and be able, “with God's permission,” to bewitch the judge, “torture should not be neglected” as a means of obtaining confession. It was also a well-known fact that witches could not cry; the judge had to be particularly vigilant to ensure that his accused did not rub spit on his cheeks and eyes to simulate tears (223-228). The priests are very succinct about how to put on an appearance of concern when applying torture: The judge will use his own convictions and those of other honest men to induce him to voluntarily confess the truth; and if she doesn't. . . bind her with ropes and apply her to some device of torture; and let them obeyimmediately, but not with joy, seeming rather disturbed by their duty. (225) Another way of obtaining a confession was to promise the witch that if she admitted her crime, she would not die, but that when she admitted her guilt, "after a certain time she would be burned." It was also permissible for a judge to safely promise the witch that he would not sentence her to death if she confessed, and then, in good conscience, entrust the sentence to another judge who had not made such a promise (226). In his 1948 introduction to the Malleus Maleficarum, Montague Summers said of the book: "It was implicitly accepted not only by the Catholic legislature, but also by the Protestant legislature. Finally, it is no exaggeration to say that the Malleus Maleficarum is among the most important, wisest and heaviest books in the world” (viii). Summers continues, calling the book by the two Dominicans, Kramer and Sprenger, a “seemingly inexhaustible well of wisdom” from which to draw (ix). Given that admiration for the Malleus continued into the 20th century, it is no wonder that it was used as a manual for witch hunters and judges during the Renaissance. Not all Enlightenment writers subscribed to the theories of Kramer and Sprenger. ; In Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, the Protestant Reginald Scotus mocked the idea of magic and compared these beliefs to "Popish charms and conjurations". Scot sees no difference between the work of so-called witches and wizards and the exorcisms and rituals of the Catholic Church. He fills page after page with drawings, diagrams, and incantations and then declares that they don't work because he has tried them in vain; “For my part, I have read a number of their conjurations, but I have never been able to see any of their dives, except in the context of a game.” Scotus' main argument against the effectiveness of witchcraft is biblical. Unlike Kramer and Sprenger who argue that God allows evil "magic" to happen for its own sake, and that disbelieving in witches is heresy, Scot asserts that all miracles – both divine and satanic – have ceased with the apostles. Miraculous works were “performed only in the early Church, for the confirmation of the doctrine of Christ.” Scotus points out that God saw that all his works were good, so it would be impossible for a sorcerer to conjure devils from “healthy creatures; like salt, water, etc. He also describes the differences between the miraculous wonders performed in the Old Testament as coming from God (the acts of Moses) and those of magicians (the Egyptians who imitated Moses). Witches, according to Scotus, are “poor and needy, [and] go from door to door to relieve themselves” (53). Pointing to Sprenger as a proponent of the idea, Scotus refutes Malleus' assertion that witches should be punished by death while conjurers should not; if such creatures exist, both would draw their power from the Devil. He is particularly vehement against what he sees as the deception of the Catholic Church in taking advantage of uneducated and weak people. The lies of the papists are revealed: the story of Saint Margaret and her victory over the devil is a fable; a woman's corpse resurrected by witchcraft was actually "reanimated" by a couple of priests angry at being cheated out of money for the funeral; and “the lunars and priests have deceived and bewitched the world with counterfeit visions.” As for papists, conjurers and miracle sorcerers, “one is as crude as the other.” In Discoverie of Witchcraft, Scot attributes the.

Essay / Misogyny may not have peaked during the Renaissance era, but with the generally accepted idea that women were flawed, immoral, and responsible for the downfall of humanity, it is strong competition. for other periods. On a line graph, the witch craze would certainly be an example of legalized violence against women. When King James VI of Scotland wrote Daemonologie (1597), a treatise on witches and wizards, he was inspired by stereotypes about women set by philosophers such as Aristotle and Galen. Reginald Scot, one of the voices of reason, wrote: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584, which logically debunks the idea of supernatural powers, but it could not overcome earlier errors about women and witches contained in such texts. like The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches' Hammer) (1486), nor could it compete with the policies of James when he ascended the English throne in 1603. Every era has its scapegoat, but since the enslaved women from Greek society to Burned or hanged during the Renaissance, women suffered more than their unfair share of the blame. There is no pivotal point that can be specified as the beginning of misogyny; Some feminist historians argue that most ancient societies were of matrifocal or even matriarchal origins, and that women's loss of prominence occurred when patriarchies became established. Of pre-Hellenic Greece, Robert Graves states that "Central Asian invaders began to substitute patrilineal for matrilineal institutions and to reshape myths to justify social change" (10). Graves speaks specifically of myth, but the status of women in society is reflected in the dominant religious ideology of the time. Under the influence of the invaders, the goddesses lost their importance and power, and this loss was reflected in the treatment of mortals. women. In the Golden Age, Greek society was heavily dominated by men; women were cloistered and considered mere vehicles for producing heirs. Aristotle, when he declared that women are inferior replicas of men, helped make misogyny a tenet of Western philosophy. In “The History of Animals,” he demarcates the characteristics of males and females: “For man has the most perfect nature of all animals [. . .] Woman is more compassionate than man[. . .] [but] She is also more envious, more quarrelsome, more slanderous and more quarrelsome [. . .] more inclined to lie [. . .] more easily deceived. A man is “more willing to render assistance in times of danger and is more courageous” (qtd. in Aughterson 44). Aristotle predates the advent of Christianity's distrust of women, but his assessment of women aligns with commonly held views of Christianity. Christian era. The pro-woman faction of the Renaissance points out that Adam is more at fault than Eve because he was fully aware of his action in eating the fruit, but Eve continues to be the perfect example of a woman who allows herself easily deceived. Aristotle neglects the myth of Eve of his time, that of Pandora. Pandora is blamed for releasing the evils of humanity, not because she was deceived, but because she was curious and opened the box she had been told not to touch. Epimetheus (in hindsight), her husband, is the one who was deceived; he was warned by his brother Prometheus (foresighted) to have nothing to do with the beautifulPandora because it would bring ruin to men. Epimetheus ignored his brother's advice and played his own role in allowing death, disease, and a myriad of other misfortunes into the world (Morford and Lenardon 67). Pandora, like Eve, received brutal criticism for her role in the curse of humanity. --regardless of the fact that both were acting on impulses implanted within them; Pandora was created curious and Eve was predestined to be disobedient. In matriarchies, goddesses held the highest position of power in the pantheons but were demoted when men took over. Hera grew from a figure of stature and power to a tenacious harridan as the wife of Zeus (Spretnak 88). Artemis, originally the patron saint of procreation, became the Eternal Virgin, an arrogant goddess who had a man torn apart for catching a glimpse of her while she was bathing (75). Even goddesses who seem to retain their importance only do so through circumnavigation; Athena is born from the head of Zeus after having ingested her mother. She is the goddess of wisdom, but only because she comes from the head of the supreme god who is the repository of all knowledge. It is interesting to note that the women who enjoyed a certain degree of independence in Greece were the hetaera, a form of high authority. -prostitute or concubine class. Hetaerae were not citizens, but they were protected by law, could own property, could be seen in public, and often attended dinners and other receptions with their clients; they were generally better educated than the Greek matron and trained in the fine arts. Their services were for the rich and powerful, and Aspasia, a famous hetaera, was the wife of Pericles for many years. No link has been made between these ancient courtesans and the negative images applied to women, but the hetaera, independent and educated, capable of choosing her partner, is the incarnation of the stereotype of the bad girl promulgated during the Renaissance and other eras. Cataloging the spiritual and emotional flaws of women, Aristotle also described the physiology of women. Like physicians and laymen for centuries after him, Aristotle subscribed to the humoral theory expounded in the Hippocratic Corpus (c. 600-300 BCE) (Antiqua Medicine). The humors were aligned with the four elements that made up the universe – earth, air, fire and water – and governed the human body. This theory was later promulgated by the philosopher/physician Galen (130-210 CE) who diagnosed that illnesses, both emotional and physical, resulted from an imbalance in elemental states. Galen's humoral pathology dominated the medical field until the 19th century (Briggs 162). In his work On the Usefulness of Parts of the Body, Galen writes: Now, just as humanity is the most perfect of all animals, so, within humanity, man is more perfect than woman [. . .] its production is necessarily more imperfect, and it is therefore not surprising that the female is less perfect than the male to the extent that she is colder than him. (quoted in Aughterson 47) Men, as perfect creatures, were hot and dry and capable of burning off the bad vapors resulting from humoral fluctuations. The women were cold and wet; their bodies were incapable of absorbing unhealthy vapors, as were those of men. God made women imperfect “mutilations” of men, so that their low status had the seal of approval of the highest authority (48). Diseases were blamed on humoral imbalances until medieval times and beyond. During the "dark" ages, womenhave not regained much of the power they wielded in matriarchies, but they have not been as vilified as they would be in the Enlightenment that followed. Women were still widely seen as incompetent, even evil (the serpent in the Garden of Eden was often depicted in medieval art as having a woman's face), but they were allowed to practice the healing arts that had been their domain since centuries: the dispensation. medicinal plants and act as midwives. There were Marian cults that worshiped the Virgin, and Mary Magdalene was also an extremely popular figure. Wives were still under the jurisdiction of their husbands, but in England widows could pay dues to the crown to avoid remarrying someone not of their choice; some took great advantage of this option (Coss 25). In the late 13th or early 14th century, a disciple of the German physician Saint Albert the Great, wrote De Secretis Mulierum (The Secrets of Women). This disciple, rightly nicknamed "pseudo-Albert", who was strongly inspired by Aristotle, the Arab physician and philosopher, Avicenna, and Averroes, another Arab philosopher, perpetuated centuries-old errors concerning the female physiology and spiritual inferiority (Lemay 3-4). Like Galen's humorous theory, the inaccuracies of De Secretis Mulierum would have a lasting effect on the way women were perceived; it was again reprinted in 1580 with comments from two competing but anonymous authors (2). Commentators defer to Aristotle, but point out the differences between the ancient philosopher's beliefs and those of 16th-century physicians, but since the beliefs of both sides were highly inaccurate, the question of who to give credit becomes moot. .De Secretis Mulierum deals with the female body and its functioning; it details issues such as uterine defects, why malformed children are conceived, and how astrology determines the disposition and health of the unborn child. It is a book written by a man, to be read by men; by the 15th century, male physicians treating women in childbirth was a common practice (34). It draws on the misogynistic tradition that has existed for centuries; pseudo-Albert writes: “the old women [. . .] who do not menstruate, poison the eyes of children lying in their cradle with their gaze” (129). It is shown that beliefs have not changed substantially since the days of Aristotle or pseudo-Albert; a 16th-century commentator writes: “according to Aristotle . . .] the woman is a failed male, that is to say that the matter which forms a human being will only give birth to a girl when nature is hindered in its actions [. . . ] it has been said that woman is not human, but a monster.” The misogynistic tone of De Secretis Mulierum, built on historical ideologies, in turn influenced later literature that was harmful and degrading to women, namely the Malleus Maleficarum, written in the late 15th century by two German priests, Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger. Although the books belong to two different genres, Helen Rodnite Lemay asserts that the authors of the Malleus used the Secretis "as an ideological basis for concluding that women are subject to witchcraft, for which they deserve death." Intellectually, both texts employ Aristotelian and medieval natural philosophy to arrive at the same conclusions about women. Pseudo-Albert and the priests also shared a similar intellectual training acquired in a religious community, combining science, medicine and theology which supportedall their misogynistic views (50-51). Note that nature is a “she,” an apparent contradiction since nature is a “she.” hates women. Lemay draws parallels between De Secretis and the Malleus, emphasizing that the latter has a more “vituperative” tone. Pseudo-Albert and his commentators claim that women are unfit to learn because of the coarseness of their brains (52). Heinrich and Kramer assert that women “are weaker mentally and physically,” “intellectually like children,” “have weak memories; and it is a natural vice with them not to be disciplined” (Kramer & Sprenger 44-45). The elderly woman who can harm infants by looking at them transforms into the malicious and vengeful midwife of the Malleus who intentionally harms babies; “certain witches[. . .] have the habit of devouring and eating children” and “this form of homicide is more associated with women than men” (66). The list of associations between the two texts is long, but the Malleus Maleficarum occupies the top. hateful literature against women; Even King James is not as violently verbal in his assault on the witches as Kramer and Sprenger. The Malleus was written in response to a papal bull issued by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484 calling for a way to prevent people from "departing from the Catholic faith" when they, among other evil practices, " abandon themselves to demons, incubi and others. succubi, and by their incantations, spells and other charms and cursed professions. Although Pope Innocent named "many persons of both sexes" as being at fault, and when the final version of the Malleus was published, men were somehow omitted in the vast majority of accusations against witches (xliii ). The anti-feminist rhetoric of ancient Greece was now reinforced. with arguments drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as Christian and Roman rhetoricians. Kramer and Sprenger cite their sources: Ecclesiastes 25, “All wickedness is a small thing compared to the wickedness of a woman”; Saint John of Chrysotom, “What is woman if not [. . .] an inevitable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger”; Cicero: “The many lusts of men lead them to one sin, but the lust of women leads them to all sins; for the root of all woman's vices is avarice”; and Seneca: “When a woman thinks alone, she thinks badly. » Both priests reluctantly admit that there are women who deserve praise, but warn that even "a good woman [is] subject to carnal lust" (43). Ordinary women were simply stupid and carnal, but the woman who was in league with the Devil surpassed him in the extent of her sin; “The crimes of witches are so heinous that they surpass even the sins and fall of evil angels.” Of the fourteen kinds of magic, witchcraft was the worst; practices such as ceremonial magic* or astrology and augury may be found lawful upon inspection: “But the works of witches are never lawful” (82). Men who used much the same tactics as witches were excused; alchemists were seen as performing scientific experiments, and astrologers such as John Dee established horoscopes at the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Prejudice against earth magic survived for centuries into the Renaissance period; until the repeal of the Witchcraft Acts in 1952, it was forbidden to practice the Art of the Sage in England. All women are suspect in the world painted by Malleus, but among witches, midwives are the most dangerous of the lot; “No one does more harm to the Catholic faith than midwives” (66). In addition to eating babies or turning them into fat for use in potions, midwives were also known to offer their prey to the Devil as sacrifice. In Eve's Herbs, John M. Riddle explains why the Catholic Church emphasized the killing, rather than the delivery, of babies by midwives; women who practiced *Ceremonial or high magic is linked to sorcerers and magicians; stylized words and rituals are more important than potions and working with herbs. Earth magic or low magic was practiced by witches who drew on earthly power or sources. Herbalists not only knew how to perform abortions, but also could have prescribed contraceptives to their patients (112-113). The doctrine of the Church was clearly opposed to this; in the 13th century there was to be no human interference in the process of procreation (92). The midwife and the witch entered God's territory by practicing certain aspects of his profession. Fear of women interfering with procreation manifested itself in other dastardly acts committed by witches. De Secretis Mulierum speaks of "certain women" who know how to act on the penis by placing iron in their vagina during sexual intercourse, which results in "great wounds" on the male member (88). In the Malleus, the fear of being emasculated by women reaches a psychological peak when it is described how a witch can cast a "glamour" and make the penis disappear completely (58, 119). Misogynistic misconceptions, which began centuries earlier, evolved into sublime ridicule, but with the serious credence that the population of Western Europe and England placed in such tales, women were not laughing. In addition to describing the habits and abilities of witches, Kramer and Sprenger provide advice on how to conduct interrogations and trials of the accused; the hypocrisies of those who espoused misogyny are never so clearly delineated. A woman “is a liar by nature”, is “more gullible [. . .] and impressionable”, and presents “a defect [. . . ] since it was formed from a bent rib", but the ecclesiastical and civil courts were enjoined to use all possible means to secure the confession and execution of a witch - even if this involved lie and attack his supposed gullibility (43-46). A defamed man could hope for purgation to escape excommunication and the label of heretic; there was no such hope for a witch (242).St. Augustine decreed that sentence could not be passed on a person unless he had been proven guilty or confessed (235). Kramer and Sprenger agree that a witch should not be put to death without her own confession, so the aim is to assure the court of an admission of guilt. Since witches can stubbornly remain silent, call for help from their master and be able, “with God's permission,” to bewitch the judge, “torture should not be neglected” as a means of obtaining confession. It was also a well-known fact that witches could not cry; the judge had to be particularly vigilant to ensure that his accused did not rub spit on his cheeks and eyes to simulate tears (223-228). The priests are very succinct about how to put on an appearance of concern when applying torture: The judge will use his own convictions and those of other honest men to induce him to voluntarily confess the truth; and if she doesn't. . . bind her with ropes and apply her to some device of torture; and let them obeyimmediately, but not with joy, seeming rather disturbed by their duty. (225) Another way of obtaining a confession was to promise the witch that if she admitted her crime, she would not die, but that when she admitted her guilt, "after a certain time she would be burned." It was also permissible for a judge to safely promise the witch that he would not sentence her to death if she confessed, and then, in good conscience, entrust the sentence to another judge who had not made such a promise (226). In his 1948 introduction to the Malleus Maleficarum, Montague Summers said of the book: "It was implicitly accepted not only by the Catholic legislature, but also by the Protestant legislature. Finally, it is no exaggeration to say that the Malleus Maleficarum is among the most important, wisest and heaviest books in the world” (viii). Summers continues, calling the book by the two Dominicans, Kramer and Sprenger, a “seemingly inexhaustible well of wisdom” from which to draw (ix). Given that admiration for the Malleus continued into the 20th century, it is no wonder that it was used as a manual for witch hunters and judges during the Renaissance. Not all Enlightenment writers subscribed to the theories of Kramer and Sprenger. ; In Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, the Protestant Reginald Scotus mocked the idea of magic and compared these beliefs to "Popish charms and conjurations". Scot sees no difference between the work of so-called witches and wizards and the exorcisms and rituals of the Catholic Church. He fills page after page with drawings, diagrams, and incantations and then declares that they don't work because he has tried them in vain; “For my part, I have read a number of their conjurations, but I have never been able to see any of their dives, except in the context of a game.” Scotus' main argument against the effectiveness of witchcraft is biblical. Unlike Kramer and Sprenger who argue that God allows evil "magic" to happen for its own sake, and that disbelieving in witches is heresy, Scot asserts that all miracles – both divine and satanic – have ceased with the apostles. Miraculous works were “performed only in the early Church, for the confirmation of the doctrine of Christ.” Scotus points out that God saw that all his works were good, so it would be impossible for a sorcerer to conjure devils from “healthy creatures; like salt, water, etc. He also describes the differences between the miraculous wonders performed in the Old Testament as coming from God (the acts of Moses) and those of magicians (the Egyptians who imitated Moses). Witches, according to Scotus, are “poor and needy, [and] go from door to door to relieve themselves” (53). Pointing to Sprenger as a proponent of the idea, Scotus refutes Malleus' assertion that witches should be punished by death while conjurers should not; if such creatures exist, both would draw their power from the Devil. He is particularly vehement against what he sees as the deception of the Catholic Church in taking advantage of uneducated and weak people. The lies of the papists are revealed: the story of Saint Margaret and her victory over the devil is a fable; a woman's corpse resurrected by witchcraft was actually "reanimated" by a couple of priests angry at being cheated out of money for the funeral; and “the lunars and priests have deceived and bewitched the world with counterfeit visions.” As for papists, conjurers and miracle sorcerers, “one is as crude as the other.” In Discoverie of Witchcraft, Scot attributes the.

Navigation

« Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next »

Get In Touch