The witch hunts in early modern Europe were extensive and far reaching. Christina Larner, a sociology professor at the University of Glasgow and an influential witchcraft historian provides valuable insight into the witch trials in early modern Europe in her article 'Was Witch-Hunting Woman-Hunting?'. Larner writes that witchcraft was not sex-specific, although it was sex-related (Larner, 2002). It cannot be denied that gender plays a tremendous role in the witch hunts in early modern Europe, with females accounting for an estimated 80 percent of those accused (Larner, 2002). However, it would be negligent to pay no heed to the remaining 20 percent, representing alleged male witches (Larner, 2002). The legal definition of a witch in this time, encompassed both females and males (Levack, 1987). This essay will explore the various fundamental reasons for this gender discrepancy and highlight particular cases of witchcraft allegations against both women and men. These reasons arise from several fundamental pieces of literature that depict the stereotypical witch as female. These works are misogynistic and display women as morally inferior to men and highly vulnerable to temptations from demons (Levack, 1987). This idea is blatantly outlined in the text of the 'Malleus Maleficarum' written by James Sprenger and Henry Kramer in the late fifteenth century. This book is used as the basis for many of the witch trials in early modern Europe (Levack, 1987). The text describes women as sexually submissive creatures and while remarking that all witchcraft is derived from intense sexual lust, a women is thus a prime candidate for witchcraft (Sprenger & Kramer, 1487). In this time period, men are seen as powerful and in control and thus rarely...
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...en accused on the premise of being heretics or using healing magic (cite, cite). Furthermore, women who were brought to court on allegations of witchcraft in Europe in the early modern times are often of low social-economic status, in contrast to men who are oftentimes of superior social-economic status. This is because men are often victimized in order to bring about financial gain through the confiscation of their property. Witchcraft in early modern Europe can definitely be regarded as sex-related, but was by no means sex-specific (Larner, 2002).
References
Larner, C. (2002). Was Witch-hunting Woman-hunting?. The Witchcraft Reader.
Levack, B. P. (1987). The witch-hunt in early modern Europe. London: Longman.
Monter, W. (2002). The Sociology of Jura Witchcraft. The Witchcraft Reader.
Sprenger, J. & Kramer, H. (1687). Malleus Maleficarum. Cologne.
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.
wealth, it goes on to tell how she could do nothing to resist and was
Hinds, Maurene J. Witchcraft on Trial: From the Salem Witch Hunts to the Crucible. Library ed. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2009. Print.
THE WITCH-HUNT IN MODERN EUROPE By: Brian Levack The Witch-Hunt in Modern Europe by Brian Levack proved to be an interesting as well as insightful look at the intriguing world of the European practice of witchcraft and witch-hunts. The book offers a solid, reasonable interpretation of the accusation, prosecution, and execution for witchcraft in Europe between 1450 and 1750. Levack focuses mainly on the circumstances from which the witch-hunts emerged, as this report will examine. The causes of witch-hunting have been sometimes in publications portrayed differently from reality. The hunts were not prisoner escapee type hunts but rather a hunt that involved the identification of individuals who were believed to be engaged in a secret activity. Sometimes professional witch-hunters carried on the task, but judicial authorities performed most. The cause of most of these hunts is the multi-causal approach, which sees the emergence of new ideas about the witches and changes in the criminal law statutes. Both point to major religious changes and a lot of social tension among society. The intellectual foundations of the hunts were attributed to the witch’s face-to-face pact with the devil and the periodic meetings of witches to engage in practices considered to be barbaric and heinous. The cumulative concept of witchcraft pointed immediately to the devil, the source of the magic and the one most witches adored. There was strong belief then that witches made pacts with the devil. Some would barter their soul to the devil in exchange for a gift or a taste of well being.
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 European witch-hunts that took place from 1400 to 1800 were complete monstrosities of justice, but the brutality seemed to have been concentrated more in certain parts of Europe than other parts. This is especially true in the British Isles during the witch trials of 1590-1593, where Scotland, a country with a fourth of the population of England, experienced three times as many executions as them. Before these particular trials, England and Scotland were both only mildly involved in the hunts, but a Scottish witch’s confession in late 1590 unveiled a plot to kill King James VI by creating a storm to sink his ship. This confession led to the implementation of others and quickly festered into the widely publicized hunts throughout Scotland in the late 16th century.
I thought women were only witches but I guess I was wrong. Johanne, lord mayor of Bamberg a city in Germany starts off the letter by referring to the hundred, thousands, good nights he’s spent locked away from his beloved daughter Veronica. He claims to be an innocent man tortured and killed under false accusation of witchcraft. There was much superstition and ignorance in the 17th century. Witchcraft had been illegal since 1563 and hundreds of women were wrongly accused and punished ‘Proof’ of being a witch could be a third nipple, an unusual scar or birthmark, a boil, a growth, or even owning a cat or a pet. Confessions were often made under torture, same goes for the case of
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 founded within agreement there remains 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: A Sociologist’s Perspective,” share various opinions while developing their own theories. The comparison of these observations will focus upon why the witch trials occurred when they did, why did they stop when they did, why did the witch trials occur when they did, and who was persecuted and who was responsible for the identification and punishing of witches.
[7] The Witch- Hunt in Early Modern Europe, Brian P. Levack, p129. [8] Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern England, Deborah Willis, p65.
10. Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Spenger, “The Malleus Maleficarum,” in Witchcraft in Europe 1100-1700, Alan Kors and Edward Peters (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972), 132.
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.
“The Devil in the Shape of a Woman” was an excellent book that focuses on the unjusts that have been done to women in the name of witchcraft in Salem, and many other areas as well. It goes over statistical data surrounding gender, property inherence, and the perceptions of women in colonial New England. Unlike the other studies of colonial witchcraft, this book examines it as a whole, other then the usual Salem outbreaks in the late 17th century.
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
“The execution of economically marginal women on witchcraft charges consti- tutes a major example of public scapegoating in England. René Girard has argued that, for scapegoating to function, the projection of criminal guilt onto the innocent is essential;6 this misdirection of blame appears in maleficium cases, as it is not the yeomen farmers who refuse charity to the impoverished, and thus transgress traditional community standards, who are punished, but the women who request charity” (34)
“The most well-documented characteristic of those persons who were prosecuted for witchcraft is that they were predominantly, if not overwhelmingly, female.” Many wonder where the idea of women specifically committing dark magic originated. The idea of the English witch was comprised of a progression of beliefs and practices of ritual and popular magic common of the Pagan practicing. This idea comes from where the “early Christian Church insisted that all magical activity involved the power of the pagan gods, who were considered to be demons.” The first original idea that women are more vulnerable to sinning than men is obviously from the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible. However, the idea that mainly women were witches spread drastically from the manuscript of Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches), stating how “all wickedness, is but little to the wickedness of a woman… What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil nature, painted with fair colors…Women are by nature instruments of Satan – they are by nature carnal, a structural defect rooted in the original creation,” published by the Catholic Inquisition in 1485-1486. The ideas of the Malleus