In 1487, two Dominican inquisitors Henirich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger wrote the Malleus Maleficarum, in English can be translated to the Hammer of Witches. The Malleus Maleficarum was a one of a kind document, meaning that it was the first document that laid the official groundwork for how to prosecute people who were believed to have used witchcraft. Kramer and Sprenger believed that women were more likely to be prosecuted as witches than men because they believed that women had wicked tendencies. This belief has angered many women in the present day and they believe that this document has a deep prejudice against women. This paper will state the reasons why Kramer and Sprenger believe that women are more likely to be witches as well as …show more content…
“Blessed is the man who has a virtuous wife, for the number of his days shall be doubled.”(183) Marrying a virgin is good for both the man and the woman, in the man’s case he will have a long life and in the woman’s case the man is much more likely to take good care of her. Woman who are not virgins before marriage are considered to be wicked. According to Krammer and Sprenger “women are more carnal than man,” carnal meaning that they have more physical and sexual wants and needs. Having these sexual and physical of and needs makes them wicked. When writing the Malleus Maleficarum, Kramer and Sprenger were influenced by the works of Roman intellectuals. One intellectual whose work is mentioned in this document is Cicero. In Cicero’s second book of The Rhetorics, he describes how “the many lusts of men lead them into one sin, but one lust of women leads them to all sins; for the root of all woman’s vies is avarice.”(Cicero, 183) Avarice means to have extreme greed. This quote appears to be a one sided and extremely biased quote; people make mistakes and sin all the time, it is a natural human tendency, why should a woman’s lust lead her down the path of sinning for the rest of her life but yet a man can have lust but it would not led him down a path of sinning for the rest of his life? This is one excellent example of why this document angers
Karlsen, Carol. "Witchcraft: Prejudice and Intolerance Targeted Gender During the Witch Hunts: Effects on Early Mode." setonhill.edu. n.p., 1998. Web. 18 February. .
As for the sex drive differences between the two genders, Angier explains that “men have the naturally higher sex drive, yet all the laws, customs, punishments, shame, strictures, mystiques and antimystiques are aimed with full hominid fury at that tepid, sleepy, hypoactive creature, the female libido” (Angier 166). It appears that Angier does not agree that only the women are punished for these actions. This is understandable because although women took part in the behavior, men are thought to be the ones with the higher sexual desire. Also, from a Christian perspective, it is significant to note that a sin is a sin. Both the man and woman gave in to the behavior, therefore, they both sinned equally. If the Bible says that all sins are equal, then why are women only being punished for this type of sin by losing their reputation and being treated as a lesser
Karlsen highlights with an remarkable accuracy, the prejudices connected with areas of the particular portrayal of women along with the linkage of the "lady as-witch" idea inside United states tradition. Many contemporary individuals ended up being perplexed by such hasty action against a force that has no evidence. Karlsen brings a plethora of ideas to the table regarding these prejudices and explains in detail, the injustices performed against entirely innocent individuals.
Themistocles contribution to the defence of Greece was more significant than any other Greek individual. To what extent do you agree?
Hinds, Maurene J. Witchcraft on Trial: From the Salem Witch Hunts to the Crucible. Library ed. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2009. Print.
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.
The early modern era in Western Europe was a dangerous place for women with the rise of so called “witches” populating towns and country sides. With the peak of these witch trials happening between 1560 and 1640 in England (the making of the west 499). This caused the people of Europe to live in fear of the devil and his counterparts on earth. Over 80 percent of victims of these witch trials were women and thousands upon thousands of trials taking place all across Europe and the North American Colonies at the time as well (motw 500). Seeing that women are mostly accused of witches, it raises the questions as to why that is. Upon examining 2 specific cases in this essay, those being of Walpurga Hausmannin from Dillingen, Germany and Francatte Camont from Lorraine, France; one can see that both these cases are very similar in many aspects despite the fact that both these women were trialed in different countries in Western Europe. In this essay, the reader will explore the motivations, visions and the targets of these witch trials with specific evidence and focus on the trials of both Walpurga and Francatte. The reader will also be able see connections between both trials throughout as well.
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.
Although witch trials were not uncommon in Puritanical New England, none had reached such epidemic proportions as Salem. In 1691 the mass hysteria began when several young girls dabbled in witchcraft and began acting strange. When villagers took notice the girls were seriously questioned and so they began naming people, mainly woman, who had supposedly bewitched them (Boyer, p66). Several other who had been accused were woman displayed ‘unfeminine’ behavior and those who
During the early modern period Europe experienced a phase of vicious prosecution of the people accused of the crime of ‘Witchcraft.’ There has been an estimated death toll of up to 50,000 people during these Witch-hunt crazes, although the exact figures are unknown. What is known is that overall 75-80% of those accused were woman although this varies in different states. In this essay I will discuss the role of gender in witchcraft and why the majority of people executed as Witches were women.
When relating the crime of witchery in the 17th century to modern day domestic violence, we must first examine the similarities between the two crimes. First of all, they were and are both considered serious crimes, with witchery punishable by hanging, and domestic violence today
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.
For many centuries to the present day, Christians have lived in fear of witches. They were known as to be the devils child who only practiced black magic and thought of as the Christians “persecution”. Witches have been known to mankind since the 1200’s. Throughout the 1400’s, the examination of witches was more focus and moved from the Jews. In the church’s law, it was stated that the belief of existence and practices of witchcraft was “heresy”. Because of what the Christians believed, churches would then torture and hunt down anyone who they thought were witches and killed the many women and only a few of the men. They even made them make the confession of flying through the midnight sky, being in love with the devil himself, practicing black magic and even turning into animals.
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.
The negative view of the female sex continues in Leviticus, in a section dictating the re...