10:42:00 3/21/2007 PM Woman as Witch I. Introduction 80% of people brought to trail for witchcraft were women 20,000 men were executed there was a thought that midwives were under special attack after 1630 to children being accused II. The Melleus Malificartum Evidence of Renaissance misogyny All their historians drew evidence about the Renaissance view of women through this book o Dangers in which evil powers proposed o Sexual powers attacked higher faculties of rationality o Evil spiritual powers changed the perceptions and defiled the pereceptions of men o Augustine Sexuality leads to irrational activity...intercourse in itself was an irrational activity Fall of Adam and Eve led to irrationality What the fall did was destroy the rational faculties, make the will independent of reason In the very sexual act, argued Augustine, the original sin of man is propogated from generation to generation o Sexual dreams and sexual fantasies: these lead to the male emotions which are destroyed through sexual fantasies o Power of evil demons and spiritual powers is particularly related to sexual matters o Source of wantonness is in his privy parts o Male lust is what is utilized to understand witchcraft o There's no indication that women have any sexual struggles Subjective problem for males, and an objective situation of women as an object of male lust and temptation
Sexuality is understood largely in the point of men in the 16th century
Women
Prone to witchcraft o Peculiar problem Different nature than men More carnal Intellectually similar to children More prone to flesh Their sexuality leads to jealousy, prime causes behind use of witchcraft o Act competitively with jealousy, therefore, they try to find magical forces to go against each other Women are witches Hatred o of other women, attempt to find forces and exercise their power against others, jealousy, and competitiveness o Both passive and active evil o All witchcraft comes from carnal lust which is in women: insatiable Some historians thought that midwives were under particular attack "No one does more harm to the Catholic Faith than midwives. They kill children or dedicate them to the devil" all of this has to be seen in the context of incredible insecurity o male insecurity: there seems to be expressions of male impotence: men are exposing their testicles during this early 16th century period. o Extreme expression of impotence o Fixed the writers of Malleus, fantastic stories of impotence Men are often more bewitched than men Was witch-hunting woman-hunting? (question proposed by Christina Larner) Stereotype of an aggressive adult women Violates an implicit value assigned to women: Nurturing Women is reverse of quintessential female aspect: not nurturing but the very opposite, does not care for men or for the weak
Women frequently had the power of the word in village life and in small town life Many were accused as witches b/c they cursed this or that person Many children got sick...deaths among children were common Why? o This is a question that comes up o Problem of explanation leads to everday accusation of witchcraft... o Only when the court system develops in the latter part of 16 th century an execution...the state intervening and ultimate consequence of many people dying. Attack on prostitution was also new Infanticide o Women who is not married o Hidden the fact of her pregnancy o Must give birth alone o The child must have been born alive Women were the prime symbol of disorder Message of Malleus Women are the reason for disorder