Women and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages in Europe

Women and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages in Europe

Women who were perceived as witches in the Middle Ages faced many injustices from misjudgements, sexism, and the patriarchy. I will discuss witchcraft and women during and prior to the 16^th century in Europe. First, I will define witchcraft during this time period. Witchcraft appeared to have many genres in Europe at this time. Second, I will discuss the characteristics of women witches. It is recorded that there is certain characteristics of a women witch which was used in trials (Bailey, 2002).  Third, how perceived witches were treated in society and their punishments. Witches were predominately women, they faced hard trials, usually involving torture and harsh punishments after being convicted (Bailey, 2002). Lastly, I will interpret these sources to relate this information to the treatment of women as a gender and how women were viewed in Medieval Europe. It is argued by scholars that witch-hunting in the Middle Ages in Europe was due to misogyny from the court, church, laymen and other women (Bailey, 2002).

Definition of Witchcraft in the Middle Ages  

            The definition of witchcraft during the Middle Ages was a very general concept. Witchcraft involved magic, light or dark, and some form of demonology (Bailey & Peters, 2003). Light magic was said to help and to heal. Light magic is a positive energy. Dark magic was said to hurt and hinder other people. Dark magic is evil (Bailey & Peters, 2003). Demonology is the usage of religion, history, political authority to conjure up demons for witchcraft (Bailey & Peters, 2003). According to Jones and Zell, “Witchcraft was also defined as a source of power to the powerless, and that women, lacking the physical strength to assault their enemies, or the power to initiate litigation, resorted to verbal means, including cursing.” (Jones and Zell, 2005). Witchcraft was also considered to be the use of herbs, potions, and magic to help or hurt people. Any use of herbs or potions that was outside the already established medical usage was not acceptable and could be argued as witchcraft. This could be interpreted as a way to keep women under the patriarchy, as the medical profession was predominately male and women could not practice medicine (Jones and Zell, 2005). “As attempts to suppress the independence of women perceived to be outside patriarchal control, as widows, or as healers or midwives (Jones and Zell, 2005).

Characteristics of Women Witches

            Women witches were characterized the same across all my sources. Majority of witches were old, poor, single, and socially unacceptable (Jones and Zell, 2005). This description fits widowed women in medieval Europe. “They have loose tongues and can hardly conceal from their female companions the things that they know through evil art, and since they lack physical strength, they readily seek to avenge themselves secretly through acts of sorcery.” (Mackay & Institoris, 2009).  Socially unacceptable women are referring to women who are outside societal norms. For example, women who are loud, outspoken, and behave in a way outside of the patriarchy (Jones and Zell, 2005). Outside societal norms also include women who did not practice in the common faith or who were not extremely devoted. “They are prone to believing [in witchcraft] and because the demon basically seeks to corrupt the Faith.” (Mackay & Institoris, 2009). This quote is scapegoating women as the devil has used them to corrupt the faith. “On account of the tendency of their temperament towards flux they are by nature more easily impressed upon to receive revelations through the impression of the disembodied spirits, and when they use this temperament well, they are very good, but when they use it badly, they are worse” (Mackay & Institoris, 2009).  Women are more likely to be witches are they are susceptible to submission to the devil (Bailey, 2002). According to the malleus maleficarum, witches were always women because women are easily swayed intellectually, have are easily manipulated because of their temperament and are physically weaker to men, therefore, more liable to be persuade by the devil (Mackay & Institoris, 2009). “that women, becoming more economically disadvantaged in the later sixteenth century, reacted with socially inappropriate behaviour which made them susceptible to charges of witchcraft. The use of strong language by women, but changing elite views about appropriate behaviour for women in sixteenth-century Germany caused sharp-tongued females to be considered potential witches.” (Jones and Zell, 2005).

Treatment of Witches

Women who were known to practice witchcraft or were going through a trial were not treated fairly. These women were beaten, tortured and women were statistically accused and convicted twice as much as men (Jones & Zell, 2005). Women were also accused and convicted of crimes other then witchcraft during the same trial. (Stokes, 2002).  These other accusations usually sodomy, were confessed too after being tortured. (Stokes, 2002).  According to Bailey, “For every trial and for every victim, there was a complex series of factors—local patterns of animosity, economic dislocations and stresses, and broadly accepted cultural conceptions—that struck the sparks and fanned the flames.” (Bailey, 2002). When women were on trial for witchcraft, not only were her practices considered but her past was brought into question as well. Was this woman outspoken or rude to other people in her community? Was this woman poor? These were factors that were accounted for in a witch trial in the Middle Ages. “He evil of women is discussed in Ecclesiasticus 25[:22–23]: “There is no head worse than the head of a snake, and there is no anger surpassing the anger of a woman. It will be more pleasing to stay with a lion and a serpent than to live with an evil woman.” (Mackay & Institoris, 2009). This was written in the treatise about women. This is how evil women were perceived and spoke about during this time by the Church (author of Malleus Maleficarum was a Catholic clergyman). “Witchcraft and infanticide were the only predominantly female offences among the new, or newly secularized, crimes, but they were also the only ‘new’ crimes which became punishable by death, and so the criminalization of a wider range of anti-social behaviour had more serious results for women than for men” (Jones & Zell, 2005). This quote is discussing new crimes coming into law around the 16^th century that were punishable by death. Starting in the 16^th century being a witch had a death sentence and could be its own crime, whereas in previous years witchcraft was accompanied by other crimes.

Interpretation of Sources

After reviewing these sources there are multiple ways to interpret women and witches in Europe in the Middle Ages. Either they were evil summons of the devil, widows trying to make a living, or women wrongfully treated then tried and convicted. The two views I am going to discuss is according to the Malleus Maleficarum women are evil, and the view of women are trying to make a living outside the patriarchy.

All my sources reference the Malleus Maleficarum, as this was a respect treatise written by a Catholic clergyman. I do understand this is an extreme source, but this source was used for years. In this treatise women were views as evil. Women are spoken about in a negatively graphic manor. “” Every evil is small compared to the evil of a woman.” Hence, Chrysostom says in reference to the passage, “It is beneficial not to marry” … “What else is a woman but the enemy of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable disaster, a danger in the home, a delightful detriment, an evil of nature, painted with nice color?”. “I found woman more bitter than death” (Mackay & Institoris, 2009). These are quotes directly from that treatise. Without the extremity of this document, I believe the witch-hunts and trials would not have been so harsh or violent towards women.

The view I align myself with is the view from the women trying to make a living outside the patriarchy. With the characteristics of witches, it described a widow. An older woman who is single, poor, and trying to make a living. “Most accused witches were old, poor and socially isolated. In fact, elderly widows were probably a minority of accused witches in England.” (Jones & Zell, 2005). The article from Jones and Zell also described this view. They explained how the patriarchy and misogynistic views changed the treatment of not only witches but also women during this time.

“Suggesting that men’s thinking about women changed, and that the persecution of female witches was one aspect of a more misogynistic attitude, which also resulted in increased prosecution of other ‘female’ offences such as scolding, prostitution and infanticide. Marianne Hester has suggested that in the tensions resulting from the religious, social and economic changes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, witchcraft accusations were ‘a means of recreating the male status quo in the emerging social order” (Jones & Zell, 2005).

Jones and Zell also noted how women needs to find their own space and roles in society and how the witch-hunts and Malleus Maleficarum effects these growing periods for women.

“Some other explanations for the femininity of witches do not locate it in any specific time. Accusations by women of women have been interpreted as a struggle between women for control of female social space or ascribed to women’s own anxiety about their role as mothers. Prosecutions by men of women have been ascribed to men’s fear of impotence, to male reactions to women’s real or imagined power as mothers and nurturers, or as attempts to suppress the independence of women perceived to be outside patriarchal control, as widows, or as healers or midwives” (Jones & Zell, 2005).

Bailey and Peters did a great analysis of looking back on these centuries and how women were affected by these laws.

“In the end, scholars of witchcraft and witch-hunting in Europe must take seriously the fact that at some level witches, men or women, were persecuted because they were believed to be witches, and witchcraft, as it was conceived in European society from learned elites on down to the common culture, was in some ways a crime particularly appropriate for women. Had clerical authorities clung to either of their earlier conceptions of magic—that is, that the sort of common sorcery often (although by no means always) performed by women was merely empty superstition and demonic delusion, or that the real, powerful demonic magic performed by necromancers was in some way essentially unsuited for women—the witch-hunts would surely not have happened, at least not in anything like the form that they finally took” (Bailey & Peters, 2003).

Due to the Malleus Maleficarum the treatment of women changed in the Middle Ages in Europe. Women were mistreated in order to keep social roles and the patriarchy. This treatment effect women who were practicing witchcraft, but it also affected women who only fit the characteristics.

Conclusion

This where history is tricky, there are two views and little context. The Malleus Maleficarum was a treatise on witchcraft. This document defined witchcraft, who was a witch, what was witch practices, and punishments. The Malleus Maleficarum and prejudices led to the mistreatment of women. I believe that women were trying to live outside the patriarchy, sometimes on purpose, other times because that is were life took them and they were scapegoated in order to keep the societal norms.

References

Bailey, M. D. (2002). The feminization of magic and the emerging idea of the female witch in the late middle ages. Essays in Medieval Studies, 19(1), 120-134. https://doi.org/10.1353/ems.2003.0002

Bailey, M. D., & Peters, E. (2003). A sabbat of demonologists: Basel, 1431-1440. The Historian (Kingston), 65(6), 1375-1396. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0018-2370.2003.00057.x

Jones, K., & Zell, M. (2005). ‘the divels speciall instruments’: Women and witchcraft before the ‘great witch-hunt’. Social History (London), 30(1), 45-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/0307102042000337288

Mackay, C. S., & Institoris, H. (2009). The hammer of witches: A complete translation of the malleus maleficarum. Cambridge University Press.

Waite, G. K. (2012). Laura stokes. demons of urban reform: Early european witch trials and criminal justice, 1430–1530. palgrave historical studies in witchcraft and magic. new york: Palgrave macmillan, 2011. vii + 236 pp. $85. ISBN: 978–1–4039–8683–2. Renaissance Quarterly, 65(1), 261-263. https://doi.org/10.1086/665886