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| Witch Hunts and So forth -
03-08-07
I know I haven't posted in a long time. I thought you guys might appreciate this, though....
The following is most of an essay I've been working on for a women's history class about medieval and early modern Europe. The lecture for the course has assigned responsibility for the massive witch hunts of this time with misogyny, greed, jealousy and superstition among commoners, with Catholic and Protestant assertions of lethal authority. Even with outbreaks of ergot infection (see below). Well, the ergot explanation is good because at least it admits that there is more going on than simple material concerns.
I've tried to write this paper ignoring the typical academic skepticism. Maybe magic worked. Maybe witchcraft was real, or at least as real as it needed to be. I hate the dry scientific approach that shoves magic and healing into simple ideas like "social constructions" or psychological safety blankets. There's got to be more going on. Ideas are important. Quote:
In order to understand the phenomenon of the witch hunts in Europe during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, it is critical to understand the cultural ethos surrounding pleasure, pain and healing. Control over the meaning of sexuality was critical for the rule of the first and second estates over the third. Then, there was healing, which in the early modern period was coming more and more into the hands of noble and bourgeois men. Finally, this essay will discuss the changing ideologies of this period and how they affected ideas about feminine sexuality and health. In this way, the attack on witches, heretics and innocent women can be understood as a consolidation of meaning and magic into the hands of a changing axis of patriarchs. Witchcraft, as it was and at it came to be characterized in this period.
Accusations of witchcraft were second only to accusations of adultery or illegitimate birth in their usefulness in discrediting the power and authority of figures in medieval Europe . From Alice Kyteler of Kilkenny to Maude of Artois (both 13th century) to Joan of Arc (15th century), women especially suffered accusations of magical interference or even Satanism as a means to eliminate their power. Furthermore, these specific cases and their outcomes show what an important role social class played in magic. Maude and Alice both managed to escape torture and execution; Alice Kyteler was a terribly wealthy noblewoman in Ireland with important ties in the bourgeoisie through banking; Maude of Artois was a noblewoman with direct kinship ties to the royal house of France . Joan of Arc burned on the stake because she was a visionary peasant who had outlived her usefulness to the king of France . Dame Kyteler’s case, in particular, emphasizes the role that class played in witch hunts, as she was set free by her son, and was allowed to remain so. On the other hand, her attendants and female employees were, “publicly burnt… solemnly whipped… [or] exiled” (Levack, p. 42). These women all belonged to the third estate.
However, it would be false to apprehend the early modern witch hunts as merely class struggles or battles for political power. Such would imply that the accusers were entirely cynical. Because educated, sanctioned male physicians and uneducated, female healer women both used techniques and tools that were equally superstitious by contemporary standards, it would also be false to explain the witch hunts as a triumph of rationality, or science over magic. Besides, in the minds of the time, simply using herbal ointments or potions that have scientifically proven to be toxic, in order to cause harm, was just as magical as an invocative spell. Healing and necromancy both were conceived of as wizardry for a long time in Europe .
This was not always such a serious concern for Europeans. Wergelds that would have to be paid for murder, according to Salic Law, would also be paid by “a witch [who] eats a man [if] it [could] be proven that she did this” (Amt, p. 4 . Even practicing witchcraft, if it could be proven, would require punishment. But, as it inspired fear and distrust in the community against the accused and was, essentially, defamation, if it proved to be false, the accuser would be liable (Amt, p. 4. A transforming ideology of what, exactly, made one a witch and what that implied was hugely responsible for the vulnerable and victimized legal status of witches a millennium later.
The Malleus Malificarum, published in 1486, redefined witchcraft as Satanism and detailed its overtly sexual nature, as well as the means in which to deal with such transgressors. The text was incredibly influential across Catholic Christendom and, ultimately, in Protestant kingdoms. Its misogynistic assertion “that since [women] are feebler both in mind and body, it is not surprising that they should come more under the spell of witchcraft” (Summers, p. 44) was a long time coming. In Dame Kyteler’s case, she and her attendants were attributed with consorting with an incubus, although it was not clear whether he was Satan or one of his minions. If such accusations were being leveled against an upper class woman, then it should be clear that other women in the early 14th century would be accused of Satanism as well.
In 1374, Pope Gregory XI declared that all manners of magic were, essentially, Satanic. But, as noted, before, there were numerous practices that were basically magical that were employed by healers of either sex. What’s more, practical spells were employed, especially throughout the countryside, by peasants, such as laying salt across a threshold to ward off bad spirits, or leaving milk in a bowl outside in order to attract good fairies. These were pagan rituals, to be sure, but did not threaten their soul in terms of sin or virtue, or their loyalty, in terms of orthodoxy or tithing. So, the issue remained muddy.
Two years before the Malleus was published, then, Pope Innocent VIII reiterated Gregory’s position that all magic was Satanic. But what constitutes magic? Whose magic? To this day, catholic priests perform the magical feat of transubstantiation, and holy water is used to protect the soul from damnation during baptism, as well as to cure various ailments. As far as a medieval individual was concerned, both pagan and Catholic magic offered solutions to everyday problems. So, the issue demanded resolution.
Key to the Malleus Maleficarum are the moralities of pleasure and pain that it clearly professes. Although there were skeptics and critics of the witch hunts, clerical and civil authorities took witchcraft absolutely seriously, and the Malleus was an incredibly useful tool for understanding and prosecuting it. Witchcraft, and its rituals were described as profane orgies of demons, animals and human beings, mostly women, Sabbaths used to achieve numerous ends. The bulk of the text is taken up by describing those ends which constitute attacks on male sexuality, such as causing impotence, or inducing men to have sex when their reason would tell them not to. What is important to note, though, is that the very rituals of the Sabbath would be an attack on male sexuality in the sense that they are transgressions against virginity and chastity enshrined by the patriarchy. The authors identify the source of this sin as uncontrollable female lust that is satisfied through a sexual pact with the Devil, or demons. In this way, “disordered sexuality is identified with the devil, inverted gender roles and sexual dysfunction with witchcraft, and defective social and political hierarchies with women” (Broedel, 179). That is to say, the Malleus reified sexual hierarchy by redefining witchcraft as a sexual transgression.
Interestingly, the Malleus offers dozens of invocative magical remedies for the malicious spells of witches, such as “the Sacred Sign of the Cross, or by the recital of the Angelic Salutation… exorcism… or excommunication” (Summers, p. 165). It even contains herbal spells for protection against a witch while interrogating her, such as the salt and herb wax-ball to be worn around the neck (Summers, 228). And so, once again, it is important to recognize that although magic in general was condemned by the Papacy, it was the magic associated with the poor , and with women that was actually being attacked by the Inquisition. Sexualizing and demonizing this tradition is what allowed for such abject brutality.
The control of sexuality was, for both Catholic and Protestant nations, a very important aspect of maintaining material and intellectual power over the working class. Marriage was the most common way in which this was carried out, as it required monogamy and submission on the part of the female to the male. Even writers who argued against taking on the institution of marriage admit that “[a woman], much against her will, must suffer his will, often with great misery though she loves him well. All his foulness and his indecent playings—be they even accompanied with filthiness, especially in bed—she shall, whether she wishes to or not, suffer them all”(Amt, p. 92). The author is dated compared to the witch hunts, as he attributes filthiness to men, rather than women. Still, this illustrates the wife’s obligation of submission to her husband, and how, through a man, the church could control female sexuality. Single women—widows and the like—therefore, were the easiest scapegoats, as their sexuality was not bridled by a man. These were the innocent women most commonly victimized by the witch hunts.
Some scholars have related the witch hunts to outbreaks of ergot infection in bread supplies, as the fungus contains hallucinogenic chemicals. This may account for instances of possession or the appearance of apparitions, but “why was not the whole population of an area affected equally?” (Wiesner, p. 269). On the other hand, the ergot explanation can account for “Saint Vitus’ Dance, a violent disease causing descents into madness and death that struck like a plague when a village or region unsuspectedly ate bread made from ergot-infected wheat” (Pinchbeck, p. 192). The more important that role ergot played here, however, is in its intentional use. Midwives, another extremely common group of women targeted by witch hunts had, “[for] thousands of years perhaps… [been] used… for its ability to induce labor” (Pinchbeck, p. 191).
Child rearing was the highest cause of death for women until very recently, and so, because of their ritual accountability, a midwife was very vulnerable to accusations of malificia. Midwives were ritually accountable because they used magic and medicine—one in the same, really—to help women through child labor, as well as with various other ailments. In the countryside, where witch hunts were most sweeping, sanctioned doctors were rare, and so a midwife was often the only choice. And why not choose her, if her invocations and herbal ointments were reasonably effective, and soothing?
Like the Malleus Maleficarum was changing notions about feminine sexuality, the Church-controlled universities were changing ideologies about healthcare. In urban areas, midwives were marginalized as bourgeois families began to demand men who were trained at these institutions for their medical concerns. This had been commencing for a long time before the witch hunts, and the 1322 case of a woman physician in Paris demonstrates the slow battle that universities were fighting to monopolize healthcare. The charges brought against her show that she was practicing herbalism, “and that she does this without the license of the chancellor of the church of Paris and of the said dean and masters” (Amt, p. 109). This would be a given, considering that universities did not admit women. In her defense, Jacoba Felicie exclaims that “it used to be that a woman allowed herself to die, rather than reveal her secret illnesses to a man, because of the modesty of the female sex, and because of the shame which she would have suffered revealing them… many women… perished” (Amt, p. 111). Ultimately, the academics won this case, but it would be much, much longer before midwifery would be attacked out right.
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