In the chapter, titled "The Hammer of Witches", I noticed a strong trend of misogyny. On page 183, the author describes women as "a foe to friendship, an unescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature, painted with fair colours!" While I'm certain that this man's ideas weren't anything new, it surprised me to read so many negative words about the female gender as a whole. I am left to wonder if this man's view of women stems from either a life experience or by the "Eve is the Mother of All Sin" viewpoint of some Christians at the time. My guess would be the former since he goes on to say "The tears of a woman are a deception, for they may spring from true grief, or they may be a snare." Okay, I can guess where this is going. Since we describe witches as deceptive and evil, this person is trying to say that only women can be witches by equating them with similar adjectives. Ah! I love it when I'm right. He then goes on to explain that women are most likely to be witches because they are more impressionable and light-minded. Oh! And he goes on to say that the many negatives comments about women stem from "the temptress, Eve. and her imitators." So now we're back to that, eh? Assuming the worst of all women for the actions of one? Doesn't that sort of go against the teachings of one of the most important figures in Christianity- scratch that- THE most important figure in Christianity? Well, now that I'm off my religious soapbox, the author then paints a lovely misogynistic metaphor when he says that the breast rib, from which the first woman, Eve, was formed, was bent in the opposite direction almost as if it were opposing man. (Yeah, yeah, it's a simile. I get it. I just couldn't resist a little alliteration.) I'm curious as to whether this represents the beliefs of many or few. I am also curious as to how witchcraft affected the public's view of women as a result of this type of writing.
This was indeed a really misogynistic text. In response to one of your questions (based on my readings in this class, past classes, and my own outside reading) this is no your average everyday Medieval misogyny. This is..... Advanced misogyny. Seriously, I have read a fair number of period documents from the Middle Ages (I would not say a lot), and this still stands out. Many of the texts I have read were originally written by clerics, and still this is remarkable in terms of its bitterness towards women. I don't know if these guys had the worst possible experience with women, if they were frustrated in some way, or some other reason. But just so you know, as least from my perspective, this is not the view (at least in terms of its extremes) that was shared by a large section of society.
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