For those out of the men and women from different
professions who were accused of witchcraft during the inquisition, there is one
particular group I felt really bad for as a whole category of people; they
would be midwives.
In Kramer’s and Sprenger’s “The Malleus Maleficarum”, they
actually described a section, “That Witches who are Midwives in Various Ways
Kill the Child Conceived in the Womb…or if they do not this Offer New-born
Children to the Devils” (188). This seems like a really harsh vicious
accusation to make on a group of people.
Essentially, if a baby dies at childbirth, the midwife who delivered the
child could be accused of witchcraft and conspiring with the devil. All that
makes me think of is what a scary job to have, if that could be the outcome.
During the time of “The Malleus Maleficarum”, people were
constantly experiencing loss through diseases like “the black plague”, they had
poor sanitation, and had an unstable living conditions with their crops dying.
As a society the people were suffering. Conditions like the black plague could
not be determined, and for unknown reasons children were dying in childbirth or
as infants.
With all the tragedy around them it is obvious as that
people were looking for someone to blame for things that they couldn’t explain,
and midwives were their option, since they are the first people to come into
contact with the child. Even when a child has been born, if they die, a parent
will want a reason for it, and again to me it makes sense that the midwife was
chosen to take responsibility sometimes.
Overall, I understand reasoning why, inquisitors might have
classified midwives as a group that could be working with magic. People always
want an answer as to why, and this situation is even larger than a family
losing their child, but also a whole society who have are having many infants
not surviving into adulthood.
I still feel sympathetic for the midwives of the time
though. I can see where they would be the scapegoats, and I would think that
knowing that if a child dies in their care that they could be viewed as
responsible for it.
You make an excellent point. The medieval midwife was a person who was living in a bad time, had a hard job, and got a particularly bad reputation. Imagine the pressure of trying to safely bring a child into the world before the age of modern medicine, heck even with modern medicine. Now throw on top of that that if you have a few really unlucky births, there might be an inquisitor who suspects you of being up to something wicked.
ReplyDeleteI think they were probably targeted because, as you said, they were among the first to come into contact with a child as it entered the world so if it was not them who else could it have been? Also it probably did not help that midwifery was in one of the few professions that was largely filled by women during a time that was largely male dominated.
I think this is a great example for people giving a name to their pain. It's easier to explain a miraculous fact for their lives being bad over acknowledging that it is potentially their own faults.
ReplyDeleteI also was shocked at the readings in the Malleus Maleficarum, everything in it was accusatory towards groups of people based on nothing but rumors and superstition. In fact nothing that happened backed in the medieval ages in relation to the inquisition seemed to be grounded in any kind of logic, but I guess that happens when you look at events from a thousand years into the future.
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