Saturday, September 28, 2013

Woman, thy name is witch


The Malleus Maleficarum is one of those texts that, when I was reading it, I was thinking that it deserved to have its own blog post. So…TA-DA! Here it is.

The thing that struck me the most about the text was how misogynistic it was. Many of the past texts that we read targeted women, but never to this scale that the Malleus Maleficarum reached. To me, the other texts referred to witches as being either men or women. And looking back, we can sort of see a slow evolution from men and women being involved in witchcraft to rampant misogyny. In this text, witches are identified primarily as women. Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum, say that “a wicked woman is by her nature quicker to waver in her faith, and consequently quicker to abjure the faith, which is the root of witchcraft” (Kors and Peters 185). This statement shows that they believe that a woman is not dependable or able to be faithful, so therefore a woman is more likely to turn to witchcraft.

Kramer and Sprenger use a lot of historical “facts” and Biblical sources to back their claims up. At one point, they bring up ancient history with their claims that “The kingdom of the Jews suffered much misfortune and destruction through the accursed Jezebel, and her daughter Athalia…who caused her son’s sons to be killed, that on their death she might reign herself…Therefore it is no wonder if the world now suffers through the malice of women.” (187) It’s really easy to take historical events out of context, as these two so obviously did just so they could point the finger at women in general.

And, of course, Heinrich and Sprenger have to bring up the sexuality of women. They say that “All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable.” (188) And then they whip out a Biblical quote from Proverbs and conclude: “Wherefore for the sake of fulfilling their lusts they consort even with devils. More such reasons could be brought forward, but to the understanding it is sufficiently clear that it is no matter for wonder that there are more women than men found infected with the heresy of witchcraft.” (188) Oh, well, doesn’t that just make absolute, complete sense! When I was reading this, all I could think was: “Wow, they clearly put a lot of thought and effort to this! And this makes perfect sense to them!”

Anyway, the reason I bring up this sexuality of women is that the authors went into is so extensively that I was just kind of surprised, and I felt like it definitely needed a mention.

 

Kors, Alan Charles and Edward Peters. Witchcraft in Europe: 400-1700. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2001. Print.

5 comments:

  1. On the note of misogyny in the text, I defiantly agree. I would not say I have read a lot of medieval texts, but I have read several from different time periods and perspectives. However, even so, Malleus Maleficarum still stands out for how fervently they target, criticize, and belittle women. This is not your ordinary medieval misogyny, to me this seems like it would have been misogynist even for its time.

    On the note of historical examples, as you have mentioned, many are completely out of context and, when you think about them for more than a moment, some don't make any since at all. As Professor Mitchell-Buck pointed out, "Troy, which was a prosperous kingdom, was, for the rape of one woman, Helen, destroyed, and many thousands of Greeks slain" (page 187). Yes, because it is so obviously Helen's fault that she was raped!

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  2. I feel that this whole chapter was really sexist against women. It just seems like they really really hated women because the authors say women are physically, intellectually, and spiritually weaker than men all throughout the chapter. That just doesn't make any sense. Basically everything that they said about women could also be said about men. Men also lie, men think evil, men can't keep secrets, and the list goes on and on. They overgeneralize women into this one group when really one person varies from the next. This chapter was just insane (like in a bad way)!

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  3. I hated that they attacked women so much on their work -- mostly because I am one, but also because it is unfounded. To me, the whole of their text described how women are the exact opposite of men, therefore they practice magic and men do important things (like kill the women who practice magic). But that's not the case. Being different does not mean someone is inherently good or inherently bad. Furthermore, men and women have a lot in common. I think Kramer and Sprenger just really hate women and want to blame them for everything bad that has ever happened.

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  4. I also find it contradictory how they focus so much on how corrupted and untrustworthy women are, citing their nature and creation, yet then cover their backs with "Oh except for Mary. She was virtuous and so were other holy women." And yet no other woman can be virtuous simply because they weren't made that way.

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  5. Women are so often viewed as the weaker sex, especially in older times. I still cannot fathom how that came to be considering birthing pains and the like, but I suppose since we didn't do the hunting it should be expected.
    Still, you have to wonder what beautiful women scorned Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger. Could this entire thing have come from a belief that women truly were more susceptible or did they just get rejected once too many times?

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