Sacred Circles' Coven

Women and Witch Trials in the Later Middle Ages and Early Modern Europe

For centuries the Catholic clerical community viewed women as the 'secret enemy.' While early Protestants avoided extreme misogynous statements, they likewise deemed women spiritually suspect. As the 16th century drew to a close, confessional battle-lines bristled with dogmatic fortifications. Mounting social and economic pressures baffled the experts. Secular rulers strengthened their command over subjects' bodies and consciences with larger armies and the recruitment of ministers and priests that would teach subservience and the divine right of kings and princes. These pressures - religious, economic, social, and political - induced villagers, townspeople, neighbors and civic authorities, to search for and eradicate the causes of their misfortunes. Religious authorities, Protestant and Catholic, had convinced the elites of society as well as the 'common people' of a dualistic supernatural universe. The forces of God were locked in battle with the forces of evil. At a critical point in the late 16th century, the Devil was believed to be assaulting Christian men in their bedrooms by means of witches. For generations women had been viewed as the 'secret enemy'; as witches they were perceived as a public menace. City magistrates indicted them on charges of worshiping the Devil, while villagers turned on widows and older women as harmful manipulators of special powers, bent on ruining their neighbors. Admittedly, not all the victims were women, but a European woman was four times more likely to be accused of and executed for witchcraft than a man. The early modern era stands as one of the most oppressive for women.

Why the upsurge in witchcraft trials in the early modern period? Belief in witches had been maintained through the Middle Ages. The idea then was that a witch was someone who used magic to do evil deeds (maleficia). A women or man was branded a witch on the basis of an act; one's basic nature was not indicted. This idea of witches continued through the early modern period in popular culture. But in the later middle ages, a new idea about witches was being developed in learned culture, specifically clerical culture. One can see this new view of witches in The Hammer of Witches (1486). In this work, statements taken from classical and scriptural sources were adduced to prove that women were most susceptible to Satan's temptations and schemes. Especially owing to "carnal lust," women were most likely candidates for Satan's deceptions. They were insatiable, and because they are spiritually suspect they could not distinguish between real bodies and demonic apparitions. In learned society, witches were defined as those individuals who had made a covenant with the Devil or with his demons, the sin of diabolism. They no longer simply did evil deeds; they became tools of Satan, ready to do his bidding. Witches were what they did; they themselves were inherently evil.

How did this demonological view of witchcraft become pervasive and persuasive?

Many people believed the world was in disarray because of the heightened religious tension and conflict of the 16th and 17th centuries. A popular expression of the time was "the world turned upside down." Order was supplanted by chaos. The forces of evil were believed to be on the rise, and witches serving in the hordes of the devil, had formed an unholy conspiracy to overthrow Christendom.
State-building and Christianity were conflated, part of the process termed confessionalization. In the 16th century rulers and princes sought validation and justification for policies which gave central governments more power, that is, influence or control over their subjects. Protestant rulers had to justify their decisions to break away from the Catholic fold and switch to Protestantism. They had to ensure that the people continued to revere, or at least, fear rulers. In this new world where drastic changes were occurring in so many areas, rulers and their bureaucrats used religion to project and enforce a model of proper behavior. These rulers felt compelled to prove their piety and religious commitment by suppressing heresy, and sniffing out then stamping out witches.

Changes in prosecution made witch hunting easier. Increasingly, the inquisitorial procedure was adopted. Charges were brought up by state officials more often than by church officials. The former had more resources at their disposal. Torture was allowed, even encouraged, in order to draw out confessions and the names of co-conspirators.

Economic and demographic factors were important as well. There was much population displacement. More vagrants and transients passed through towns and villages. It has been estimated that 10-15% of the population never married. It appears that female life-spans increased. Therefore, in Western Europe there seemed to have been an unusually large number of older widows, unattached to male figures and dependent on neighbors' aid. These were the people most likely charged with witchcraft, about 80% of those charged were women, in England, France, Germany and Switzerland. In the last three named areas one finds more large-scale with hunts and executions. In the Scandinavian countries and Russia less women than men were charged, and there were no mass panics.

Why were women singled out as the most likely abettors of demons? Women often had connections to areas of life that seemed mysterious, beyond rational explanation, such as the births of babies. The Hammer of Witches singled out mid-wives as particularly suspicious. Note, however, that this was an idea springing from learned culture. In popular culture this strong animus toward mid-wives was not present.

Women took care of sick humans and animals who might suddenly die. Older, widowed women had reputations as scolds, busybodies, and healers. Their reputations may have protected them in past generations, but as pressures built up, villagers and townspeople lashed out at these women.

In some parts of Europe these older women, whose sex drives were said to be stronger than ever, were believed to have sex with demons. This belief was not assumed in popular culture. A woman would be handed over to authorities who interrogated and tortured the suspect, intent on determining whether or not the suspect had made a pact with the Devil. Suspects were stripped and shaved in order to find 'witches' marks' on their bodies. If no mark was found, the defendant might be pricked with a needle in order to discover a spot on the body insensitive to pain, a sure sign of demonic contact.

In Spain and Italy, less effort was made to discover connections between maleficia and demonic witchcraft. Cases in which the defendants were guilty only of the former were often simply dismissed. Even if demonic cooperation was 'proven' the criminals were whipped or faced some similar form of punishment; they were rarely executed. In the northern Italy town of Friuli, 131 persons (85% of which were women), were charged with witchcraft between 1596 to 1670. None of these individuals were executed.

One of the main questions that has not been adequately answered by historians is what effect did the witch hunts have on women in general. Some historians argue that women learned to avoid behavior that led to charges of witchcraft. In other words, older women in particular stopped being scolds and gossips. One can see changes in the stereotypes of older women, portrayed in the Middle Ages as aggressive, bawdy, and on the prowl for sex, while in the 19th century they have become sweet grandmothers, passive, quiet, asexual. There does seem to be a parallel rise between witchcraft and an increase in other types of crimes which women were accused of committing, a trend to criminalize more female behavior.

A development has been highlighted which originating in the Later Middle Ages and culminating in the early modern period in which women were increasingly viewed with suspicion. Views of their bodies, taken from ancient authors, portrayed them as inferior creatures. Although women's contributions to the overall increase in economic production was considerable, they were paid half as much as men, their work was increasing demoted, and restrictions were placed on occupations previously available to them. Many more boys and than girls received elementary education but higher levels of education were denied to women, with a few exceptions. Worst of all, beginning in learned religious circles but eventually extending into city halls and village communes, a new, sinister attitude towards women took hold. Women were seen as not only inferior but also as demonic conspirators in league with Satan, bent on toppling Christian Europe.

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