In his immortal “Witches Hammer” Sprenger stopped short of the question as to why there were relatively more women practitioners of witchcraft than men so that of 10,000 witches hardly a single man was condemned.
There were a number of reasons for this. It was well known that there were three things that nothing could stop, either for good or evil: the tongue, especially that of a priest— (in his nature something between a man and a woman)—and that of a woman . Furthermore women were gullible, and because the Devil principally worked against faith he most especially liked to attack them. They were also susceptible to suggestion due to the fallibility of their constitutions. Above all, however, they had indecent tongues and needed to share with other women what they knew of the mala arte (dark arts). Most deeply of all, however, the reason lie in the limited faith of women, which, according to Sprenger, was proven by the etymology of the word: “dicitur enim foemina a fe et minus,quia semper minorem habet et servat fidem fe” (“because it is said by the woman and less, because she always has a smaller faith to keep”) .[1] Sprenger widely expressed himself on the topic of the depravity and sin of women, of their jealousy and impatience, their ambition, lust and lack of faith, their inconsistency and their vengefulness. Historically all kingdoms have fallen because of women, and with melancholy resignation the sad diabolist dreamed that a world without women would be a realm of the gods.
To bolster his view of women he told the story of a man whose wife had been drowned; he looked for her upstream, for in life she always talked back and acted so much against reason in every way that naturally she would have gone upstream even in death.
Additionally he cites Sirach and St. Chrysostomos, who called marriage a constant torture, and Seneca, who said in one of his tragedies: “Woman loves or hates, for her there is no third. The weeping of a woman is a lie. She has two kinds of tears: either true pain, or deception and artifice. If a women thinks at all, she thinks badly.”
In conclusion the learned lnquisitor says:
“Out of all this it can be concluded that women are most especially susceptible to the vice of magical heresy, and that one must give thanks to the Highest Who has protected men from such vice.”
Sprenger made things easy on himself, but the issue is not so simple, despite the fact that his views on women demonstrate great knowledge.
More to the point we should seek the reason for all this in the physical conditions women found themselves in at that time. Immediately one’s attention is drawn to the strange disease in those days called “possession”, the seed of which almost everyone in the Middle Ages had within themselves.
Possession, or demonomania, appears to have been a variation of a mental illness of an especially epileptic nature which occurred frequently in the Middle Ages. It was accompanied by clairvoyance and somnambulism. The subject was led by visions and fell into terrible paroxysms the description of which might appear to be monstrous exaggerations to modem people, if they weren’t so well documented.
At the lowest level, where there is only a disposition toward all of this the symptoms appear to be produced voluntarily and artificially by the use of narcotics and ointments. This level probably forms the basis for all demonic phenomena associated with witches.
The witch was born as such. From the beginning everything was inverted to her. The highest was the lowest, right was left, the front was behind. The complete inversion of basic values placed the afflicted individual entirely at odds with the nature of things. These were the first symptoms of possession. The witch was not outside of herself and not tormented by this, while a man would not succumb to the Devil of his own free will. In the paroxysm of possession this reversal of all directions could be seen perfectly as day. The body of one possessed became shaped like a sphere or wrapped up like a “ball of twine,” first he would stand up on his toes and then throw himself backwards onto his head and face in such a way that his back formed the shape of a bow. In a flash the situation would change and the one possessed would lie on his back so that his arms and legs were held up in the air “like interwoven reeds.” Their hair stood on end like it wanted to fly out in all directions. The person would always walk backwards or would continuously go around in a circle from right to left—with his face turned outward.
An unheard of flexibility and ability to bend was a characteristic of the witch in her ecstatic state. Her limbs could intertwine like pliable rods, her whole shape could be stretched in a superhuman fashion only to shrink back again. Her specific gravity was altered while she was in the ecstatic state. Her body would not sink in water, often she became lighter than air, rose up and hovered in the air for several minutes. Often those possessed could be seen quickly scampering over the roofs of cloisters. They climbed up the walls and playfully rocked back and forth on the thinnest tree branches that even a bird would cause to break.
The bodily surface of those persons possessed by Satan was outwardly signified by a mark or sign. These were small places on the skin, never larger than a pea; which were insensitive and without blood or life. Sometimes, but only rarely, they were red or black spots. It was also rarely seen that they were accompanied by an indentation in the skin. In general they went unseen, and were usually found on the genitals. If one stuck a needle into one of them no blood would come out, no pain would be felt, which was the case whenever any other part of the body was pricked. De Lancre, one of the most brilliant diabolists, to whom the task fell in 1609 to cleanse an entire province of witches—the Basque-country—found that around 3,000 persons were marked in this way.
Very often several such marks were found on the eyelids, back, breasts, and sometimes, but rarely, the mark actually changed places on the body.
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[1] Sprenger is chiefly a fabulous etymologist; “Diabolus kommt von dia,quod est duo et bolus,quod est morsellus: quia duo occidit, scilicet corpus et animam.” (“The devil comes from diameter, which is the devil, and from two, which is the morsellus, because he slays the two, namely, the body and the lives of the faithful.”)
Reblogged this on hocuspocus13.
The Christian religion has always been hateful to women, but took its lead from older traditions from ancient Greek and Roman culture that was also hostile towards the female in their societies.