WITCHCRAFT AND GENDER IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE
Introduction
The historical statistics during the Early Modern Europe have proven the existence of gender marginality that occurred during the persecution of witchcraft trials. Between the fifteenth and eighteenth century, eighty to ninety percent of the individuals convicted of witchcraft were female. Historians have presented theories to unfold the phenomena of the gender marginality across different parts of Europe by examining the trials records of those convicted and by referring to the old settlements of Witchcraft: the Malleus Maleficarum (1486) made by Heinrich Kramer, and Jacob Sprenger, and the Formicarius (1437) made by Johannes Nider. The writings of my essay will be written in the …show more content…
From this, the gender marginality then lies in the system of power in communities and courts and how they percept the characteristics of a witch. This argument refers to the second point that Alison Rowlands mentioned in her statement. Firstly, I will introduce the upbringing of belief in witchcraft by assessing the primary sources: Malleus Maleficarum, the judicial book of trial, and the Formicarius, the influence of Malleus Malericarum. With these primary sources, I will show how the writings have constructed a society in which witchcraft became a gender related, although not gender specific because not everything were directly taken from the Malleus Maleficarum. Secondly, I will contradict that the witch-craze was merely due to the negative belief on women. Going through the conviction of witch trials from the secondary sources (which attains the information from primary sources), I will identify the list of all possibilities of how and why the individuals of both genders in different parts of Europe have been persecuted of witchcraft. Lastly, I will be able to come up with reasoning by observing the correlation of the ratio …show more content…
The book is divided into three sections, where each section explains the: examination of belief that witchcraft exists, actions and rituals performed, process of how the accused of witchcraft should be with dealt in the judicial prosecution. The Malleus Maleficarum shares a misogynistic view of treatise, taking sources from classical philosophers and Canon Episcopi. Being used as a judicial book of trial, it may have given ideas to the people around Europe that the perception of women should be as how they are described in the Malleus Maleficarum. Citing the Gospel of Matthew, he uses it to describe women: “What else is a woman but the enemy of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable disaster, a danger in the home, a delightful detriment, an evil of nature, painted with nice
Introduction
The historical statistics during the Early Modern Europe have proven the existence of gender marginality that occurred during the persecution of witchcraft trials. Between the fifteenth and eighteenth century, eighty to ninety percent of the individuals convicted of witchcraft were female. Historians have presented theories to unfold the phenomena of the gender marginality across different parts of Europe by examining the trials records of those convicted and by referring to the old settlements of Witchcraft: the Malleus Maleficarum (1486) made by Heinrich Kramer, and Jacob Sprenger, and the Formicarius (1437) made by Johannes Nider. The writings of my essay will be written in the …show more content…
From this, the gender marginality then lies in the system of power in communities and courts and how they percept the characteristics of a witch. This argument refers to the second point that Alison Rowlands mentioned in her statement. Firstly, I will introduce the upbringing of belief in witchcraft by assessing the primary sources: Malleus Maleficarum, the judicial book of trial, and the Formicarius, the influence of Malleus Malericarum. With these primary sources, I will show how the writings have constructed a society in which witchcraft became a gender related, although not gender specific because not everything were directly taken from the Malleus Maleficarum. Secondly, I will contradict that the witch-craze was merely due to the negative belief on women. Going through the conviction of witch trials from the secondary sources (which attains the information from primary sources), I will identify the list of all possibilities of how and why the individuals of both genders in different parts of Europe have been persecuted of witchcraft. Lastly, I will be able to come up with reasoning by observing the correlation of the ratio …show more content…
The book is divided into three sections, where each section explains the: examination of belief that witchcraft exists, actions and rituals performed, process of how the accused of witchcraft should be with dealt in the judicial prosecution. The Malleus Maleficarum shares a misogynistic view of treatise, taking sources from classical philosophers and Canon Episcopi. Being used as a judicial book of trial, it may have given ideas to the people around Europe that the perception of women should be as how they are described in the Malleus Maleficarum. Citing the Gospel of Matthew, he uses it to describe women: “What else is a woman but the enemy of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable disaster, a danger in the home, a delightful detriment, an evil of nature, painted with nice