A Brief History of Christianity

• Tradition holds that the religion was founded by Jesus Christ, a young rebellious rabbi from Nazareth

• The three main groups that became followers of Christ and establish the Christian faith are the Israelis, the Greeks, and the Romans

Christ's Teachings

• Christ advances the status of women is several significant ways as he travels and preaches– Does not them as sex objects– Rejects the blood taboo – Teaches them scripture

• Allows them to be disciples

• Trusts them as witnesses

The New Testament is structured in two parts: The Gospels and the Epistles

There are no negative statements about women in the Gospels

Historical Context• As Christ begins attracting followers, each of the

cultures near him are experiencing great social change, as a result of the wars– Hebrews have been conquered by the Romans and must

follow the Roman laws; women are becoming priestesses

– Romans have lost many men, and so women are educated and become leaders with economic and social authority

– Greeks have been conquered by the Romans and have a shortage of women; women begin to have doubly-expanded roles

Christians Want to Differentiate Themselves From Other Religions

• Epistles will dictate– No adornment– Believers will be associated with home and

family, peaceful lifestyles– Restricted in sexual behavior, for both sexes– Return to traditional gender roles

Gradual Lessening of Women’s Power in the Church

• Women, initially, are missionaries and disciples, and as such preach and celebrate mass

• Women can be abbesses and manage abbeys and villages, educate the people, hold surplus food stores, and make a profit,etc.

• Women can be wives of priests, as well

The Age of Reformation

• Women can be nuns in seclusion, but almost all other ‘public’ participation in the church has been rescinded other than going to church

Witches: The European Invasion

• In the sixteenth century Europe experienced two reformations, not one, and both Protestants and Catholics persecuted witches.

• New ideas alone cannot explain why such a misogynistic mood pervaded Europe. – Neither the Protestant Reformation or the Catholic

Counter-Reformation introduced any significant new theories about the nature or role of women.

– During this period, however, the states of early modern Europe increased patriarchal authority in both religious and secular life.

• Gender definitions, solidified by centuries of custom and now reinforced by the Renaissance revival of classical values, strengthened the grip of patriarchal ideology after 1500. – Renaissance education, neoclassical in orientation and

normally confined to boys, persisted until the nineteenth century and probably did more to influence official male opinion about women than did religious instruction.

– Given those conditions, “reforms” often took a patriarchal and, for women, disadvantageous direction. Tragic consequences result when these “reform” laws against witchcraft and infanticide are zealously enforced.

Women and Protestantism

• Martin Luther successfully defied the Pope, creating Protestantism, and making at least one change in women’s roles.

• He challenged the papal insistence on clerical celibacy, contradicting the traditional Christian assumption that virginity (of both sexes) was the ideal condition.

• There was still, however, an assumption on Luther’s part that sex was somehow sinful.

• Protestants saw marriage as a responsibility for both men and women, following the biblical tale of Adam and Eve.– Leaders wanted to promote the dignity and importance of

marriage but leave male supremacy untouched. At best Protestantism offered a differentiated “equality,” in which spouses were expected to work together under the male’s leadership.

• Other Protestant reforms attempted to treat men and women symmetrically, although with less success.– Protestants accepted the possibility of complete divorce

(while Catholicism allowed only separation). – Protestants, however, actually granted few divorces.

Calvinist Geneva averaged fewer than one a year from 1600 until after 1750. There still existed a double standard in this too, as husbands obtained the divorces.

• In 1566 Geneva had passed edicts requesting equal punishment for men and women found guilty of sexual misconduct: – Prison terms with only bread and water for

fornication– Banishment for adultery with an unmarried person– Death for adultery between two married people

• Only women were ever executed for adultery; males managed to avoid banishment if the adultery was committed with their servants.

• These edicts were finally repealed in 1610.

• Protestants abolished convents wherever they could, often against the wishes of the women and nuns there. – Few nuns left convents to convert to Protestantism, and

more men than women left cloistered Catholic life for the new Christian religion.

– Protestantism had no special place for an ex-nun and offered no all-female community for unmarried women.

• Likewise, Protestantism abolished traditional festivities where women played key roles.– It destroyed the worship of male and female saints– It removed the Virgin Mary from her position as

mother of God, depriving her of her nearly equal rank with the Trinity.

• Because of these factor, perhaps, individual women rarely converted to Protestantism. – Only about 4 percent of the converts to Protestantism

are women, given prosecution records, whereas about half of the Jewish followers prosecuted were women.

– Most women’s levels of commitment to the new religion corresponded to the commitment of their husbands or sons.

– This increased patriarchal control applies to children, too. Fathers could contest or invalidate their children’s marriages if they did not approve.

• Catholics use this to reform their laws, changing the age of consent to 30 for men and 25 for women.

• An innovation in women’s roles occurs through Protestantism, perhaps because of the idea of complementary roles and its theology which believes that all people have equal access to God through the Bible (although many more men are literate than women at this time).

• Women are allowed or tolerated as speakers or lay preachers, and many begin to speak out on social injustice and well as religious issues.

Advances for Women in Protestantism

Women and the Catholic Reformation

• By thirteenth century male monasticism had successfully combined communal life with public service

• Female monasticism, however, which had enjoyed similar success in earlier centuries, was hampered by strict enclosure demands and was only partially successful by 1700.

• A genuine reformation in female religious life occurs in 1535 with the founding of the Ursulines by Angela Merici. – Her Institute marked the first time

in European history where women gathered formally to teach girls, and eventually these orders were made to obey the enclosure laws, which weakened their reach considerably

The Ursuline Sisters’ Coat of Arms

• Vincent de Paul, a humble French priest and Louise de Marillac, a widow, established the Daughters of Charity in 1633.– They provided women with

education and nursing skills. Paul practiced “holy cunning” in his mission, calling the women daughters rather than sisters, he avoided any suggestion of religious motivations and so did not go against canonical law.

Other Experiences of Women in Europe

• The Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation bring an end to public brothels. – Like with the nuns and their monasteries, the

Protestants close brothels and provide no place in society for the former prostitutes.

– Catholics are slower to close brothels, but they set up homes for “reformed” prostitutes.  

• Many Protestants also did not hold with Women rulers, and so they denied the Divine Right of Kings (and Queens) and saw that as another proof against the corruption of Catholic Christianity.

One of History’s Ironies• Protestants and then Catholics begin teaching their

children catechisms.• The first generations of children subjected to

religious education belong to the generations that conduct the massive witch-hunts.

Frans Francken’s An Assembly of Witches, ca 1600

Witch-Hunts

• Fear permeated the sixteenth-century society and helped turn the attacks on “superstition” into an assault on witches.– Most reformers saw the remnants of paganism as diabolical

and evil, and many texts discussing the nature of the devil were published.

– In the widely used catechisms of Martin Luther and the Jesuit St. Peter Canisius, the Devil was mentioned more often that Jesus Christ.

– Protestants and Catholics provided theological justifications for two of the largest tragedies of the early modern Europe:

• the witch-hunts • the infanticide trials

Characteristics of Defendants

Witches

• Old, past child-bearing

• Rural

• Quarrelsome personality, Smeddum (Scottish for Feistiness)

• Lower-class

Infanticide Defendants

• Young

• Towns and cities

• Unmarried

• Lower-class

• Between the two crimes, this age gets the distinction of being an era where people execute a remarkably large number of women.

• These “misogynistic campaigns of unique savagery,” according to historian William Monter, were “justified not only by Christian beliefs about the powers of the Devil, but also by Renaissance attitudes about gender roles and very ancient assumptions about women’s nature.”

The Idea of Maleficia• The idea that maleficia, evil spells, could be

carried out when one entered a pact with the devil preceded the Reformation, but some of the crucial developments linking witchcraft to women occurred only during the fifteenth-century.

• The Malleus Maleficarum, a handbook published in 1486 by two German Dominicans proved to be very influential.– Unlike most other writers on the subject at the time,

these two had actually tried 50 people for witchcraft, 48 of them women.

– In their writings, they used a feminine noun in the title to describe witches.

The Malleus Maleficarum• The Malleus contained a

lengthy discussion on why women were especially prone to witchcraft– Women are more credulous

and more impressionable than men

– Women have “slippery tongues and cannot conceal from other women anything they have learned by the evil arts.”

The Malleus Maleficarum– Women had greater

sexual appetites, so their lust leads them to accept even the Devil as a lover

– Women are defective and cannot control their affections or passions and so they “search for, brood over, and inflict various vengeances, either by witchcraft or by some other means.”

These images could be very sexual, as

these works by Hans Baldung Grien show

Evidence that a Witch is a Witch– The water-test– The pricking-test, or evidence of a devil’s teat– The tear-test– The fire-test– The bier-test– The weight-test

T. H. Matteson’s The Examination of a Witch, 1853

The water-test: the most know and most commonly used method– It was practiced by having the accused witch tossed into a

lake to see if she would float or not. It was said that the water would refuse to accept the witches. This meant that if one were to drown, one was not guilty; if one floated, on the other hand, one was a witch and would therefore be burned at the stake.

– There existed methods to keep the "witches" floating– If people were so unfortunate that they held their breath the

moment they were thrown in, they might stay afloat for a second, and that was enough to be mistaken for a witch. Those who sank were supposed to be pulled out of the water, but usually they were not.

A lot of people believed in the water-tests, and a great number of those who had been victims of gossip insisted that they should go through the water-test, strong in their belief that God (and the water) would accept them, thus proving their innocence.

The pricking-test: widely used– A known fact was that witches had an mark on their body

that did not feel anything. To find this mark, they would prick them with long needles. After a while, the "witches," nearly stung to death, would be so numb that they could not tell one sting from another. Since they would not cry in pain during this particular prick, the accusers had found the mark, and the accused were, therefore, witches.

– The marks they found might have been mole or any kinds of small wounds.

– One would not want to have a third nipple when the hangman did his work (someone had to do the inquisitor's dirty work ).

The Devil's mark was said to be the mark from theDevil's hoof.

The tear-test: simple but not as commonly used as a decisive test– It was a known fact that Witches cannot cry. – If a "witch" stops to cry after a few hours of torture, it was

a solid proof saying she was a witch. – If she did cry, it was perhaps because the Devil had helped

her, and thus she was a witch.

The fire-test: not very common– The accused had to carry red-hot coal in their hands. Their

hands would later be bandaged, and after a few days the bandaging would be removed.

– If there were no wounds or the skin was clean, she was not a witch.

The bier-test: macabre and not widely used– The accused was supposed to touch the body of a newly

deceased, and if blood came out of the person's nose, she was a witch because blood does not float in dead bodies.

This test was not widely used, probably because the resultswere not what they had hoped for.

The weight-test: another very common one– Witches were considered to have a low body-weight, thus

having the ability to fly. One judge would guess the weight of an accused person, and that person would then be weighed. If he/she weighed less than the guess, he/she was a witch.

In the Netherlands you could get a certificate that showedthat you had enough body-weight, and you could thereforenot be in the service of the Devil.

Characteristics of a Witch-Trial• The trials were rapid, often

lasting two weeks or less, • They were usually

conducted by a group of male judges, sometimes experts who toured the countryside to “help” communities eradicate evil

• Evidence was circumstantial and not scientific

The Peak of the Witch-Hunts• It was only in the sixteenth century that large

amounts of women were put to death as witches; however, this occurred in virtually every corner of Europe.

• The peak lasted from 1560-1670, and we will never know the exact number of executions. – Germany was clearly the center

– Nazi records indicate almost 30,000 in the Holy Roman Empire during this period

– Surviving evidence lists about 3,500 deaths for witchcraft in the southwestern corner of Germany

• Allowing for inaccuracies in record-keeping most historians estimate that 100,000 people probably went on trial for witchcraft, about a third of them being convicted and executed.

• Although the rates of trials and executions vary across Europe, everywhere women were the majority of the victims.

• The Dutch Republic and Spain were the first countries to stop the witch trials.

Another by Hans Baldung Grien, circa 1492

Infanticide Trials• Very few women were prosecuted for this before

the sixteenth century– It was very difficult, especially given a relatively low

degree of scientific knowledge, to prove whether a child was murdered or stillborn.

• France decreed new laws in 1556, and England followed in 1624.– These laws placed the burden of proof on the mothers,

many of whom were often unwed.– Because stillbirths among married women were not

recorded, no control group exists to show how many of these accused might have been guilty.

– Conviction rates were extremely high.

• Fewer women were tried for infanticide than for witchcraft, possibly because there still were not as many developed towns, but the accused were almost always women. The English county of Essex executed two-thirds of the 51 women accused of bastard infanticide between 1575 and 1650, but hanged only one-fourth of the 267 women accused of witchcraft from 1560-1670.

Antoine Wiertz’s Hunger, Madness, Crime, 1864

ConclusionsHistorians cite three causes for the large number of women executed for the “un-provable” crimes of witchcraft and infanticide– Public institutions were increasingly interfering in people’s

everyday lives. Behavior was increasingly regulated.– These increasingly active public authorities inhabited a fear-

ridden world. Strangers were suspect to villager who’d lived in the same places their ancestors lived. Also the reformations did away with the influence of benevolent superstition but did not replace them with anything.

– The patriarchal theories of late-Renaissance Europe determined which groups of women would be victims. Both groups lived outside direct male supervision in an age which reinforced patriarchal nuclear families. Their “unnatural” position aroused suspicion and fear; neighborhood rivalry did the rest.

WitchesNow a secularized image, a joke, or a fun “tradition”

From a 1914 Greeting Card From a modern photo

Wicca• Wicca is a modern recently created, Neopagan

religion. It is based largely on symbols, seasonal days of celebration and deities from ancient Celtic society, fleshed out with Masonic and ceremonial magickal components.

• A follower of Wicca is called a Wiccan. – Wiccans generally consider themselves to be Witches,

Neopagans, and Pagans. – However, not all Witches, Neopagans and Pagans are

Wiccans. – The terms Witch, Neopagan and Pagan can also refer to

followers of many other faith traditions.

• Wicca and other Neopagan religions are currently experiencing a rapid growth in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Many North Americans of European descent, who are keen to discover their ancestral heritage, are being attracted to this religion.

• Because of religious propaganda dating from the late Middle Ages, Wicca has often been incorrectly associated with Satanism. Wiccan beliefs and practices are no closer to Satanism than they are like Buddhism, Hinduism, or Islam.

Wiccan sources from http://www.religioustolerance.org/witchcra.htm

Wiccan SymbologyThe Celts believed that the pentacle was the sign of the Goddess of the Underground, who they called Morgan (a.k.a. Morrigan). The concept of five points seems to have permeated at least one of the Celtic lands. "Ireland had five great roads, five provinces and five paths of the law. The fairy folk counted by fives, and the mythological figures wore five fold cloaks."

A Pentacle

•Source: http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_pent.htm