OCC CIV NOTES 10/13

1500s through middle 17th century
-thousands (low hundreds of thousands) of people executed as witches
-'many witches' were found guilty and executed
-hard to know, really, because of the inaccurateness of records kept

night battles (which we're reading) are about the people trying to assimilate the 'benandanti' into witchcraft
-benandanti are different, they basically dont get assimilated until it's too late

in many locations, up to 50% of those tried were executed (in france, it went up to 90%)
-children as young as 12 were executed
1620s-30s
-peak of witch hunting craze
people were getting killed left and right, all over the place
-more people in the heartlands (france, germany) than in the other regions of europe (spain, italy execute much less than those in the heartland of europe)

more than 75% of those executed were women (as high as 90%)
-sometimes, literally all women in a village were rounded up and executed
-most of the men executed were either brothers or husbands of witches, OR they were 'cunning men' (healers?) OR they were accused of 'serious crimes' (basically gay)

WHY?
-women were 'healers'
-they knew about herbs and stuff
-dangerous role to have (healer) because so many people are getting sick and dying
-people believed that the power to heal was the power to harm, they were scared of the witches

-power to do evil is not sex specific
-women with power were feared
-women were said to be 'cold + moist,' cowardly + deceitful

-physiological differences between men and women
-fear of menstruation
-harming crops, objects, animals
-lots of misogyny
-women were evil in the bible (eve is a bitch!)

3 vices of women
-ambition
-lust
-infidelity

'the hammer of evildoers' was the central text of witch hunting (goes through over 30 editions)
-woman is evil in mind and body, quicker to waver in the faith and be tempted by the devil
-woman is a necessary evil

witches were cause of all sorts of evils in women
backed by the inquisition (punishment)
-spread fear
-confirmed own questioning- spread texts, tortured confessions out of people, suggestive questioning, etc
-encouraged torture and self-incrimination

as literature increased (due to movable printing press), people spread religious texts, sense of sin went up, sin caused illness and disease

Church criticized fortune tellers and healers, etc
-said that the only high powers were god and the devli

there was a huge fear of political and social turmoil
-witchcraft was subversive, so bad
-during period of war, frequent famine, disease--> yields witchcraft
-witches are used as scapegoats for everything that goes wrong
-knights were good and valiant (men!)
-jews were also criticized
-communities were united during witch hunts, good thing for the community (except that the women all died)

why does it end? (around end of 17th century)
-some magistrates refused to prosecute
-science makes a resurgence
-less warfare, less social tensions, more urbanization, means better life for everybody
-less civil war as religion (catholic or protestant) solidifies
-misogynistic forms change
-scientific revolution!