WITCH HUNTS
DURING THE
MIDDLE AGES
https://endofcapitalism.com/2009/11/05/who-were-the-witches-patriarchal-terror-and-the-creation-of-capitalism/
THE MALLEUS MALEFICARUM
The Malleus Maleficarum, is a handbook published
in 1486 by two German Dominicans. It discusses
why women were more prone to witchcraft.
• At that time, these two people put to trial 50
people for witchcraft, 48 of them women.
• In their writings, they always used a feminine noun
in the title to describe witches, because it was
thought that 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.”
They wrote, ”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.”
German artist Hans Baldung Grien:
Witches' Sabbath, Wood block print
showing three naked women in the
foreground with an inscribed urn;
several staffs, bones and other objects
on the ground, a cat on the left
above a witch riding backwards on a
goat and holding a fork. Dated on the
trunk of the tree. 1516.
HTTPS://WWW.BRITISHMUSEUM.ORG/RESEARCH/COLLECTION_ONLINE/COLLECTION_OBJECT_DETAILS.ASPX?OBJECTID=1333755&PARTID=1
HOW DID THEY PROVE A PERSON WAS A
WITCH?
• The water-test
• The pricking-test
• 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 known and most
commonly used method.
The accused was tossed into a lake to see if she
would float or sink to the bottom. It was said that
the water would refuse to accept witches. This
meant that if the person drowned, then she was
not guilty; if she floated then it proved she was a
witch and she would therefore be burned at the
stake.
If people 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.
https://famous-trials.com/medievaltrials/2325-images
A known fact was that witches had a mark on
their body and that they didn’t feel anything.
To find this mark, they would prick them with
long needles.
After a while, the "witches," 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 would declare
that they had found the mark, and the
accused was therefore a witch.
Other marks they found might have been mole
or any kinds of small wounds.
Witch prickers were always males and were paid
well to find the devil’s mark on witches in the
17th century.
The Devil's mark was said to be the mark from the
Devil's hoof.
https://www.historicmysteries.com/witch-prickers-inquisition/
The Pricking Test
The Tear Test:
It was a known fact that Witches cannot cry.
• If a "witch" stopped crying after a few hours of torture, it was thought
to be solid proof that she was a witch.
• If she did cry, it was perhaps because the Devil had helped her, and
also accused a witch.
The Fire Test:
• The accused had to carry red-hot coals 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 Weight Test:
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.
The Bier Test: 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.
HTTPS://I.PINIMG.COM/ORIGINALS/4B/DA/3F/4BDA3F25006E20B79440379F8AA1A6CB.
JPG
WITCH TRIALS
Witch trials were rapid, often lasting
two weeks or less.
Usually conducted by a group of
male judges. Sometimes by witch
experts who toured the countryside
to “help” communities eradicate evil.
Evidence was circumstantial and not
scientific.
THE PEAK OF 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.
• 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 varied across Europe,
women were the majority of the victims.
•
https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/common-misconceptions/whoburned-the-witches.html