> CB: How about the subbelief that women are
> especially vulnerable and weak to
> being tempted by the Devil ?
>
Chris D: It's from the Bible and Aristotle, right? Eve was made from Adam's rib and is therefore a derivative being, plus being the one seduced by the snake (Satan) in the Garden (i.e. close to Satan).
^^^^ CB; Well, I sort of got it from your earlier post. Here is what you posted:
Well, women were believed to be weak-willed and inherently prone to licentiousness, therefore more prone to demonic temptation.
Damn, it is amazing what is online. The Witch-Hammer is online in English translation. It says:
PART I. QUESTION VI.
Concerning Witches who copulate with Devils. Why is it that Women are chiefly addicted to Evil superstitions? Why it is that Women are chiefly addicted to Evil Superstitions. Why Superstition is chiefly found in Women.
^^^^^^
Chris D.: Aristotle, the Philosopher at the time, believed that women were malformed men (sounds worse in English than in the Greek BTW, where "form" was a technical term), and so all-around weaker and not as good. Therefore, when you have a witchcraft problem (and people did believe in witchcraft), you look for the women first. That is only logical given the belief system.
^^^ CB: I didn't know that about Aristotle. However, I am not surprised at his male supremacy. He lives close to the time of the beginning of male supremacy and swivelization in Greece.
^^^^
I am certainly open to being persuaded otherwise, as I don't know very much on the subject, but I am skeptical about claims that the witch hunts were motivated by the Church's authority being undermined by efficacious medical cures on the part of village women and so forth.
^^^^^^ CB: I'm thinking it was a generalized "ir-rationale" for subordinating women. Anytime a woman or women got uppity or "frisky" , she or they could be put in her "place" because, afterall, she is prone to devilishness. It seems to have been an ideological enforcement mechanism for male supremacy.
^^^^^ Chris D: That seems really farfetched to me. How do we know that these women even existed, and especially how do we know that their presumed cures were efficacious? Did they leave medical records? And the Church was a mighty institution that I don't think would feel threatened by some hicks in the village. (However, come to think of it, anybody practicing what would have appeared to be "magic" would be automatically assumed to be working with satanic forces, because that was the only source of such magic. I'm reminded of the passage in The Golden Bough -- which this thread has inspired me to reread -- about how religion is the enemy of both magic and science.) When Innocent says the following, I think he pretty much believes it to be true:
^^^^^^^ CB; This part you quote from the Pope sounds like suppression of abortion, which is _prima facie_ evidence of oppression specifically of women:
"...have slain infants yet in the mother's womb,.."
THE MALLEUS MALEFICARUM
THE BULL OF INNOCENT VIII Innocent, Bishop, Servant of the servants of God, for an eternal remembrance.
(first paragraph snipped)
It has indeed lately come to Our ears, not without afflicting Us with bitter sorrow, that in some
parts of Northern Germany, as well as in the provinces, townships, territories, districts, and dioceses of Mainz, Cologne, Tréves, Salzburg, and Bremen, many persons of
both sexes, unmindful of their own salvation and straying from the Catholic Faith, have abandoned themselves to devils, incubi and succubi, and by their incantations,
spells, conjurations, and other accursed charms and crafts, enormities and horrid offences, have slain infants yet in the mother's womb, as also the offspring of cattle, have blasted the produce of the earth, the grapes of the vine, the fruits of the trees, nay, men and women, beasts of burthen, herd-beasts, as well as animals of other kinds, vineyards, orchards, meadows, pasture-land, corn, wheat, and all other cereals; these wretches furthermore afflict and torment men and women, beasts of burthen, herd-beasts, as well as animals of other kinds, with terrible and piteous pains and sore diseases, both internal and external; they hinder men from performing the sexual act and women from conceiving, whence husbands cannot know their wives nor wives receive their husbands; over and above this, they blasphemously renounce that Faith which is theirs by the Sacrament of Baptism, and at the instigation of the Enemy of Mankind they do not shrink from committing and perpetrating the foulest abominations and filthiest excesses to the deadly peril of their own souls, whereby they outrage the Divine Majesty and are a cause of scandal and danger to very many. And although Our dear sons Henry Kramer and James Sprenger, Professors of Theology, of the Order of Friars Preachers, have been by Letters Apostolic delegated as Inquisitors of these heretical pravities, and still are Inquisitors, the first in the aforesaid parts of Northern Germany, wherein are included those aforesaid townships, districts, dioceses, and other specified localities, and the second in certain territories which lie along the borders of the Rhine, nevertheless not a few clerics and lay folk of those countries, seeking too curiously to know more than concerns them, since in the aforesaid delegatory letters there is no express and specific mention by name of these provinces, townships, dioceses, and districts, and further since the two delegates themselves and the abominations they are to encounter are not designated in detailed and particular fashion, these persons are not ashamed to contend with the most unblushing effrontery that these
enormities are not practised in these provinces, and consequently the aforesaid Inquisitors have no legal right to exercise their powers of inquisition in the provinces, townships, dioceses, districts, and territories, which
have been rehearsed, and that the Inquisitors may not proceed to punish, imprison, and penalize criminals convicted of the heinous offences and many wickednesses which have been set forth. Accordingly in the aforesaid provinces, townships, dioceses, and districts, the abominations and enormities in question remain unpunished not without open danger to the souls of many and peril of eternal damnation.
etc.
http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/mm00e.html