The perceived threat to established norms inherent in the idea that women were moving beyond their expected societal roles is also mirrored in a number of the accusations levelled against male witches. In doing so, they were seen to become effeminate, subverting the natural laws believed to govern sexuality. Magic was then, in many ways, viewed by the church as an expression of rebellion against established norms and institutions, including gendered identities. The idea that women might have been dabbling with the demonic magic previously associated with educated males, however inaccurate it may have been, was frightening.
Neither men nor women were allowed to engage with demons, but while men stood a chance at resisting demonic control because of their education, women did not. Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Jennifer Farrell , University of Exeter. In the 11th century, Bishop Burchard of Worms said of certain sinful beliefs : Some wicked women, turning back to Satan and seduced by the illusions and phantasms of demons, believe [that] in the night hours they ride on certain animals with the pagan goddess Diana and a countless multitude of women, and they cross a great span of the world in the stillness of the dead of night.
The devil was there too, in the form of a black cat. The witches knelt before him, worshiped him and kissed his posterior.
The Middle Ages, A. People commonly believed in all kinds of magic, monsters and fairies. Belief in witches, in the sense of wicked people performing harmful magic, had existed in Europe since before the Greeks and Romans.
In the early part of the Middle Ages, authorities were largely unconcerned about it. Things began to change in the 12th and 13th centuries, ironically because educated elites in Europe were becoming more sophisticated. Universities were being founded, and scholars in Western Europe began to pore over ancient texts as well as learned writings from the Muslim world.
Some of these presented complex systems of magic that claimed to draw on astral forces or conjure powerful spirits. Gradually, these ideas began to gain intellectual clout. They gathered herbs, brewed potions, maybe said a short spell, as they had for generations.
And they did so for all sorts of reasons — perhaps to harm someone they disliked, but more often to heal or protect others. Such practices were important in a world with only rudimentary forms of medical care. Christian authorities had previously dismissed this kind of magic as empty superstition. Now they took all magic much more seriously. They began to believe simple spells worked by summoning demons, which meant anyone who performed them secretly worshiped demons.
In the s, a small group of writers in Central Europe — church inquisitors, theologians, lay magistrates and even one historian — began to describe horrific assemblies where witches gathered and worshiped demons, had orgies, ate murdered babies and performed other abominable acts. Pandora: San Francisco, Douglas, Mary. Magic in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, Kors, Alan and Peters, Edward.
Witchcraft in Europe, A Documentary History. University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, Russell, Jeffrey Burton.
Thames and Hudson Strayer, Joseph, ed. Dictionary of the Middle Ages , vol.
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