The Witch Craze in Sixteenth Century Europe
Emerging Protestantism and Traditions of Misogyny as Causes
The European witch craze bridged the late medieval period with the rise of early modern Europe, targeting predominantly women in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Although witchcraft had been identified as an evil long before this time, the religious conflicts caused by the Reformation in some ways redefined the relationship between the sacred and the profane. These new definitions, and in some cases expanded definitions, fit into newly constructed cosmologies that directly affected societal gender roles. This was particularly true of newly formed Protestant communities.
Women, Misogyny, and the Devil
As Protestant societies emulated patriarchal family units, the role of women became more keenly defined. Left to themselves, it was, according to Reformer Martin Luther, “the nature of women to be troubled and frightened about everything, therefore…much occupied with charms and superstitions.” [1] Luther’s actual term “zewberey” (translated here as charms) more accurately relates to sorcery or magic.
Keith Thomas, exploring causes of witchcraft in England, [2] relates changes in the hamlet communities that left single, older women without community support. Forced to roam and beg, they were often targets of witchcraft accusations. Other research highlights a rural European culture which reflected a, “rich compound of ancient rituals, time-bound customs, a sort of unreconstructable folk Catholicism, and a large portion of magic.” [3]
Witchcraft was often viewed as a reversal of normal behavior. Explaining the Old Testament “Witch of Endor” (I Samuel 28:8-14), Luther defines the witch’s actions as a, “defilement of God’s commandments for living…” Historian Sigrid Brauner concludes that the witch, “in essence, is the opposite of the pious Christian wife.” Single women and widows were especially prone to the invitations of the devil.
The Proper Role of Women
An account from the reign of James I of England relates his introduction to an exceptional woman who was highly educated and spoke several languages. After hearing her achievements, the king replied, “but can she spin?” Shakespeare highlighted the perfect wife in Act V of The Taming of the Shrew: “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life…thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign…Such duty as the subject owes the prince, Even such a woman oweth to her husband.” If single women represented a threat to the expected and established social order, then women associated with witchcraft existed outside of that system or “godly community.”
Being set apart from the community also intimated the notion of a pact with the devil. In a sermon on The Gospel for the Festival of the Epiphany, Luther concludes that the pact with the devil is a state of being apart from God. Persons not conforming to the Protestant covenant relationships were without recourse to grace, an idea reflected in the famous Reformation tale of Faust. Hence, women that shunned the expected gender roles were suspect and often perceived as threats to the norm.
Summary
While there are many reasons for the European witch craze that may have claimed the lives of thousands of innocents (some estimates are as high as 100,000), theological considerations played a dominant role in the mass accusations. Particularly true in emerging Protestant societies, the ideal female vocation was equated with a strictly defined patriarchal system demanding submissiveness and obedience.
[1] Martin Luther, Commentary on the Epistles of Peter & Jude, translated by John Nichols Lenker, 1904 (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1982) p. 139.
[2] Keith Thomas, Religion & the Decline of Magic (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971)
[3] Gerald Strauss, “The Reformation and Its Public in An Age of Orthodoxy,” The German People and the Reformation, R. Po-Chia Hsia, ed., (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988) p. 211.
See Also:
Sigrid Brauner, "Martin Luther on Witchcraft: A True Reformer?" in The Politics of Gender in Early Modern Europe (Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Kirksville, Missouri, 1989)
Michael Streich, Martin Luther and the Devil's Domain: Witchcraft and Magic in the Popular Culture and its Effect Upon a Protestant Social Order as Expressed in Luther's Writings, unpublished thesis, UNC-Greensboro, 1990. (archived in Jackson Library)
Exhibit, Bergen, Norway: the role of women
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