Malleus Maleficarum and witchcraft

[CaoNiMa]

I watched a National Geographic documentary this morning about the Malleus Maleficarum, or "Witches' Hammer". I hadn't heard of this before - it's a book that was written by a pair of male Catholic inquisitors in Germany in the 1400s, and was a treatise on witchcraft and how to eradicate "witches". Thanks to the development of the printing press, it spread throughout Europe and the world.

Malleus Maleficarum

It was so fucking depressing that I cried. The plight of all those thousands of women through the centuries who were tortured, burned at the stake, drowned and humiliated for supposed witchcraft, at the hands of men.

Has there ever been a time when women haven't been systematically denigrated by the church, the establishment, the whole world?

Utterly despiriting.

Mary Daly covers this in depth in her book gyn/ecology - well worth a read. It is pretty horrific reading though.

quick little story for you;
a freind of mine, he's morroccan and recently married to a girl from back in morrocco.
he was quite a catch, in the sense that he could take his bride back here to holland for a better life.

but, the mother of the girl he diddnt chose got a little upset, told him she put a spell on him, he told me (with a very grave look on his face) that he was impotent for over a week. even on his wedding night!

i tried to tell him this was all between his ears but he wouldnt have it, he was absolutly convinced they did it to him.

the only point i want to make here is that whitchcraft , or the fear of it is still around , active.

Thank you for the post and link.

Reading through the wiki this stood out:

"Women who did not cry during their trial were automatically believed to be witches."

Not much changes then.