Roman Catholicism

Paul Height - 14045721

BSc Criminology Year 2

Crime in Context

Tutor: Dr William Hughes

Roman Catholicism is a hierarchal male dominated religion that has the ‘Pope’ as the head of the church. This order continues with Cardinals, Bishops, Dean of the Sacred Heart College and the vice Dean. In the sixteenth century these men had immeasurable influence, wealth and power. The seed of misogyny was planted in the Christian mind by the Bible and brought to fruition by successive early theologians.

It was around the late medieval period when the stereotypical witch began to become more prominent in European society. The image of the witch had previously been only in folklore and learned imagination. At the beginning of the 15th century the differing components of witchcraft (harmful sorcery (maleficium), diabolism, heretic cultic activity and the use of nocturnal flight, amalgamated into a single charge of “Satanic Witchcraft”. At or around the same period witchcraft became gender specific, a witch metonymically equaled a “female”. Kramer, H and Sprenger, J (1971). The aim of this assignment is to explore how witchcraft became gendered and the misogyny that ensued throughout the late medieval and early modern period of European history. This assignment will look at the scholastic works concerning witch hunts and their authors. The works by Johannes Nider, Heinrich Kramer, James Sprenger had a profound effect on society in this period and it’s important to understand the motivation of these men. The fundamental question must also be asked, “why were witches women”? This assignment will argue that gender and misogyny were the driving forces behind what Barstow termed ‘sexual terrorism’. The fact that witches were invariably women and their accusers, judges, torturers, and executioners were men, lends strong weight to the argument that women were persecuted on an industrial scale.

 Bailey, M.D, (2003, Pg. 120 -134).

The word witchcraft is polysemic in nature and can be hard to quantify, however its continually used in a negative feminist way throughout this period.

Bailey, M.D, (2002, Pg. 419 - 439).  In the 15th century witches were referred to as maleficus (malefica in the feminine) this Latin term(s), translated means ‘a person who performed sorcery (maleficium) against another’. These acts of sorcery were far reaching in nature and would ultimately resulted in the death of anyone accused. These ‘criminal’ acts included theft, murder by magical means, causing pestilence or disease, withering crops, the conjuring of lightening and hail. Barstow, A.L, (1994, Pg. 7 -19).

It was during the late 15th century and into the infamous witch hunts of the 16th 17th century that the stereotypical image of the witch came into being and the ‘crime’ of witchcraft became yet more heinous. The gravity of maleficium pales into insignificance when the charge of diabolism is made. This is that the accused has obtained their magical powers through the making of a demonic pact with the devil. Barstow, A.L, (1994, Pg. 79).

The thinking of the day was that due to a pact having been made with Satan, then there was a larger conspiracy a foot. The conspirators were thought to be a well organized cult who stood in direct opposition to the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Thus both secular and ecclesiastical authorities sought to eradicate it from the face of the planet. Brauer, S, (1995, Pg. 55).

According to Professor Richard Kieckhefer of the University of California there was a direct correlation between diabolism (persecution there of) and the pornographic theological texts of the 14th and 15th century. By the very notion of diabolism, the belief in magic cults that were in league with the devil, further hastened feminization of witchcraft. Brauner states that witchcraft was not gender specific until the 15th century and that men and women could equally be accused of ‘crimes against the church’.

A moral panic is a fear (real or perceived) that is spread amongst the populous that some form of evil is threating the socital order of society. It was with the revolution of the printing press that the Holy Roman Catholic church was able spread the myth that witches were a threat to society. The Catholic Church utilized the printing press to it’s full potential in order to counter the Protestant Reformation and to actively subjugate women through the threat of witchcraft. The Catholic Church was the organization that would save the general public from the threat of witchcraft.

Murphy (2011, Pg18).

The whole of Europe was a Catholic continent until the reformation started to cause serious divisions within usually peaceful societies. It was primarily these divisions that led to many innocent people being burned at the stake as heretics. This was true of the rich and poor alike. Many nobles sought to steal their rivals land through giving false testimony of witchcraft and unchristian practices. The poor would also settle scores or try to gain favor through false accusations of witchcraft. This often led to the deaths of whole families and women bearing the brunt of the persecution. Purkiss (1996, Pg167).

At the beginning of 1498 the Holy Roman Catholic Church wished to control the minds of the masses, hence the burning of Jewish and Cather books at the Abigensian Crusade. There was a protocol for newly written books to censored by the Vatican and this job fell to the ‘Master of Sacred Palace’, this man was most often from the Dominican order and held the rank of Cardinal. Murphey (2011, Pg117).

The word misogyny derives from the Greek word misogynia and means a hatred, dislike or prejudice of women. Misogyny has a far greater reach and depth than this simple definition implies. According to Gilmore misogyny can be quantified as ‘an unreasonable fear or hatred of women that takes place on some palpable form in any given society’. Gilmore, D, (2001).

Gilmore continues further ‘misogyny is a feeling of enmity towards the female sex, a ‘disgust or abhorrence’ toward women as an undifferentiated social category, which finds social expression in the concrete behavior: cultural institutions, writings and rituals. Misogyny was a sexual prejudice that was shared amongst men and reinforced by the teachings of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. The misogynists of this period were clearly ‘essentialists’, espousing that all woman carried the same character defects. Theses defects it was rationalized made the female species susceptible to the allure of the devil’s charms. This popular essentialists belief was built upon yet further by the publishing of Formicarius and Malleus Maleficarum. These two works legitimized and reaffirmed the populous view that women were potentially in league with the devil. These works clearly paved the way for witch trials and even set out the correct procedures for ‘dealing’ with witchcraft cases. Kieckhefer statistical analysis shows that during the early 14th century 70% of those tried for crimes such as sorcery or diabolism were men. However, by the first half of the 15th century 70% of all defendants were female. This is a tremendous shift and goes to demonstrate how wide spread the moral panic had become. Johannes Nider, was a Dominican theologian who wrote Formicarius (The Ant Heap) in 1437. He was the first Christian academic to argue that women were far more likely to be seduced by Satan than men. Briggs, R (1991, Pg. 438/9).

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