In my Witchcraft and Heresy in Europe class, Dr. Doe Daughtery had us analyze our readings in the following categories: 

• Identity

• Power and Authority

• Authenticity and Legitimacy

• Human Bodies

• Adaptation and Evolution

One of the key things we asked as we read these accounts was “What is at stake for people? Who stands to benefit? Who stands to be harmed?”

This paper focuses on “Human Bodies” and what was at stake for women in medieval Europe living under the heavy hand of the Roman Catholic patriarchy.

The Virgin and The Whore

The male leadership of the Roman Catholic church in late medieval times worshipped and adored the Virgin Mary, the symbol of female sexual purity and holy fertility. In medieval Europe, the accused witches in medieval times were largely female, deemed sexually aggressive and post-menopausal, and therefore infertile. This is a comparison that is most evident in hindsight. The contrast between virgin and whore colored the judgment of the pope, bishops, clerics, and those who sat in judgment of the accused (Deane 2011, 214).

Church clerics and interrogators in the witch hunts considered the female body a weak vessel making it susceptible to bridging the gap between spirit and matter (Deane 2011, 207). The female body could manifest as holiness, in the case of Mary the Mother of God, or demonically in women accused of being ‘fertility terrorists’ causing death to crops, animals, young fertile women, and their children (Roper 2004, 32). The church needed scapegoats for natural disasters, famine, and plague. The female body was considered the perfect physical conduit for Satan to manifest in the natural world. Therefore, the Church demanded that men maintain control over women whether virgins, mothers, or crones to prohibit demons from invading the community through them, especially older women who had access to birthings and the healing arts. Maintaining control was more difficult in rural than in urban areas, so public torture, executions, and burnings served as warnings to maintain control.

The outward motive behind eliciting confessions was for the salvation of the accused. The method of extracting confessions was sadistic. The torture worsened in conditions of mass panic “or in individual cases where an accused refused to confess and the interrogation lasted weeks, months or even longer” (Roper 2004, 59). The film, Torture: We Have Ways of Making You Talk reveals that some modern-day torturers were proud of their methods and expressed pleasure when recalling them. In my opinion, there was no convincing evidence of regret in their recollections. Even after many years, they maintained that they extracted valuable information for the good of the state. Power and control is a potent ingredient of sadism. The causes are different, but the justification is the same. The late medieval tormentors caused pain and humiliation in the name of God and to protect the church from the instruments of Satan.

The accused witches, mostly female, suffered humiliation by being stripped naked for fear that Satan was hiding in the fold of their clothes. They were psychologically manipulated by the visual threat of the tools of torture. In isolation, placed in the dark, they had no sense of time (Roper 2004, 48). They were threatened with loss of family, property, and life itself. The touch of the executioner could make them a social pariah for life (Roper 2004, 54). Many suffered rape while imprisoned and upon examination of their genitals were accused of having sex with Satan. They endured intense and repeated pain from the boot, the rack, stretching, and thumbscrews. In their pain and confusion, they would disassociate with their bodies and attest to being able to fly which condemned them further (Roper 2004, 44). Their physical bodies were used against them by the demonization of birthmarks, moles, or a third nipple (Roper 2004, 9).

The value of the female body has long been measured by youth and fertility. The virgin and the whore play very dramatic roles on the stage of the Christian church through the ages. One is venerated and the other condemned. The life-giving power of the female body is respected in awe or perceived as a threat. That power wanes and waxes in popular culture in relation to youth, fertility, and submission to male dominators. Some ways domination expresses itself in societies are educational and career opportunities, freedom of movement, property rights, religious dogma, health care, and ageism. History shows that when women dare to break the yoke of domination to freely express their power as fully empowered human beings, all hell breaks loose.

References: 

Deane, Jennifer Kolpacoff. A History of Medieval Heresy and Inquisition. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011

Roper, Lyndal. Witch Craze. Yale University Press, 2004

Torture: We have ways of making you talk, 2008