Manifest Mother Issues

At long last, it's the birth of the traditional witch hunt in all it's glory. Fear mongering, emotional knee-jerk reactions to the apparent enemy, and the immediate and forceful putting down with anyone and everyone who disagrees with your opinions that you believe to be 100% factual and correct. So basically just regular politics but with more magic and mass murder.

What really stood out to me in this chapter, though, is how absolutely abysmally these two guys feel about women. They keep going on and on about how women are weak mentally and easily corrupted, and how they're just a necessary evil used to have children but will make your life miserable in the process. According to them, women are only good when they're gentle and subservient, and any other time they are the manifestation of Hell itself. No middle ground, no thinking "Hey, maybe she's just unhappy that I keep her chained to the stove 6 hours a day," just one or the other. Sounds to me like they had super fun home lives as kids that caused them to develop some serious mother issues.

Of course I'm getting ahead of myself, because I must mention that right out of the gate Kramer and Sprenger disable any and all possible debate by basically saying that everyone who disagrees with them is stupid and evil and needs to be punished for not acknowledging the far mentally superior beings who are lords Kramer and Sprenger. This typical type of mentality isn't uncommon in people throughout history, but the difference between modern and olden times is that a figurehead doing that today will get him super far with a small portion of the population who just so happen to have the same ideas, and exactly nowhere with the vast majority that is the rest of the world. Trying to pull that nowadays will only have the influence of getting people to make fun of him over the internet in a manner similar to this:

A large portion of the rest of the text is them trying to figure out what exactly witches are and are not able to do, such as overturning the Canon's declaration that any bodily transportation occurs only in the imagination, because nobody can ever seem to agree on any of this. Seriously though, at this point you'd think that SOMEONE would have at the very least come up with some theorem that at least most learned people could agree upon, but I guess real people don't work like the scientific community and witchcraft doesn't work like physics, so it's probably too much to think that a medieval Einstein would come along and solve the puzzle of the proverbial ether. This is why my best friend is a statistics textbook with a face drawn on the cover.

Guilty or Not Guilty. You still rot in Jail/Witch Frenzy!!

I have to admit, I am a little overwhelmed from this chapter. Not only was it long but it was very thorough. To me this chapter was about methodically charging and sentencing someone accused of witchcraft/heresy.

This process is so delicate yet utterly confusing. In a sense, its just one big cycle/loop. Once you get accused, innocent or not, you are going to go through a lot of #$%$#, pardon my french. Take for instance, page 221: "they have revoked their evidence and confessed that they have out of malice put that crime upon the accused. Therefore the prisoner in such as case is not to be sentenced hastily, but must be kept for a year or more before he is delivered up to the secular Court." So the person that is charging me and is my sole witness, says they lied and I still have to wait over a year before anything else happens. What kind of system is that? Moreover, Kramer's logic is so contradicting.

Let's dive a little further in the chapter and Kramer. He published this infamous book "Malleus Maleficarum," after being expelled from Innsbruek. (Wikipedia) I have very few good things to say about this fellow. He refutes anyone who disagrees with him especially about the existence of witchcraft. He depicts women as fragile and easily corrupt. In the chapter Kramer says "what else is a woman but a foe of friendship, an unescapable punishment, a necessary evil, ...and domestic danger" (pg. 183). The chapter expands on the devil, the process of accusing, the process of judgment, etc.

Now let's dive into what's going on in my thoughts. Kramer talks about torturing the accused to produce a confession. I see copious things wrong with that. If it were me in that position, I would admit to whatever they are torturing me for. Having read how the system works, either way I'm screwed. It would takes miracle to walk out of this. Furthermore, Kramer uses the term "conjuring" as something a Judge or Priest can say, even though they are punishing a civilian("witch") for practically doing the same. In page 215, Kramer states that "the Judge or priest may use some method ...and say I conjure you by the bitter tears shed on the Cross by our Saviour..." This is the very typical style of witchcraft that Kramer sheds light on. The only difference is who is invoked.

I can't fathom what would have been going through the mind of some of the people. All the jargon coming out of priests and Judges would be so confusing. Unless you were an educated scholar, it wouldn't make sense. The jargon they use is so blended and mixed with multiple meanings. It's just a never ending cycle. Then you have the questioning and torture. Kramer says you are innocent till proven otherwise, but they practically treat the accused as guilty. The delicate process of getting accused and charged is so meticulous, but also incredibly contradicting. If you are accused your screwed.

Also, if you look up facts about Kramer and this publication, it's a very infamous book that led whether directly or indirectly 600,000-9,000,000  (over 250 years) of bled shed.(Wikipedia) The Malleus was the hand guide for inquisitors to identifying, prosecuting, and dispatching witchcraft/witches. I find that incredibly disappointing since this publication is contracting and harsh.

Germany, 1487: Contradiction Central (with bonus murders!)

Chapter 6. It was just awful. There were so, so many problems with Kramer and Jacob's arguments - from intense misogyny to torture to the obvious exceptions they made to their own rules! I wanted to accuse them of witchcraft by the time it was over - see how they like feeling that helpless against the long arm of the Church. Don't get me wrong, I'm unfortunately fairly certain that some of the horrible things described that witches do were actually done - certain rituals were described very specifically, and in the society of the fifteenth century, if you heard that hurting someone would somehow protect you from the dangers of the world...and if you might be able to get away with it...well, why not try it?

No! The point was to GET AWAY with it...*sigh*
(Source: commons.wikimedia.org)

But i can't imagine a situation in which most of the accused aren't innocent.

The point I'm trying to get at is the Inquisitors were taking witch-hunting way too far. For example, look at the explicit instructions on how far to go and on which days to torture people to force a confession out of them, as well as how often to "change it up," like on page 214 (K/P): "For if the sons of darkness were to become accustomed to one general rule [of questioning or torture] they would provide means of evading it as a well-known snare set for their destruction." The Inquisitors are dealing with, for the most part, regular people, and they've set up what seems to be a sham judiciary system in which no one is innocent of witchcraft - not even themselves. 

There were a few "gotcha" moments reading this chapter that I'm sure Sprenger or Kramer would figure out how to explain away, like this prayer that reeks of magic:  "I conjure you by the bitter tears shed on the Cross by our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ...[many more examples of biblical tears]...that if you be innocent you do now shed tears, but if you be guilty that you shall by no means do so." (K/P, p.215, my italics) Or this magical amulet that is totally religiously acceptable: "...they [the Judge and assessors] must always carry about them some salt consecrated on Palm Sunday and some Blessed Herbs. For these can be enclosed together in Blessed Wax and worn round the neck...and that these have a wonderful protective virtue..." (K/P, p.216) Guys, I thought that all types of magic and magical items were heresy? Then there are the stories of judges being manipulated by witches if the witch can see the judge before he sees her, or of judges being bewitched by the way that witches speak during trial (p.216). But weren't judges protected by God and therefore immune to the wiles of magic? Oh, God must be allowing it to happen again. 

The worst, though, was the section on midwives and those who cure illnesses and disease, who were thought of as just as guilty as a supposedly murderous witch! All because in order to expel enchantments and demons, you have to know how they were made and summoned in the first place. So...what about all those exorcisms performed by members of the Church?

My head hurts.

Is it hot in here? Or is it just me....

In order to enter "the sect of the damned" one must "kiss this [toad] creature on the hind quarters and some on the mouth; they receive the tongue and saliva of the beast inside their mouths (KP 115)." But then the "novice" must kiss a wasted black eyed man from which "catholic faith totally disappears from his heart (KP 115)." No, but this is not all then they have to kiss the butt of a cat statue and say how unworthy they are and then have a giant orgy with no discrimination, because you know, devil worshipers. I just need to say how ridiculous this is,I know all of these rituals have been pretty bizarre so far but this one has definitely taken the lead. It is so very weirdly detailed and it makes me once again question how this Pope Gregory IX got his info. Was it secondhand? Thus, can it be true that this happened? Or was he like peeping in on these devil worshipers' orgies like "whoa that's cray! I'm totally writing this down in my journal."
                                      
                                     
  (Super creepy painting look at those weird creatures. James and Hermogenes. Musee Valenciennes)

Also everything was out of proportion. The poor servant, Alice Kyteler, was executed for sorcery because of a family dispute on land distribution (KP 121). People were just dropping demons and sorcery around to get their way. So selfish, what a terrible lot of people. Remember kids, if your getting bullied just tell a higher authority that they are practicing witchcraft and you can watch your bullies get roasted on a stick. Wow, what a win win. 
    


I was also horrified at the thought of women eating their own children. It was said that they kill them and sometimes ( if not their own child) place them back into their beds like it was an accident. Or that they boil them and grind them and like put the goo on their skin or drink it ( KP 157). It makes my stomach churn, I hope this really didn't happen and that it was just an exaggeration gone wrong. And of course if I was in the wife's position and (probably actually innocent) was being burned at the stake I would also be cursing all of those guys too. I understand the giant age gap and the hysteria with devil worshiping, yeah it's scary, but also just because a woman is cursing you while she is being tortured and burned at the stake does not mean you made the right decision, sorry bro. I do not worship the devil and I would still curse someone to hell if I was being burned alive, just saying.

Sorcery: The Uncanny

Chapters 4 and 5 in Kors/Peters have certainly taken a sharp turn from the jovial, upbeat magic portrayed in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to graphic, brutal descriptions of terrifying sorcery. A headless, living green man seemed like child's play compared to stories of cannibalism and boiling dead infants for sustenance. I noted extreme specificity in these two chapters in the discussions and denunciations of magical rituals by religious authorities. Additionally, in these chapters, sorcery became completely aligned with heresy.

In these chapters, magic became even more so the enemy of Christianity: sorcerers were the heretical agents of Satan, and magic was their tool for evil - quite the departure from its benign household use as compiled in the Wolfsthurn handbook many reading assignments ago.

Early on in chapter 4, while reading Pope Alexander IV's "Sorcery and the Inquisitors,” I was pleasantly surprised when he advised “inquisitors of heretical depravity” not to investigate magical activities unless there was proof of heretical activity. I perhaps shouldn’t be surprised that he advised people to simply do their job, but with the occasional stereotypical thought of witch-hunting mobs clouding my judgment as I read, I appreciated the Pope’s progressive attitude. On the other hand, his letter effectually opens up sorcery to inquisition, and I am sure there were cases of inquisitors bending this decree for their own purposes. I, perhaps naively, would like to think that this letter was the Pope’s way of preventing these inquisitors from disturbing benign magicians.  

Hopefully Pope Alexander's letter prevented things like this.

Immediately following Pope Alexander's letter, though, are letters from William, Cardinal of Santa Sabina and Pope John XXII on Sorcery and the Inquisitors. These completely oppose Pope Alexander's viewpoints. The Cardinal, for instance, calls sorcerers "infectors of God's flock" (119) and Pope John states that "they ally themselves with death and make a pact with hell. By their means a post pestilential disease... grievously infects infests the flock of Christ throughout the world" (120). Granted, Pope John is speaking from a place of fear, as sorcerers have made an attempt on his life, which is completely understandable. As Pope, these letters had extreme influence and likely reaffirmed the Christian, God-fearing public's anxieties about the malevolent power and potential of magic. 

Perhaps the most memorable reading was Bernardino of Siena's sermon against women sorcerers. He must have been an extremely effective preacher through his fear-mongering, emotionally appealing language. He speaks directly to his audience in an accusatory tone, telling them YOU have committed this sin, YOU have caused this suffering, YOU will then suffer in eternal torment. What a way to terrify his congregation into denouncing any kind of magic for fear of their eternal destiny. Part of me, now, doesn't blame the paranoia that ensued in Salem in the late 1600s. 

Chapter 5 just built on the terrifying heresy established in the the previous chapter, with anecdotes of infanticide and cannibalism. My notes literally read "~evil witchy anecdotes~" and "~bad things~" because some of the stories were so disturbingly graphic.  My favorite one was The Errores Gazariorum because of its description of the process of a person's seduction to the dark side.

I had to do it.

It is specific, backwards, perverse, etc. It is the opposite of normalcy for a typical Christian. It is the inverse, the uncanny - and it makes it all the more terrifying. Again, the fears of average folk at this time was completely understandable. They were molded by their religious leaders and knew little else. How sad. :(

All the Witches in the Room Say, "Aye"

This was a fun read tonight. What a way to start off the week by reading about infanticide and depravities of the ugliest nature. While reading most of the parts in this chapter I found myself thinking, “Wow!” I also kept saying to myself, “Wait, what did they just say?” I reread many parts of this chapter more than twice. Many of the parts in here that I reread dealt with the killing of infants and filicide. I kept thinking to myself, “How could someone kill their own child and then consume them either in liquid or cooked form?” I cannot even begin to think about doing such a thing. In the beginning of the chapter, there was an idea that I thought was funny because of the reality it still has today, “The greater the urgency for and frustration of reform, the worse appeared the evils that reform was needed to combat.” Although I have not actually dealt with the evils being described here, I made the connection to the idea that the worse you make something in your head, the worse it will be in real life. To this extent, when people thought about how bad the things being thought about are, it is no wonder people feared witches and sorcery so much.

On that same page, it is talked how sorcery must be collaborative and that “… the individual sorcerer, of course, should be apprehended and punished, but the sorcerer also ought to be forced to reveal other members of the group (page 150).” This idea of “point the finger” follows to date. Although a lot of people today would be considered a snitch, courts still ask that members of certain groups help identify others in the group. Compared to today, however, the burden of proof would be much lower. If you are accused of witchcraft back then, it would take a lot less evidence to convict then today.

One term that was used that I found interesting was “Prince of darkness” on page 154. I found it interesting that this term was used back then to describe the being (although many people now may think of Ozzy Osbourne when they hear the name).  

                                            

                        The last graphic and disturbing detail I’ll leave you with comes from page 164. It is, of course, the part about piss in a vase. This part got me thinking, “What in the world is going on?” this part seriously had me gagging. Please tell me other people cringed at this part too. This part is definitely one of the grossest parts of the reading, besides the anus kissing. I really want to know why some of these things happen. What in the world went on in this time period (of course we have many depravities in our time as well).

            Thanks for rereading the most descriptive parts of the chapter again.                                              

Witches...They're Magically Devil-icious

When I think of a witch, my mind immediately goes to an older woman with a foul expression and ugly features cackling over a bubbling, boiling cauldron brewing some sort of potion to wreak havoc on the innocent. While the chapter on Diabolical Witches doesn't quite break down what a witch supposedly looked like or draw one out, it does seem to do a pretty good attempt at slashing witch stereotypes and putting things right. But it's a mass collection of opinions and contradictions.

So far, I have really appreciated and been intrigued by all of our readings, but for some reason, I was immensely frustrated by it. Finally, I know why. It's all opinion. It lacks evidence. My Type-A brain wants one person with qualifications to write one book about all there is to know about witches and witchcraft and for that to be the be-all end-all source of information. But that's not the point of witchcraft, is it? After some resistance, I have come to embrace the variety of information coming to us through these different excerpts from various scholars and authors. It's a sort of organized chaos that allows us to wipe the slate clean and forget what we know. We absorb new things about witchcraft page by page, chapter by chapter, and eventually, a new vision of a witch starts to form in our heads. We begin to agree and disagree with these writers and create our own image. Without even meaning to we accredit and ignore certain writers and therefore the habits, customs and descriptions of witches.

What intrigues me most is the incorporation of the Devil. The exercise earlier in the semester about what the word "magic"makes us feel showed that we don't necessarily always get a negative connotation of the word. Many of us had fond memories of the magic of Harry Potter or fairies and wands and dreams coming true. In that sense, it made me think that there were both good and bad witches even if they looked different from modern interpretations. The "bad", darker witches I pictured were just witches who had chosen the wrong path or gone astray. I thought that they were witches who used their powers for evil instead of good and wanted to wrong people. However, these witches we read about were not necessarily doing "bad" things. Curing illnesses and injuries and changing the weather don't seem like evil. And while making someone fall in love with you might be manipulative and uncalled for, it's not something we'd put at the top of our charts as an evil act. It's simply that witchcraft is unnatural and that's what makes these witches so terrible. What gives these people the right to think of themselves as better than the rest of humanity?

This chapter reminded me of The Uberman theory that comes up in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. The main character, Raskolnikov, basically believes himself to be an Uberman, or a human being who is superior to other human beings. Because of his high intelligence and intellect, he believes that any crime he commits should be pardoned because anything he does is for the greater good and his intelligence should excuse him from the law and unethical wrongdoings. It seems that this is what witchcraft is. Anything a witch does should be seen as fine because only they have the power to do so. Do not be mad that a witch has carried out the deeds of the devil, because only she could have done that and not you. But the frustration that comes with this is that by worshipping and doing deeds for the devil, these witches thing of themselves as almighty beings who can have the powers of god. They do not respect or worship God. They are not in awe of him. They live to serve the devil. They will do anything for the devil no matter how cruel, crude or forbidden. People cannot understand how these witches will do anything to please the devil when the devil is the nemesis of god and abuses his powers.

Witches explained in this chapter are servants of the devil and work to compete against god when they do the devil's work. Though the actions they perform might be innocent alone, they add up in a plot to fight against good and work towards evil. They aid the devil and work to please him, ignoring all they had known about heavenly aspirations and religion. Is it witchcraft that is so bad or is it that fact that these witches worship the devil? I think these writings all exist because various groups of people and intellectual individuals cannot fathom how so many people could break from worshipping god and instead worship someone who had fallen from heaven's grasp into hell. The issue is not spells and potions, but serving the devil and doing everything they can to ignore religion and heaven and instead, be almighty themselves and pursue evil.

Snitches or Witches?

When reading chapters 4 and 5, I immediately went back in time to my freshman seminar, Satan in Salem. In that class, we read many articles about the Salem witch trials. For our final project, we had to write a paper explaining why we thought the Salem witch trials happened. For my paper, I wrote about how it was all a joke. It started with 3 girls accusing their servant to be a witch. The servant, Tibula, played with voodoo, which led to her being a witch. The girls would then pretend to be possessed by Tibula and the devil. The people in charge of the court believed the girls and sent Tibula to jail for being a witch. This went on and on. Young girls would accuse older women and sometimes men as being witches, making all of those women and men go to jail for a long time, or even executed. This was all a joke to those girls. Although in that class I had never learned about witches eating babies going to orgies. Though I am not sure which came first, the witches in Salem and the witches in England were influenced from each other.

Kassy made a great point about how the people did not want to blame God for the miscarriages and low mortality rates. That is why the people blamed witches. Witches were associated with the devil; the devil does bad things; therefore the devil and witches were blamed for the bad things. She makes a good point when she says “After all, [God] was the being they feared, admired and worshiped to help guide them through the tough times.” God was so powerful that he could not be blamed for anything remotely bad.

I am very curious to know if the town truly believed these witch tales, if they thought their neighbors, or milk man, or even families, were witches. Maybe they did believe it, because they had no other explanation for these strange happenings. Or maybe they did not believe it, and only went along with it for their own personal entertainment. I would love to have dinner with someone from the 12^th century to know how they felt about this; if they did truly believe in magic. There had to be some people that did not believe in the witch tales, but they went along with it because they were too scared to defend the witches. I mean if you defend a witch then obviously you are a witch too. 

Running With the Devil

In chapters four and five we learn all about what witches do and how they should be punished and dealt with. We see that there similar accounts across Europe and by different people that tell of the acts of witches and how they become involved with the devil. What we don’t learn about from these chapters is how these people get their knowledge about witches. When I read I wonder if they see things with their own eyes or simply make it all up. Perhaps even these people have dabbled in sorcery themselves. I believe that general concepts of witchcraft became accepted and spread throughout Europe which is how we would have similar writings from different places. I think that at this time people really needed something to believe in since they couldn’t really explain anything that happened. I think it easier to live when you think you’re in control. For these people being in control meant being a good Christian and pleasing God and killing anyone who didn’t follow along. 

When I was reading chapter five I found it interesting how witches at that time in history were a bit different then how we think of them as now. When I think about witches I start picturing a women in a cottage mixing potions in a cauldron and riding on broomstick. The riding on the broom part is one idea that has survived from the Middle Ages, but the “diabolical” witches of this time were not only conjurers of magic, but also deviants in society in almost all aspects. In this chapter it talks about the witches taking place in orgies, partying with the devil, killing babies, creating storms, and making ointments and powders. It never really occurred to me that witches were considered evil at this time because they were interacting with devil not just because they were using magic. I wondered whether magic would have been acceptable at this time if they were no ties to the devil and if the magic was only being used for good. This chapter really changed my perspective on witches and I found it really fascinating. 

HELL TOUPEE!

For starters, I am so tempted to go on and on about the article I particularly focused on for my presentation on Monday (Bernardino of Siena), and how it reminds me of fear mongering Donald Trump, but I will save my comments for myself, and my opinions on the implication of the preacher’s words for class on Monday. 

i had to....

What I will focus on is the imagery of these passages we have been reading. Instinctively, these ideas and theories are laughable: how could humans think such things? But when I read what these passages are saying, they feel real (not in the sense that I think magic is real, but in the sense that I understand where these people are coming from). There is just so much detail. For example, in article 18, Pop Gregory IX is writing a letter about seeking out heretics. The modern mind would read this letter and think “how the hell can this be true,” but it reads so true to him. He dictates the events that are carried out: a novice is received, “a shape of a certain frog appears to him, which (BTW) some are accustomed to call a toad” (115). He continues to say that some kiss this toad on its mouth, others on its tushy… and I’m just like how can there be so many variations of this one ceremony if it isn’t true? In the same paragraph, Pope Greg (can I call you Greg) writes that once the frog (or toad, depending on which of the numerous ceremonies you are attending and who is in attendance) is kissed, the body of the novice grows cold and the “memory of the catholic faith totally disappears from his heart.” This stood out to me because it almost felt like he was there... all of these times...and was able to reference all the different type of people he saw there. Just a theory... 

I also thought it was interesting how little they trusted the faithful. This can go either way for me. On one end, these people are worried that the faithful may stray because they were once faithful and they have strayed (they being the preachers, popes, etc) or, on the other end, it is because they consider the faithful to be weak. Both options are a little bit sketchy to me. Especially since they consider their warnings of what magic leads to "charitable," as if they know what is to come. 

Overall, I think this whole thing from churches and theologians is deceptive and I wish there was like a diary I could read from these guys that exposed them on all their sneakiness... sort of like now, where our leaders emails get hacked and we get to know all the juicy, shitty stuff they did and lied to us about. 

When the stuffing runs out, pass the child casserole please!

When I began reading chapters 4 and 5 for Monday (and my presentation), I kept wondering, what is with the obsession of witches killing babies? I mean, seriously. Why? Apparently, in order to be qualified as a witch you need to kill children and consume their flesh. Satan’s orders! I’m sure that is what every witch out there loves to eat, a nice boiled kid with some garlic and onions, a side of baked potato and possibly some kale to keep things healthy. Everyone loves kale. It’s a nutritious and leafy food. Yum yum in the tum tum. Now I’ve gone off tangent…

Anyways, in several of the excerpts including Bernardino of Siena, Johannes Nider, Claude Tholosan, and Nicholas Jacquier, the action of infanticide are described. While we will discuss the issue of infanticide during my group’s presentation on Monday, I figure I’d touch upon some of it now. I find it fascinating how the writers carry the idea that witches set out to kill children in order to create balms/salves to kill people. Wouldn’t it be just as easy for them to slip some nightshade berries into their pie?

The psyche behind blaming witches for the deaths may be resulting from the high child mortality rates. People wanted to blame ‘witches’ for killing their child instead of blaming natural causes or themselves. They latched onto the witch hysteria and automatically used them to disguise their anger towards God for taking their child. It probably felt like a sin for people to even consider blaming God for their misfortunes. After all, he was the being they feared, admired and worshiped to help guide them through the tough times.

One of my favorite lines from Johannes Nider is, “We then remove them secretly from their graves and cook them in a cauldron until their flesh, cooked and separated from the bones, is made into a powerful liquid” (157). The detail paid into how the witches prepare the children is slightly disturbing. While Johannes is recounting what a captured and accused witch told him, it remains an interesting segment of thought. Even the accused corroborated with this idea of witches devouring children.

 Another rather humorous action the followers of Satan needed to do was kiss the ass of the devil (160) or drink his urine (164). These actions would show their obedience to Satan and their utter disrespect and hatred of the Christian religion. I have to admit I laughed when I read this because of the absurdity behind it. Yet, people during the time probably felt this was a very real action committed by the devil’s followers. I mean, if they ate children and participated in orgies, they must also willingly kiss the ass of the devil.