WITCHES: – a deadly kind of misogyny
It’s that time of year again when stories of ghosts and witches take hold of the imagination.
This year my research has taken me into Tudor palaces, castles, churches, and abbeys to examine witch marks to better understand the witch craze that swept Europe in the sixteenth century and still influences our view of women to this day.
There is not a culture on earth that doesn’t have a word for witch or magic. But what do we mean by ‘witch’? It seems the modern consensus is the same as it was 500 years ago – a woman with power. In Tudor times, people believed magic came from either God or the Devil and that the Devil used witches to enact evil deeds.
Some historians explain the witch-hunting craze as driven by religious fanaticism. Others see it through the lens of the social issues of the time. While both played a part, I believe there was a more significant issue of where power lay at that time that drove the witch craze, and this is why positioning women as witches has never really left us.
In the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church was the largest institution on earth, and its power was threatened in several ways. In Wittenberg, Germany, a monk called Martin Luther questioned the Church’s use of indulgences – a piece of paper people could buy from the Church that forgave them their sins and assured salvation. He believed God alone had the power to forgive sins. He also questioned of idea of transubstantiation, when the wafer and wine of Holy Communion became – by the power of the priest – the body and blood of Christ. He directly attacked the power of the Church.
The Church used magic to ward off evil. Witch marks, or apotropaic marks, can be seen etched into the masonry of churches and medieval buildings around doors, windows and chimneys – the places people believed evil spirits entered. The Church claimed these markings, along with amulets, charms, prayer, and holy water, had magical powers that fought against evil.
The Church did not deny its use of magic, but said that magic came from God through the priest. The reformers questioned this. They believed the individual could communicate directly with God without needing a priest. In the sixteenth century there was a great struggle for power.
The Church found itself losing revenue to healers and midwives, cunning folk who had knowledge of plants and herbs. People began to spend their money on ‘cures’ rather than giving it to the priests. Healers gave their customers herbal remedies with instructions for taking them and positive affirmations. These were among some of the first prescriptions ever written. In the war for power, they became known as enchantments, spells, conjurings, and curses. The Church labelled those who dispensed them witches and said they practised black magic from the devil – in contrast to the Church’s benign magic. Leviticus 19:26 says: Thou shalt not use enchantment. And Exodus 22.18 is very clear: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
The Church used the Bible to justify hunting, persecuting and putting to death those it deemed to be witches.
Anyone who voiced different views to the Church could be accused of being a witch or practising black magic. Witchcraft became known as the greatest heresy. The punishment was strangulation and burning at the stake, which struck fear into the people and whipped up a frenzy. Neighbours informed on one another to demonstrate to Church authorities that they accepted its teaching and were no threat. Those accused admitted to all manner of wild accusations under torture to get back their property and children that were confiscated when a charge of witchcraft was levelled. They were put to death anyway.
The sexism that underpinned the witch hunts of the sixteenth century is still very much present today, seen in the tendency of society to undermine and vilify women who become too powerful. When a strong woman’s voice comes to the fore, it’s quashed. Many women politicians, such as Hilary Clinton, Nicola Sturgeon and Kezia Dugdale have been demonised as witches because the meaning is as powerful as ever. When Margaret Thatcher passed people sang ‘Ding Dong the witch is dead’. The theology of the witch hunt has never left us.
Calling a woman a witch sabotages her power because the message is that it is a destructive power that should be cancelled. This is true of those accused in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Many case papers refer to ‘sundry witches’; the accused no longer even have their names. As I said in my previous blog post on this subject, name-calling destroys people. Through language, we project how we feel about others, the world around us, and what we value. Words have power.
Sadly, despite Halloween’s present-day popularity, not enough is being done to tell the witch’s true story. So, with this in mind, spare a thought for the ordinary women who were murdered for being witches.