date back to the Inquisition Period.
Two prominent books on this subject were written. The first was about the European witchcraft trials titled “Malleus Maleficarum” (The Witches’ Hammer.) Written by two Dominican priests and published in 1484, it claimed that most witches were women because women are inferior beings and therefore predisposed to being evil. After blaming all the ills suffered by men on women, the two Dominican priests explained how to conduct a witch hunt. The second book of prominence, “Cautio Criminalis” was written in 1631 by the German Jesuit priest Father Friedrich von Spee. As minister and eyewitness to the horrors perpetrated on women and children accused of witchcraft, and as the single voice of resistance to organized religion’s participation in the witchcraft trials, Father von Spee accused the church-appointed judges of creating two guidelines that predisposed the accused to being guilty of witchcraft. He further accused the priests in the church of being “ignorant and headstrong” in their rush to judgment, as the accused had no chance of proving their innocence under these guidelines.
The first guideline exposed by Father von Spee claimed that the judiciary was to presume that every woman was a witch if she led an evil or improper life. (During the Inquisition Period it was the church who determined the moral standard on which the judiciary relied to conclude whether the woman was leading an evil or improper life.) The second guideline was created to encompass all women who did not fit into the first guideline, as it held that even if a woman led a good and proper life she could still be a witch, as witches can disguise themselves to appear virtuous.
The purpose for creating these guidelines was twofold. One purpose was to preserve the judiciary’s façade of integrity by providing the outward appearance that the accused were being indicted on some lawful basis – regardless of whether or not there was any actual evidence to support a claim of witchcraft. This guideline was necessary as it was considered a judicial disgrace if a woman, once accused, was acquitted.
The purpose for the second guideline was to accommodate the church, as the conviction of its deceased priests’ widows (now accused of witchcraft) enabled the church to regain the wealth its deceased priests had left to their wives as marital property. This guideline further served to strip the personal and political power from the women who had inherited their deceased husband’s wealth.
The quest for profit and political power was not restricted to the Catholic Church. Father von Spee also claimed that the judges and inquisitors, because they were being well paid for their work, had a financial interest in perpetuating this cycle of persecution, prosecution, torture, and murder against women and children.
IMO, no change will happen until there is a change in religion. Thanks for posting.
Namaste.
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