I am a witch, now please kill me! Many innocent women happily welcomed death by
confessing to witchcraft in order to end their excruciating torture during the
witch hunt craze between 1450 and 1750. Since many records were lost, destroyed
or never kept, the best estimation of the total deaths is several million (4).
The main cause of the witch hunts was the Church inflicting fear upon the common
and educated man by lying to them about what witches do and who they are. The
Church also directly and indirectly increased the pain that accused women would
go through during their torture. The Church made it clear, to all those who
would listen, that all women were evil and capable of witchcraft. “The
Bible’s Apocrypha states, ‘Of woman came the beginning of sin / And thanks
to her, we all must die.’(Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus 25:13-26.)” (2). Vicious
comments like this caused even women themselves to fear what other women may do.
This fear only lead to the distrust of woman. A book written by two German men,
titled Malleus Maleficarum, “The Hammer of Witches”, only furthered peoples
fear of women’s evil. It states that women are more likely to become witches:
“‘Because the female sex is more concerned with things of the flesh then
men; because being formed from a man’s rib, they are only ‘imperfect
animals’ and ‘crooked’ where as man belongs to a privileged sex from whose
midst Christ emerged.’ (Malleus Maleficarum, 1486)”(2). The men that wrote
Malleus Maleficarum refer to the bible for reasons to why they consider women
evil, so if the Church had never incorporated such things into the bible such
things may have never been thought. Many ancient myths portrayed goddess’s as
evil. Consequently those images of evil were kept and later attached to witches
who kept goddess worship alive centuries later (4). Even devotion to the Virgin
Mary (who is the biological mother of Jesus) was considered an indication of
evil (2). One women, named Aldonca de Vargas, was even reported just for smiling
at the mention of the Virgin Mary (Henry Kamen, Inquisition and Society in
Spain) (2). Once a women was accused of witchcraft she would first have to
confess in order to be executed. The torturing of accused women was so
unbelievably horrid and sadistic that you would think a man of low standing
would be the one to carry it out, but sadly it was the men of educated positions
such as bishops, judges, professors and others. By doing the torture themselves
it set them in a position of fear throughout the community and it is even said
that “after the execution of a wealthy witch, officials [would treat]
themselves to a banquet at the expense of the victim’s estate. (Barbara
Walker)”(2). All of the victim’s estate became the property of the
government as soon as they were accused. The torture was done in such a
businesslike fashion that the relatives were charged for the victims torture and
death (4). They were charged for such things as the “ropes that bound them and
the wood that burned them. (Barbara Walker).”(2). Some methods of torturing
the accused witches into confessing were thumbscrews, whips, red-hot tongs, and
the rack, this lead to there bones being crushed, limbs severed and flesh
seared. After being locked up and tortured for days on end, most women would
confess in order to die and some would also accuse neighbors and friends hoping
to end their own pain (4). Another method of determining the guilt of the
accused was to stab needles into her eyes and if an insensitive spot was found
then she was considered guilty. A Spanish church even went as far as to conform
a statue of the Virgin Mary into a device of torture. They did this by covering
the front side of the statue with sharp knives and nails, then they used levers
to make the arms of the statue crush the accused against the knives and nails
(Jean Plaidy, The Spanish Inquisition) (2). Men would also brutally attack the
breasts and genitals of accused witches if they became sexually aroused around
her, because it was thought that the ‘witch’ caused them to be. They
attacked the breasts and genitals with pincers, red-hot irons and pliers (2).
The Churches not only condoned all method’s of witch torture but some church
members would even perform the torture themselves. A bishop of Wurtzburg was
proud to claim the lives of 1900 witchcraft accused people in five years (2).
“Churchmen portrayed the healing woman as the most evil of all witches.
William Perkins declared, ‘The most horrible and detestable monster…is the
good witch.’” (2). The Church declared this because they believe that God
should be the only one to heal and consequently anyone who was found with herbal
oils or ointments could be charged with witchcraft. Midwifes were most often
thought to be witches because of their knowledge of herbs to relieve labor
pains. The Church thought it was a sin to help ease a women’s labor pains
because of God’s sentence upon Eve in which she and all women following her
shall be plagued with labor pains (2). Even influential people such as Martin
Luther stated his believe about childbirth when he wrote, “If [women] become
tired or even did, that does not matter. Let them die in childbirth that is why
they are there.” (2). When chloroform was introduced to help decrease labor
pains the Church strongly opposed it. A New England minister even went as far as
to call chloroform “a decoy of Satan.” (2) The Church made it incredibly
easy to accuse people of witchcraft. At first only ugly or deformed old women
were suspected of witchcraft but soon anyone who looked or acted different was a
prime suspect. One Scottish woman was even convicted of witchcraft after washing
an unhealthy child because of its rarity (2). Eventually all women were a target
for accusations. If someone felt guilty after turning away a person in need then
they could accuse that person of witchcraft because of the belief that they
caused them to feel guilty (2). It was so easy to get a witch executed that in
1586 every female except two were executed from two different villages (2). The
Churches mentally sick and demented ways of viewing witched and women didn’t
stop with the end of the witch hunting craze in the 17 hundreds it continues
still today. In 1976 Elizabeth Hahn, a poor spinster who lived in a small German
village, was accused of witchcraft and was suspected to keep devil’s agents in
the form of dogs. Her neighbors threatened to beat her to death with rocks but
instead they burnt down her house in which she was badly burnt and her animals
were killed. And in 1981 a Mexican mob stoned a women to death after suspecting
her of the witchcraft, that they believed caused the attack upon Pope John Paul
II. (2). I feel that it is because men ran churches that witch hunting got so
out of hand. I love Helen Ellerbe’s following statement: “It is hardly
surprising that women who not only possessed medicinal knowledge but who used
that knowledge to comfort and care for other women would become prime suspects
of witchcraft.” (Helen Ellerbe, The Dark Side of Christian History)(2). In one
complete sentence Helen was able to sum up women’s early medical knowledge and
their ability to care for one another. What the Church did to women, witches or
not, sickens me as it should sicken every conscious living soul. They used their
power and also their fear of losing that power to execute millions of innocent
women. Not only did they execute them but they tortured them in unthinkable
ways. The Church and men alike should be forever sorry for their part in the
witch hunting craze.