Well, I can't find my copy of the Malleus Maleficarum, which was the Middle
Ages key to finding and "questioning" witches. I recall a section in it
which referred to white, or healing, witches who could actually comfort and
heal. In the Malleus, they were more to be feared than even the "bad"
witches. The Dominican Inquisitors who wrote the Malleus clearly wrote that
women are much more susceptible to witchcraft then men, that "They have
slippery tongues and cannot keep silent; they are formed from a bent rib and
so are defective; they always deceive." "The Inquisitors conclude:
'Blessed be the Most High who has so far preserved the male sex from so
great a crime'." Oh: and women know "...no moderation in goodnes or vice".
I did find a reference in "Beyond Power" by Marilyn French, which shows that
"..as early as 1460, when the University of Paris initiated a medical
curriculum open ony to male students aspersions of witchcraft were being made
against women. Women were being excluded from the parctice of medicine, and
the witchcraft trials also functioned to draw a distinction between male
physicians and female healers, placing the males on a high moral and
intellectual plane, allied with God and the Law, and on a professional par
with lawyers and theologians, while degrading women to subhuman status,
allying them with the devil, darkness, evil, and magic." page 168. This
kind of sounds to me as though more was involved here than one group having a
nature philosophy: especially when successful women healers were the most
feared.
I think it is also important to remember that when we say "physician" in the
15th centrury, we are not talking about anything like medicine today. I
invite you to investigate their "medical" practices. The women "healers"
used herbal and common sense methods, many that worked (i.e., willow tea).
For an excellent, mind-bending example of this, read what Florence
Nightingale had to go through when she suggested the doctors wash between
patients, and that the patients be kept clean. I
DMADRONE
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Jun 8 15:15:47 1997
(8.8.4/actcom-0.1) id AAA03276 for <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
Mon, 9 Jun 1997 00:15:15 +0300 (EET DST)
(rfc931-sender: p5.j2.actcom.co.il [192.115.22.23])
Date: Sun, 08 Jun 1997 23:07:16 +0300
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ben Fox)
Subject: witches
>The Dominican Inquisitors who wrote the Malleus clearly wrote that
>women are much more susceptible to witchcraft then men
Dear DMadrone,
I see you know your witchcraft. All I asked for was proof.
Ben.
