Our Family Link: A Reasoned Hypothesis
Before I start, please know that this interpretation of witches, witchcraft and our family connection is based on my own thoughts and findings. I have very little knowledge of witchcraft, and the connection to our family tree is based on limited evidence. By a process of elimination, and knowledge of known living persons at the time, I consider the connection highly likely.
The Birth of Witchcraft Hysteria
In a world dominated by religion and the Church, but beset by suffering and misfortune, it has always been human nature to find a reason for cruel circumstance. God is good, but if he is, why do bad things happen? In a Christian England, for centuries most people believed in an all-powerful God with the cause of all evil blamed on Satan. God loved us all. He would not want us to suffer. There must have been another source for the evil in the world. Some blame man for evil, and others blame the devil.
The idea of magic and sorcery can be traced back to ancient civilisations. However, the idea of witchcraft specifically, began to gain momentum in the 15th century, particularly in Europe. In 1486 a German Catholic clergyman wrote ‘The Malleus Maleficarum’, translated as ‘The Hammer of the Witches’. This clergyman, a celibate monk, was obsessed with the sexuality of women. He believed that women were insatiable and the cause of all evil. He particularly distrusted single women. Those who had their own thoughts and ideas. Those who were not controlled by a man. These were the type of women to be feared. What caused these women to be so difficult? They had no man, and hence they were full of lust which meant they were out of control. Some might follow this belief today, but one hopes, if voiced, it is with tongue in cheek.
A Holy Man?
Or a Psychopathic Misogynist?
Historians now regard this German monk as a psychopathic misogynist. Some of his contemporaries thought the same. Despite this, history shows that it did not stop him from having a disastrous effect on the views of a global population. HIs views were presented as the views of the Catholic church, which was dangerous. The writing of his book coincided with the invention of the printing press, which proved even more dangerous. This invention meant that people’s ideas and writings could be published and distributed in many different languages. The invention of the printing press was the modern-day equivalent of the invention of the internet. ‘The Malleus Maleficarum’ and this holy man’s preposterous ideas went viral! Nothing like it had been written before. It was a medieval form of pornography, and the populations of the world loved it and swallowed it up! On top of this, the Church believed in witchcraft, so it was considered that it must be true! This was the 15th century. A time when scientific evidence was little thought of. A well-known and respected clergyman of the Catholic church was endorsing the existence of witchcraft. Europe was at this time suffering extremely cold weather conditions - harvests had been poor, people were starving – the time was ripe for finding something to blame. The blame was firmly placed on sorcery and witchcraft, and to strengthen this belief, the Church blamed it too.
‘The Malleus Maleficarum’ was a manual designed to instruct how to identify, hunt, interrogate and accuse witches. It encouraged the use of torture to gain confessions. In some instances, pregnant women were tortured for days. It was thought that if tortured enough, it would break the accused, forcing them to admit guilt. That this was allowed to happen seems ridiculous today, but with the growing fear and mania, it was felt a confession was imperative to rid the world of this evil. It had to be done. So began three centuries of witch trials, accusations, and up to 60,000 executions. The majority of these executions being women accused of witchcraft.
