The Burning Times

The Burning Times (also known as the Women’s Holocaust) refers to the 100 year period that the witch hunts peaked in Europe, between the years 1550 and 1650. The rumors that were spread by the church had escalated at this point and Europe was in a state of mass hysteria.

Recent historians estimate that anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 people were tortured and killed during The Burning Times. Records were not always kept, so it is possible the number of people killed is much higher. About 85% of those tortured were women.

There are so many unanswered questions: What was it about women that made the church feel so threatened? What was the church afraid of? How did this start and how did it get so out of hand? Why do superstitions continue in a supposedly civilized society?

Every woman should be filled with shame by the thought that she is a woman. -St. Clemente of Alexandria

Women weren’t always thought of as the inferior sex. In the days before Christianity, the most religious people in the villages were women. The Goddess was worshipped and she was the diety who gave life to everything in our world. Wise women knew how to use herbs to cure sick people. They were councils to kings and queens. They healed wounded soldiers after battle, aided couples with infertility and assisted women in labor.

The Hebrews were different. They worshipped only one God and he was male. Eventually Christiantiy was invented and Christians also worship one male diety. The Christian and Hebrew bible’s very first story in the book of Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve, makes it very clear: A woman is to blame for original sin. Thus, God punished all of females -including female animals- by giving women excruciating pain while giving birth. Not only this but all of humankind was punished due to Eve. Because of women, God must send his only son to this world to be sacraficed so that humankind could be saved.

Midwives were an easy target. They were the wise women who helped pregnant women in labor. They knew techniques and knew of herbs that helped to alleviate the pains that come with labor. It was against the will of God- so the church believed- to help the sinful woman who was rightfully being punished by her creator. Suddenly, what was once thought of as a gift- that women were able to bring life into the world- was now thought of as disgusting and shameful.

Among others that were accused were widows and spinsters. Men and women were equally accused for reasons like not attending mass, questioning the church or even not fitting in with what society deemed as normal. Chidren of accused witches were not immune to the tortures inflicted on their parents.

Two Domenican monks were appointed by The Vatican to write a book about Witchcraft. The authors’ names were Sprenger and Kreamer. Although by this time there were many slanderous books written about women and Paganism, nothing came even close to their book, The Malleus Maleficarum which was written in 1486 and published in 1487. Although rejected by scholars, the book was widely read and available to the public. For The Inquisitors, this book was their guide and their bible.

There are three parts to the book. The first part explains witchcraft, why the devil needed witches and why women were easily tempted by the devil. The second part details how witches cast spells, recruit others and how to prevent witchcraft. The third parts explains in detail how to persecute a witch, from how to make an arrest, to torture and finally execute.

It is written in the book that women were more likely to be witches than men due to their weak and lustful nature. The witch’s sabbath was a night where witches flew on broomsticks to their meeting place to have sex with Satan. They sacraficed humans, ate babies and cursed the good people in their village. They were responsible for miscarraiges, impotence, natural disasters, sickness, droughts and bad crops.

The book goes on to say that a witch would have a mark of the devil on her body. An accused witch was to be stripped down and shaved in order to find the mark. A mark could be a mole, a wart, a pimple and even freckles. Once a mark was found, the torturers would insert long, sharp pins into the victim’s flesh or sear the mark with red-hot branding irons to test the mark. If no mark was found, needles would be stuck in a victim’s eyes.

The torturers were never to look their victims in the eye. Witches were thought to be dangerous and if a torturer looked an accused witch in the eye, he may feel pity for her. Women who did not cry at their hearing were automatically believed to be witches.

When the witch hunts of Europe peaked (The Burning Times), the Catholic and Protestent Churches had the continent in panic. Although this period has also been called The Women’s Holocaust, the truth is that nobody was safe, not even children.

Neighbors accused neighbors. Village dwellers would point the finger at their enemies. Often, Inquisitors would target rich widows in order to take their money and property.

Some villages would start with one or two accused witches to hundreds being accused. In a small German town, 139 women were burned in one day. In another area, 19 priests and 31 children were executed. Some villages had no women left.

Under torture, the accused were forced to confess to crimes they didn’t commit and name other witches. The pain and torture went on for days and the accused would say and do anything to make it stop, including naming innocent villagers.

Women who were imprisoned were driven mad. According to one physician serving in witch prisons: “By frequent torture… kept in prolonged squalor and darkness of their dungeons, constantly dragged out to undergo atrocious torment until they would gladly exchange at any moment this most bitter existence for death, are willing to confess whatever crimes are suggested, rather than be thrust back into their hideous dungeon amid ever recurring torture.”

Execution was done at public squares so the communmity could watch. To prevent the victims from speaking to the crowds, they were gagged or even had their tongues cut out. The accused were either hanged, burned or drowned. A method called Swimming the Witch, involved bounding the accused and throwing her into a lake. If she floated, she was a witch. If she drowned, she was innocent. It didn’t matter, either way she would die.

Germany, France and Poland were among the countries where the witch hunts were out of control. Spain had actually put a ban on witch hunts after only a few executions. It was even illegal to discuss witches or the hunts in Spain. Despite this, the madness continued for centuries.

Warlocks (Witches) are the enemies of God! And I don’t care what kind of hero they are, they’re an enemy of God and had it been in the Old Testament, Harry Potter would have been put to death! -Becky Fisher, Jesus Camp (2004)

In the end, the hunts succeeded in removing any sign of the sacred feminine in religion and scared people into following Christianity. Prejudice and ignorance are still among us.

We have been seeing a revival of the old religion (Paganism) in recent decades. This revival has caused a backlash in the Evangelical community. Pastors preach of old superstitions about The Craft. Witch hunters, like Helen Ukpabio from Nigeria, has contributed to the torture and murder of infants and toddlers accused of witchcraft. United States fundalmentalists have been known to protest Wiccans, holding signs like ‘Witchcraft is an abomination” and “Burn the Witches” outside Wiccan organizations.

Conservative religions continue to preach that it is a sin to question God, the bible or even a preacher. This type of teaching has proven over and over again to be dangerous. Sadly, nothing was learned from the witch hunts of the Middle Ages.

Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence. – Author Unknown

1450: The Witch Hunts officially begin

1487: Heinrich Kraemer and Jacob Sprenger’s book, Malleus Maleficaurm (The Hammer for Witches), is published.

1542: Witchcraft becomes a federal crime in England.

1550 – 1650: Witch hunts reach their peak in Europe. Anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 accused witches were killed.

1584: Reginald Scot publishes a book, Discoverie of Witchcraft. In it he states that witches, with their supernatural powers, do not exist.

1590 – 1700: In Scottland, the Presbyterian church instigated witch hunts that lead to over 1,300 executions.

1595: Nicolas Remy’s book, Demonolatreiae, is published. He claims to have killed over 800 witches. The book describes the witches Sabbath in fictional detail.

1631: Fredrich Spee von Langenfield condemned witch hunts in Wurszurg Germany. He wrote in his book Cautio Criminalis, that the accused were confessing only because of the sadistic tortures they were subjected to.

1684: Witch hunts end in England.

1692: As the witch hunting dies down in Europe, young girls in Salem, MA. go into convulsions and blame three women, one a slave, for casting curses on them. Within two months, 200 people were accused. Nineteen women and five men lost their lives.

1745: Witch hunts end in France.

1775 – 1792: Witch hunts end in Germany, Poland and Switzerland.

1830: The church condemns witch hunts in South Africa and the hunts cease.

1980: The book, Michelle Remembers is published. The book revives a fear in Witchcraft and Satanism. Panic begins in Canada and the U.S.

1980 – Present: Witch hunts have resurfaced in Africa thanks to a new wave of Pentacostal and Evangelical preachers. Thousands of women and children are killed or in exile. Infants and toddlers are killed or abandonned by parents and villagers who believe the children are witches.

1994 – 1996: In the Northern Provinence in South Africa, hundreds are lynched after being accused of witchcraft.

1995: Pope John Paul apologized for the injustices committed against women, the violation of women’s rights and for the historical denigration of women.

1999 – Present: Fundalmentalist Christian pastors in the Unitd States frequently preach against witchcraft and refer to those who practice Wicca as Satanists who drink blood of sacraficed babies.