sophialorens:

History Meme > 1/10 moments: The 16th-18th Century Witch-craze

Between the 1500’s to the early 1700’s the witch-craze reached its height, this was the era of the witch hunters and tens of thousands perished at the hands of prosecutors. Though many records have been lost of destroyed, most historians believe that  around 200,000 people were tried for witchcraft and about half that number were executed during this time. Around 90% of “witches” were elderly or widowed women and children.

“All wickedness, is but little to the wickedness of the woman… What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an un-escapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil nature, painted with fair colours… Women are by nature instruments of Satan… they are by nature carnal, a structural defect rooted in the original creation.” – Heinrich Kramer (Malleus Maleficarum/Hammer of the Witches, 1486)

“The devil wins over more women than men, because they are naturally more imbecile. And we see among those brought before the parlemants on charges of witchcraft, there are ten times more women.” – Pierre de Lancre (Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges et démons/On the Inconstancy of Witches, 1612)

“It is the power of bestial desire which has reduced women to extremities to indulge these appetites, or to avenge themselves…for the internal organs are seen to be larger in women than in men, whose desires are not so violent: by contrast, the heads of men are much larger, and in consequence they have more brains and prudence than women.” – Jean Bodin (De la démonomanie des sorciers/Of the Demon-mania of the Sorcerers, 1604)