Modern World History 2017 Witchcraft was a common scapegoat for unexplained occurrences in many countries in early centuries However in Europe citizens would often conduct with hunts where they would round up accused witches and execute them The book the Malleus Maleficarum The Witch Hammer played a major role in causing witch hunts to be conducted This is due to the acute inequality presented in the piece wherein they hold the belief that where there are women there are witches as well as stating that any white person who did not fit the beliefs of Christianity was branded a witch Lastly many scientists were also branded witches as they were going off science rather than modern Christian beliefs The Malleus Maleficarum represented inequality and oppression of women in the 15th century It said that any place with lots of women was bound to have witches This lead to many arbitrary deaths of women According to Wicasta Lovelace Estimates of the death toll during the Inquisition worldwide range from 600 000 to 9 000 000 over its 250 year course either is a chilling number when one realizes that nearly all of the accused were women This is proof that women were more unjustly accused than any others The death of 600 000 to 9 000 000 women shows that equality was of unimportance in Europe
These deaths were often for arbitrary reasons such as a woman having a wart or mole that was thought to make them a witch Any woman who was thought to be a witch was executed mostly by hanging According to the Malleus Maleficarum all witchcraft comes from carnal lust which is in women insatiable This quote is explaining that the Malleus Maleficarum thought that all women were evil at the core and that the lust that was in the core of all women was the cause of witchcraft The Malleus Maleficarum represented inequality in many ways this being one of the main ones Without the Malleus Maleficarum witch hunts may not have been solely conducted on women White men could possibly have played a larger role in these events and the death of many women may not have happened The Malleus Maleficarum represented not only gender inequality but also religious inequality In the book they are hugely biased against anyone not fitting modern Christian Beliefs This is shown when the Malleus Maleficarum statesm Whether the belief that there are such beings as witches is so essential a part of the Catholic Faith that obstinacy to maintain the opposite opinion manifestly savors of heresy
This shows that anyone who was thought to be a witch was often a non Christian and persecuted People who were suspicious of witchcraft s existence were often thought to be going against their faith Also when the book gained popularity it was almost impossible to deny witchcraft without being questioned Another example is when Edo Nyland states anyone who did not fit within the contemporary view of pious Christians were suspects and easily branded Witch This shows that if you were not Christian you were immediately thought to be evil Among women anyone who was an outcast non Christian such as gypsies and Jews was immediately persecuted Christianity being one of the most popular religions in Europe was often stuck to very precisely and when gone against whomever went against was considered evil or an outcast The Malleus Maleficarum further caused this when it stated that any non Christian was a witch Nyland again states The Malleus drew upon those beliefs and by its very existence reinforced them and brought them into the codified belief system of the Catholic Church In many ways it could be said that it helped to validate the Inquisition itself
This quote is explaining how the Malleus Maleficarum is fairly responsible for causing Christianity to be stuck to so strictly It also is exposing that in a way the Malleus Maleficarum is somewhat responsible for the Inquisition Scientists were also attacked during this time The Malleus Maleficarum was against anyone who was even slightly astray from the Christian norm According to Wicasta Lovelace Scientists we re branded heretics by virtue of repudiating certain tenets of Christian belief An important scientist who was branded as so was Galileo His theories were thought to go against Christianity and so he was branded heretical Lovelace also stated Anyone who questioned the validity of any part of Catholic belief did so at their own risk Scientists who often went against what Catholicism said was the correct theory were taking a major risk and could face severe punishment possibly even death Christianity played such a major role in the societal norms of Europe at this time that anyone who went against it was easy to point out and were often undisguisable Writers were often accused as Well due to the content of some of their work According to Lovelace Writers who challenged the church were arrested for heresy sometimes formerly accepted writers whose works had become unpopular This shows that the church and Christianity had enough power to easily influence what people read and anything they believed The Malleus Maleficarum was highly influential however they were often negative impacts It caused women to be arbitrarily punished and represented inequality It caused Christianity to become the sociał norm almost violently and anyone who strayed was persecuted Scientists were unaccepted as they went against Christian beliefs as were writers The Malleus Maleficarum was a highly influential piece that caused the Inquisition
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