Liam Mackenzie

2o16

 

Quotes: (https://blog.lrei.org/colonial-museum/wiki/witches-witchcraft/witches-witchcraft-notes/)

“In Europe there is a book called the Malleus Maleficarum which comes out in the 1400, it is the second most popular book next to the bible. It is about witchcraft…“That is true the witch craze and it goes back to that book that I mentioned. The Malleus Maleficarum it is Latin for the hammer of witches. They say that only women can be witches. Before the book came out both men and women were equally accused of witchcraft. A gentlemen who wrote that book Heinrich Kramer was a monk and it was part of his inquisition as well. So it was a very difficult time to be a women in Europe during that period.”

(https://blog.lrei.org/colonial-museum/wiki/witches-witchcraft/witches-witchcraft-notes/)

” The book said that witches may use ceremonial music, dancing, and incantations. Sometimes a witch casts a spell by reciting a magic formula. The spell makes the victim suffer. Witches also use masks or dolls to create the likeliness of spirits and people. For example, a witch might make a small wax or wooden image of the victim. She might put something from the victim’s body, such as fingernail clippings or hair, into the image. Then the witch destroys the image by cutting it, burning it, or sticking pins into it. The victim supposedly suffers severe pain or death.” (Wilson, pg. 9)

Paraphrase:

-In the 1400s a book called the Malleus Maleficarum was published and written by a man named Heinrich Kramer. Kramers book grew more popular and ended up being the best selling book in the Colonial Times, besides The Bible. Malleus Maleficarum is about how to deal with witches and their power. It means hammer of the witches in Latin.

-The book said that witches could only be women and that spiked the amount of women being convicted. It also said that the witches used dance, music, and by reciting formulas. A witch would also make a doll of the person she wanted to curse. She would then cut or break the doll and it would effect the person.

-In the book they talk about how You can extract a male demond that is trying to abus you by getting an exorsist. The christians did not believe in using exorsists so the book whent agaist christianity.

-In the book they say the bewst way to get a confession out of a suspercted witch was to toture them. The government would burn people that went against God. In Malleus Maleficarum you were supossed to torure witches to get information out of them.

 

“In Malleus, exorcism is, for example, one of the five ways to overcome the attacks of incubi prayer and transubstantion are traditionally excluded by Christians from the category of magical rites.

“The recommended procedures include torture to effectively obtain confessions and death penalty as the only sure remedy against evils of witchcraft. At that time, it was typical to burn heretics alive at the stake and Malleus encouraged the same treatment of witches.”

Big Ideas:

In the Colonial Times people sought advice from books. Sometimes just buying the Bible would take at least one year of savings. The second best selling book at that time was called The Malleus Maleficarum. It was written by a monk by the name of Heinrich Kramer. Just from the title, meaning Hammer of Witches in Latin, this book was all about stopping the greatly feared witches. The book consisted of many ways that witches would curse their enemies, and how to stop these awful beings. Heinrich also stated that only women could be witches. This spiked the amount of convictions for women and freed hundreds of imprisoned men. One of the ways witches were said to have harmed their victims was to take a painting, or a doll that had either the hair or the finger nails of the witches victim. The witch would then perform various rituals including: cutting, ripping, and burning the doll. Thus, anything that the witch did to the doll would effect the actual person. In the book they state the five ways to rid yourself of an Incubi. An Incubi is a male spirit that is trying to abuse and harm a woman. The woman can meet with an incubi in her dreams, or when she is alone at night. One of the ways to rid someone of an Incubi is to hire an exorcist. An exorcist is a doctor whose specific job is to extract the demon or spirit out of the victim. Exorcists were actually looked down upon before this book came out, but suddenly became a popular way of extracting demons. This book is like Wikileaks because Information is set up to be publicly shown at times that will benefit a certain group. The Malleus Maleficarums’ only purpose was to show the world that witches in fact did exist, and that men could not be witches. The writer’s only intention was to save the men that were being convicted of witchcraft, and kill more women. It was, in truth, a sexist book. Wikileaks’ only purpose is to release information about a certain group at the worst time possible. For example Julian Assange(the leader of wikileaks) has the hope that  Hillary Clinton will lose the election because of his information. If you notice, Heinrich Kramer was a man trying to get more women killed, and Julian Assange is a agitator trying to make a democrat lose. Both people are trying to put down their opposites. I see this all the time in our daily life just in the way we act. It is human nature to put down people different from us, but Kramer and Julian do this to an extreme and crazy level. Witchcraft was just a way for people like Heinrich Kramer to put down his opposite gender. He decided to put his words out in a piece of literature, which is usually an effective way of getting your message out. The problem is that the message was sexist.

 

 

 

Acadia S.
2015

Role of Women
Source: Hakim, Joy. Making 13 Colonies. New York: Oxford UP, 1993.
Quote(s):

Those are the terms when a shipload of women arrives in Jamestown in 1629. These are poor women who are unable to pay the cost of their Atlantic journey. They want a new life in this new land. The lonely men want wives. There will be instant romances on the docks. What do you think of these crazy women? Do you think they are scared? Courageous? Crazy? A few white women have already been sent to Jamestown, but sending an entire boatload of them to be wives means that the English Plan to stay and make homes In america.The French, who are settling in the North, are less likely to send women. Still, in 1619, the men in Jamestown outnumber the women by eight to one.

Paraphrase:

• shipload of women arrive in Jamestown
• the women are poor and seeking husbands
• the men want the women to come so that they can have help around the house and so that they can start a family
• a few white women have already been sent over but never an entire boatload
• the French are not sending women over
• the women are still outnumber by the men 8 to 1

My Ideas:  The women that were coming over from England were poor, single and, seeking a new life. They wanted to come the Jamestown to start a new family and have a good life, they had know idea what would be in store with them with all the witch drama. These women had slim to no rights at all and, were just expected to have kids and take care of the men. Women were considered weak and helpless, so why would men and other women be accusing them of witchcraft? When the women came to the colonies they still had no rights, they still couldn’t work for themselves and build their own life without a man. That’s one of the reasons I think witchcraft was carried on and out for so long. In multiple resources such as, books, databases, websites and, more it says that people would call women who were widowers or single witches. But why, why single? Maybe it was because other women were jealous of all the freedom these single women were getting and, the more rights they were being offered. Maybe the men that were accusing these women were upset that the women got to have more rights and men didn’t want that. Did people really believe in witches or was it just a social or jealousy problem.

Isabella – The Salem Witch Trials

2015

Source:

Wilson, Lori Lee. The Salem Witch Trials. Minneapolis: Lerner Company, 1997. Print.

Pages:

107

Quote:

“People who believe in witches think a witch can harm people in various ways. Witches may use ceremonial music, dancing, and incantations. Sometimes a witch casts a spell by reciting a magic formula.The spell makes the victim suffer. Witches also use masks or dolls to create the likeliness of spirits and people. For example, a witch might make a small wax or wooden image of the victim. She might put something from the victim’s body, such as fingernail clippings or hair, into the image. Then the witch destroys the image by cutting it, burning it, or sticking pins into it. The victim supposedly suffers severe pain or death.” (Wilson, pg. 9)

Paraphrase:

• Witches used dolls as toys to kill people
• They had songs and dances to kill a person
• Sometimes they would use potions to kill victims
• They would collect hairs to put on the doll they would use to kill people
• They would burn or stab the doll they would use to represent their victim
• Evil women that killed people they didn’t like

My Ideas:

I notice that witches were commonly known to fly around on broomsticks. I wonder where that idea came from. Who had the idea that witches made dolls and potions to kill people? Did they see them making potions and dolls and assumed that they were witches? If someone saw a woman making a wax or wooden doll, would they just assume they were a witch? Who had the idea that witches flew around on broomsticks? I can infer that most of these stories and rumors came from either someone who hallucinates a lot or had bad dreams. Though I don’t think it’s right that people would blame others they didn’t like for witchcraft, I can understand why they would do that. Perhaps they thought that the witch didn’t like them either and was doing it because of that reason.

Ruthanne

The Malleus Maleficarum

 

Quotes:

 

“In Europe there is a book called the Malleus Maleficarum which comes out in the 1400, it is the second most popular book next to the bible. It is about witchcraft and so the craze had been going on in Europe for hundreds of years, thousands and thousands of women are being burned at the stake for witchcraft. So all of that is in everybody’s heads when they are over here in Massachusetts, and so it is a lot of fear involved with that.”

 

“That is true the witch craze and it goes back to that book that I mentioned. The Malleus Maleficarum it is latin for the hammer of witches. They say that only women can be witches. So that means that it goes from being a slap on the wrist to people being burned on the stake, and only women can do it. Before that book comes out both men and women are equally being accused of witchcraft, and it is again a little slap on the wrist that white magic. The two gentlemen who wrote that book heinrich kramer were monks and it was part of the inquisition as well. So it was a very difficult time to be a women in europe during that period. The witch craze is primarily happening in Spain and France.”  

 

Key points:

 

– in Europe the was a book called the Malleus Maleficarum

– the Malleus Maleficarum talks about how women can only be witches

– comes out in the 1400

– second most popular book in Europe

– witch craze in Europe

– thousands of women being burned

– that is in people’s heads when the come over

– Malleus Maleficarum is latin for the hammer of witches

– says only women can be witches

– goes from being a slap on the wrist to being burned

– before the book came out women and men were being burned

– after only women

– written by two gentlemen

– the gentlemen were monks

– was a very difficult time to be a women in Europe

– witch craze was happening mostly in Spain and France

 

My ideas:

 

The Malleus Maleficarum was a book that was written in Europe at the time when lots of people (men and women) were being burned at the stake for witchcraft. Inside the book it talks about how women can only be witches and how you know if a person is a witch. The two people who wrote the book were men. To me I think that they might have purposely made it come out at this time. I do not think that they made it just to say oh this is how you know someone is a witch and by the way they can only be women. I think that they said that because before it came out men and women were being accused of witchcraft. I think that they made the book because they wanted to send the message the women were the only people that could become witches, though why? You might never really know for sure though I think that it might be to stop men from being accused. They might have just wanted to save themselves, though I do not think that is it. I think it might have had to do with the role of women. It could even have to do with the fact that women were thought of as less than men. They might have thought that because they are less than us they are the only people that can be witches. Though something that is weird is that they did not only say in the book that only women could be witches they also said how to identify a witch. I wonder if they said things that were already ways that people identified witches or if they also said new ways. Also if they did add some new ways did people just believe them and start looking for those things? If so then why? When the book came out it was the second most popular book next to the bible. I wonder how it got to be that way. Did people really like it that much? It must have not been a book that you would read for fun. People might have started to get the book for their own protection. The book was filled with ways of how to identify a witch so people must have bought it because they felt that they needed it to stay safe. They must have thought that if they did not have the book they would not know how to identify a witch and might be cursed.