Topic 13: The Italian Renaissance
Overview and Reading Assignment
There is hardly a more loaded term than the >Renaissance.= It is taken from a French word
which means 're-birth.' The term caught on among historians, looking for the roots of the
modern world, which they found in the time frame of the fourteenth-sixteenth centuries. These
historians observed how a new group of civic leaders seized power over towns and territories.
They ruled on the basis of their skill, strength, and determination alone, not by rights of
inheritance or by divine sanction. These men reflected what was termed the "triumph of
individualism," a new understanding of human capabilities and greatness that clashed with
waning medieval notions of Christian humility.
I agree with the evaluation that the civic governments created in Italy were revolutionary.
There was no precedent, no model, for these governments in the medieval world of feudal
knights and manors. I disagree, however, with the claim that Renaissance individualism was so
unique and liberating, while medieval mentalities are seen as myopic and restrictive.
Renaissance ideas associated with individualism were not completely novel, as if produced from
a vacuum. In large measure they were drawn from classical ideas. Inflated notions of the
Renaissance as the dawning of a new era in human history may be the result of accepting
without qualification propaganda which certain invested people, namely humanists and artists,
conveyed for self aggrandizement. Renaissance humanists expended tremendous effort to
promote themselves, to manipulate public attitudes, and to publicize a progressive, dynamic
image of themselves and the era in which they lived. No doubt there were splendid changes in
art, architecture, and literature, but how many people actually participated in that intellectual and
cultural revolution associated with the designation 'Renaissance' remains in question.
In this lecture, the Renaissance is described in its political and cultural matrix with special
reference to: 1) Italian politics in the Late Middle ages; 2) the development of new intellectual
skills and applications of those skills, associated with the movement known as Renaissance
humanism; and 3) a brief discussion of Renaissance art.
In conjunction with Topic 13, one should read in Hunt, et al., The Making of the West, vol.
I: To 1740, 2nd ed. pp. 506-14, 521-24.
XIII. The Italian Renaissance
A. Clash of Towns—the Fall of Republics. In the last discussion of medieval towns, we
focused on their history in the period of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. By that time,
there were well over thirty independent republican towns in northern and central Italy. The term
'republican' refers to towns ruled by town councils, with somewhat representative governments.
After 1300, however, most of these republics fell. Republican governments were replaced by
despotic governments, that is, minority rule, often one-man rule. The demise of republican
governments is attributed to several factors. Smaller towns were not able to compete with larger,
more successful and wealthier neighboring towns. Noble families eventually regained control
over some towns, usually owing to internal conflict. The struggle between factions of noble,
richer merchants and craftsmen weakened republican governments to the extent that 'strong
men,' usually nobles, were able to appropriate power. These were often captains of mercenary
armies that overthrew and seized control over the very municipal governments that had hired
them to protect the town.
B. Fifteenth-Century Italian Politics. By 1450, there were five major political players on the
Italian peninsula: 1) the Duchy of Milan (noble-ruled), 2) the Republic of Florence, 3) the Papal
States, 4) the Republic of Venice, and 5) the Kingdom of Sicily and Naples. The papacy
governed the Papal States. Once the conciliar movement healed the schism, popes in Rome
refurbished the city with money acquired through rents, tithes, fees, and indulgences, proceeds
collected ostensibly for crusades. Renaissance popes, often from noble families of Italy, were
naturally drawn into Italian affairs. Fifteenth-century popes directed much of their energy
toward reestablishing their authority over the Papal States; they felt compelled to regain control
over cities and territories, such as Urbino and Bologna, which had freed themselves from papal
supervision during the Babylonian captivity and the Great Schism. Some of these men could
plot and scheme with the best of them. Pope Sixtus IV (1471-84) allied himself with the Pazzi
family of Florence, up-and-coming bankers. Together they formed a conspiracy to assassinate
the Medici brothers, Lorenzo and Juliano. In 1478, during mass in the great cathedral, Juliano
was murdered; Lorenzo escaped and turned the tables against the Pazzi. The popes reigning in
the first decades of the sixteenth century were not auspicious models of spirituality.
Milan had been the chief center of opposition to the German emperors in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. Located in the rich land of the Po valley where trade routes from Italian
coastal cities to Alpine passes crossed, Milan was one of the richest city-states in Italy.
Politically, it was also one of the most agitated. Constant rivalry between the nobles who
possessed rich estates in the surrounding countryside and wealthy merchants within the city
enabled the Visconti family of nobles to seize power, which one did in 1322. The Visconti
became hereditary despots of Milan. After the death of the last Visconti ruler in 1447,
Francesco Sforza, a ruthless mercenary captain, broke his contract with his Milanese employers,
conquered the city, and proclaimed himself Milan's new duke. The Sforza's remained in power
until 1494.
The great republican city-state of Florence was the epicenter of the Renaissance. The
republican governments of Florence and Venice were remarkable exceptions to the trend towards
despotic government. The Florentines maintained a republic, but it was no democracy. After
1293, seventy-two noble families were banned from holding office. The lower class was
excluded from government as well. Florence was governed by aristocratic families and wealthy
bourgeois merchants.
In the late fifteenth century, Italy was the international prize for which Spain and France
wrestled. Dynastic rivalries and economic competition prevented the Italian city-states and
principalities from cooperating against common foes. Moreover, the peculiar international
status of the papacy thwarted efforts that might have stabilized relations in Italy. The papacy
paid for its involvement in the high stakes of international intrigue. In 1527 the unpaid soldiers
of the German emperor, Charles V, sacked Rome. With Rome in chaos and foreign soldiers
trampling fields and market squares, the Renaissance in Italy came to an end.
C. Renaissance Humanism and the Legitimation of Power. The phenomena of civic tyrants
and republican governments were unheard of in the Middle Ages. Here in Italian towns, new
forms of government and new sources of wealth were developing that had no counterpart in
feudal society. Merchants never fit into feudal society, composed of nobles, clergy, and
peasants. Yet in these Italian towns, merchants had risen to supreme positions of power. With
money, they could purchase armies. In other towns, nobles gained control, but these were not
nobles living off the work of peasants in the fields, but living off taxes and profits of merchants
and craftsmen. Think of the republican governments in Florence and Venice. Had any statecraft
like these been seen in the Middle Ages? No.
These new kinds of rulers, whether civic nobles or mercantile-governors, found very little
in medieval culture upon which they could draw inspiration, expert knowledge, and a key
component: legitimation. Civic leaders had to discover or formulate new political theories to
legitimate their claims to authority. They desperately needed information about: 1) models of
government to guide them, 2) sophisticated systems of law to govern the populace, and 3)
propagandists, i.e., historians, biographers, poets, and artists paid to lionize their
accomplishments and provide intellectual justification and rationalization for the accumulation
of power in non-feudal ways by non-feudal men. Hence, the impetus to the rise of humanism in
the fourteenth century, an intellectual movement that relied on ancient classical texts, studied
and applied to new political and social conditions.
The growth of trade and the needs of urban life insured that Italy led the way in schools and
universities not dominated by the study of theology. Enthusiasm for the classics had never
waned in the Middle Ages; nonetheless, the interest and need to study how the Romans ran a
republican government, how the Greeks functioned in democratic city-states, how urbanized
people lived, was never greater than in late medieval Italy. These issues and others, plus a
sincere search for knowledge, compelled scholars during the early Renaissance to devote utmost
effort to the recovery and study of classical texts. Wealthy patrons, civic nobles and
businessmen eagerly supported these pursuits.
Together they contributed to an intellectual movement reflected in the arts as well, in which
scholars and artists focused on humankind through human lenses rather than through 'biblical' or
'spiritual' lenses. Much more than medieval theologians, humanist scholars and artists attributed
sublime talents to humans. They exalted the human form and drew, painted, and sculpted it in a
more realistic, although still idealized style, rather than depicting it as flesh sack for the soul,
corrupted by sin.
Renaissance humanists pushed for a reform in the educational curriculum. Our word
humanism comes from the fourteenth century term, studia humanitatis—an expansion of the
medieval liberal arts program to include history and moral philosophy (political science,
government) with the emphasis placed on rhetoric rather than logic. The humanists were more
attuned to their environment, particularly civic environment. They thought education should
equip one to adapt and prosper in one's surroundings on earth, while medieval education was
concerned about the after-life.
Humanists devoted keen attention to rhetoric. The modern equivalent for their
understanding of 'rhetoric' would be 'communication.' Rhetoric included the study of eloquent
speech and writing. The purpose of rhetoric was to persuade the whole man of one's point, and
not just the intellect. With the emphasis on rhetoric, the humanists were broadening the concept
of communication. The humanists intended that the entire person should think and feel the
message rather than addressing only his reason and faith—the scholastic method. Rhetoric
moved the heart as well as the mind, and therefore according to the humanists, it was a more
effective tool. Hence Petrarch's dictum, "It is better to will the good than to know it." Reason
and the scholastic method instructed the intellect, but rhetoric stirred the will.
Petrarch (1304-74) has been called the "father of humanism." He was obsessed with the
study of classical authors, mainly Roman. He traveled great distances to find ancient texts,
collecting dust in monastic libraries. He pored over these texts and spent weeks copying some of
them. He modeled his Latin after the style of the great Roman orators. To imitate classical
authors like Cicero meant a vast improvement over the pedantic or turgid, dry disputations of the
scholastics or the simplistic reports of chroniclers.
Petrarch and the humanists understood anachronism, i.e, to place an idea or a thing in the
wrong historical context. A flagrant example of anachronism is displayed by chivalric writers.
Jesus and the angels were believed to be knights, just as were Julius Caesar and Augustus.
While Italian burghers enjoyed competing in knightly jousts, they were not under the delusion
that they were medieval knights. Petrarch and the humanists perceived that their time in history
was different, much different in their eyes, than the previous dark era when scholastic
theologians ruled and 'good letters' were lost. Modern historians follow the humanists'
periodization of European history: the classical age, Middle Ages and the recovery of the
classical heritage.
Petrarch climbed a mountain once for the sheer enjoyment of it. The humanists reveled in
human pleasures and feelings, unconnected to religious issues. Yet, Petrarch and other
humanists did not reject the morality of Christianity. Rather, they wanted sermons detailing
classical tales of heroic figures, not more stories about demons and saints, the stock material of
medieval preachers.
The religious theme can not be denied in Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of
Man (see SWT readings). Pico's immense erudition is obvious. He seems to have read
everything. His studies led him to the conclusion that humans have been given a unique position
in creation and an awesome capability. They have been endowed with a free will to chose
between two destinies: the celestial, the path of the soul and intellect; or the material and
mundane, the path dictated by the cravings of the body. Pico's emphasis on free will reflects not
only the Catholic insistence of human responsibility, but it speaks as well to the ambitions of
Renaissance businessmen and political leaders. Each person was believed to have gifts bestowed
by God which he or she must use for the glory of God and humankind. One's destiny is not
preordained by the divine; rather, one has the responsibility, the privilege, to pursue goals and
ambitions. In Sinatra’s words: "I did it my way."
The emphasis on communication and rhetoric was tied closely to the urban revolution. City
life required much more communication than living on a manor. There were gradations of
communication: communication between merchants, buyers and sellers, on a higher level
between lawyers and notaries, and higher still, amongst political leaders and diplomats, i.e.,
dialogue between towns. Humanists were hired to meet these needs; this aspect of humanism is
referred to as civic humanism. Beginning with Coluccio Salutati (d. 1406), the city of Florence
retained humanists as their chancellors. The office of the Chancellor was responsible for internal
dialogue between departments of the government and all foreign correspondence. Humanists
were hired to promote an enlightened and sophisticated image of the town they represent.
Humanist professionals, these "pens for hire," eagerly sought jobs in which they could influence
municipal policies. They pushed for the recognition of 'professionals,' men of knowledge and
specialized skills, who, they argued, were vastly more important to urbanized society than
people who claim a noble birthright only, or those who spend their time on their knees in prayer.
And in turn, humanists were hired as tutors or professors in schools, in which the sons and
daughters of merchants and civic leaders were indoctrinated with fresh ideas about human talent,
wealth, and its potential for good, rather than about evils of money and how to avoid the
temptations of the material world.
New groups of professionals created unconventional careers. These individuals mounted
an impassioned public relations campaign. They pushed incessantly for their reform agenda,
while they critiqued the establishment. These professionals obtained a living, whether as
scholars or artists, because of surplus wealth, available since towns and trade had been
revitalized. This renewal of urban life began in Italy. Italian towns laid the economic and social
foundations which paved the way for the Renaissance. But, and this is an important 'but,' the
vast majority of Europeans still lived in rural settings. Less than 10% of Europe's population
lived in towns in the fourteenth century. In even the most densely populated areas, in what are
today parts of Belgium, Holland and Italy, the percentages reached only 25 to 35.
Humanism as a movement was elitist. The humanists corresponded extensively, comparing
their styles and constantly sniping at each other in a game of academic one-upmanship. They
believed the educated would raise the rest of society out of the pit of ignorance and superstition.
Most humanists did not belong to clerical orders. There were humanist trained churchmen
attempting to educate their clergy while meeting the needs of the literate laity. Still, most clergy
were trained as scholastics; few universities hired humanist trained professors.
D. Renaissance Art, Anatomy, and Mathematics. Artists of the Middle Ages lacked a theory
of mathematical perspective, a perspective they were not interested in, for they were keen on
depicting spiritual truths rather than the material world. Italian painters like Giotto began to
show a greater sense of perspective, of light diffusion, and shading. The Italian artists of the
fourteenth century were representing the human form more accurately than had their
predecessors. This was part of the general humanist perspective discussed earlier. The
humanists, scholars and artists, viewed the world through 'classical' lenses, rather than through
medieval 'biblical' lenses. The classical world view tended to depict humans as the focal point of
reality, rather than focusing on God or an other worldly dimension. To medieval artists, spatial
dimensions in the physical world were sacrificed in order to emphasize spiritual values.
Beginning with Giotto, Italian artists led the way in portraying humans in a more natural or
'realistic' fashion. To do so artists studied the ruins of classical art and architecture, applied
mathematical principles of geometry, and they experimented. The work of linguistic humanists
brought to scholars' attention not only the Latin writers, but more importantly for art's sake, the
Greek masters. The study of philosophy easily blended into an investigation into mathematics.
Several of the great Greek philosophers, among them Pythagoras and Plato, emphasized
mathematical principles as keys to unlock the universe. One finds a conflation of humanist
attention to the human form with the pursuit of mathematics as a means to uncover truth.
The first major steps towards a new sense of artistic realism were taken in the early fifteenth
century. By the end of the century, the study of the human form, combined with the humanist
goal of ennobling the grandeur of being 'human,' resulted in the unsurpassed achievement of
Michelangelo (1475-1564) as represented in the sculpture of David. A young Michelangelo, just
twenty-six years old and fresh from his studies in southern Italy where he investigated Hellenic
art, sculpted this peerless masterpiece. He was commissioned by the town council of Florence to
present the city fathers with a work worthy of their great republican city. Essentially, he was to
lionize the Florentines.
Artists of the late fifteenth century, like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1515),were actively engaged in anatomical dissections to perfect their understanding of the
human form. Moreover, mathematics was equally important to Renaissance artists in
determining the correct proportions for the figures they drew. One can see this in anatomical
studies by Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci performed some twenty autopsies on the bodies of both
men and women. Da Vinci's willingness to get his hands 'dirty,' to investigate and experiment,
represented a dramatic change from the scholastic method of study in the universities. There
students were taught to memorize the work of past scholars and to defend conclusions on the
basis of the number of sources that could be adduced to support a position. They were not taught
to analyze conclusions by means of direct, personal observation.
Art and anatomy combined dramatically in the work of Andreas Vesalius (1514-64). A
Flemish physician, Vesalius taught at the university in Padua, where he performed dissections of
the body while he lectured. His revolutionary manual, On the Structure of the Human Body, was
illustrated by one of Titian's students. The illustrations provide a graphic, detailed record of the
musculature and skeletal framework of the human body. The illustrations pare away layer upon
layer of muscle to reveal the hidden structure underneath. Vesalius's book may be said to have
laid the foundation of modern medicine. He was the first major medical figure to break with
centuries old dogmatism about the human body.
Topic 14: Sixteenth-century Reformations
Overview and Reading Assignment
Europe underwent dramatic changes in the sixteenth century. The religious map of Europe was
forever changed in that century. Not only states and dukedoms bolted from the universal
Catholic church, but a host of imperial cities
expelled catholic priests as they welcomed
Protestant
pastors. By the end of the century, Europeans were divided as they turned their
devotions to new faiths of Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism and Anabaptism, while many
remained Catholic. The focus of this lecture is directed to this phenomenon known as the
Reformation,
which should be described as at least two "Reformations": 1) the Protestant
Reformation, named after the German princes that protested against the Holy Roman emperor
who intended to force them back into the Catholic church; and 2) the Catholic Reformation,
which was a concerted response to the spread of Protestantism. In truth there were several
‘reformations,’ all of which contributed to one of the greatest upheavals in European civilization.
In conjunction with Topic 14, one should read in Hunt, et al., The Making of the West, Vol. I:
To 1740, 2nd ed., pp. 547-51, 552-61, 573-75.
XIV. Sixteenth-century Reformations
A. Problems in the Catholic Church. Why a breakup in the Catholic Church might have
occurred is to some degree understandable when one recalls that the late medieval papacy was
not as strong as it had been, and its public image had been sullied by events considered earlier in
the topics on the late medieval papacy and the Renaissance. Popes in the late fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries endeavored to expand their position on the Italian peninsula, seemingly
unconcerned about abuses or problems in the church.
Besides popes playing power politics, many bishops, not all, were involved in dubious
practices. These included pluralism: high clergy held the title to more than one church office;
some cardinals and bishops received the income of several bishoprics and/or abbacies. This
practice contributed to absenteeism. There were bishops that seldom, if at all, visited their
dioceses. Not all bishops were guilty of these abuses, but enough were to arouse considerable
complaint.
Finally the papacy's, and by extension the church's reputation, was impugned for continued
fiscalization. One of the main controversies involved the sale of indulgences. Indulgences were
letters authorized by the pope which released the purchaser of said letter from certain penalties
or restitution charges. In other words, instead of fulfilling the obligations which a Catholic priest
laid upon a Christian for one's sins, a person could simply purchase a letter of indulgence and
would thereby be released from performing works of satisfaction. Indulgence sellers
unscrupulously pushed indulgences as an easy way to receive forgiveness for one's sins.
Ostensibly the proceeds from the sale of indulgences were to fund a crusade against the "infidel"
Turks; instead the money was divided with some going to Rome to renovate papal residences
and to pay for expensive artists to commemorate popes and some going into the treasuries of
secular rulers.
Despite these abuses, in 1500 Europe was united in worship in the Holy Apostolic Catholic
Church led by Christ's vicar on earth, the pope. The pope was recognized by Catholic
Christians, i.e., practically every European, as Christ's spokesman whose word and teachings
were deemed as authoritative as scripture, especially since he determined the proper
interpretation of the Bible. Indeed, the Catholic church was successful in inculcating a value
system in which people believed they were sinners, needing grace from God to be forgiven and
accepted by him. But basic issues, some doctrinal: how can a sinful, corrupt human being be
fully accepted by a holy God—and others administrative: the widening gap between
ecclesiastical hierarchy and ordinary priest and pew-packer—had not been resolved.
B. Martin Luther, the Reformation from the Pulpit. With this background in mind of deep
concern about spiritual matters, compounded with questioning and critique of the ecclesiastical
institution, we turn our attention to the German reformer,
Martin Luther.
1. The Ninety-five Theses. In Wittenberg in the principality
of Saxony, a state in the
northern part of the Holy Roman Empire, on 31 October 1517, a monk and university professor
of theology, Dr. Martin Luther, age thirty-three, tacked on the university church door a list of
criticisms, basically points for debate, ninety-five to be exact, about the practice and doctrine of
indulgences. Luther by posting the theses simply intended to announce a scholarly debate on the
abuses of indulgences. He had serious reservations about the false impressions that indulgences
were giving his students, and as a conscientious bible scholar and spiritual guide for monks, he
felt compelled to address this issue.
The Ninety-five Theses was removed from the church door, translated from Latin into
German, and within months Luther's criticisms were spread throughout Germany into France and
soon into England by way of printing presses and distributed among humanist circles and
monasteries. Unbeknownst to all, the first steps toward the Protestant Reformation were under
way.
The papal court denounced Luther's Ninety-five Theses in 1518 and initiated the process
whereby the author and his work were condemned. The papacy had no reason to doubt that its
case against this insignificant monk and professor from a recently founded university, without
prestige or tradition, would proceed without incident. Luther, however, with the support of his
immediate religious and secular authorities, would not back down. The issue centered on
whether Luther would submit to the teachings of the popes, written into canon law and accepted
by clergy and theologians as equal in authority to the scriptures, or would he continue to defend
his doctrinal criticisms of the church. Luther chose his view of scripture over the pope; the pope
chose excommunication for an unrepentant monk in January 1521.
2. Human Inclinations. In the early sixteenth century the Catholic Church's salvation
doctrine emphasized one's responsibility to respond with love towards God. The Church taught
that each person by an act of the will, i.e., "to do what is in one's own power to do," must choose
to love God and then perform good works for their fellow human beings. Good works refers to
acts of kindness, giving alms, volunteerism. By responding to God and others in this way, one
would receive more of God's grace and insure a proper relationship with God, in which God
accepts the person's devotion. Note the emphasis was on the individual's responsibility to
respond with love towards God and to demonstrate that love by performing good works.
Luther as a monk, tried with every fiber of his being to cultivate love towards God; instead, just
the opposite occurred. The more Luther was commanded to love God, the more he feared God,
even hated God. When he was told to do what was in his own power to do, Luther discovered
doubt and selfishness inside his heart. He came to believe that the human will is not free to
choose God or to love God. Human wills are bound to self-love, to self-fulfillment, which
Luther labeled and condemned as sin, a position quite contrary to Catholic dogma. Luther
rejected the salvation teaching of the church, root and branch. He believed he found a biblical
solution to his frustration, but his solution conflicted with the accepted reading of the Bible.
Luther placed all responsibility for an individual's salvation on God. God predetermined those
who would be saved; he gave them grace which enabled those chosen by God to turn to Christ
and receive God’s forgiveness through an act of faith, not love. Whereas the Catholic Church
had emphasized a response to God motivated by love, Luther contended that a person can only
respond to God first through faith, then true love can flow.
The main objective of Luther's reform program for the Church, was to proclaim the Gospel,
Christ's free gift of grace, without all the additions of canon law. With this message he intended
to free people's consciences from guilt trips engineered by the devil, propagated through the
teachings of the papacy. If enough pulpits of Germany were occupied by true messengers of the
Gospel, Luther believed that the power of God's word would win some hearts back to God in the
last few days remaining. For Luther was an apocalyptic herald which means that he perceived
history to be a struggle between God and the forces of the Antichrist, who rules the world and
most of its inhabitants. In the last days, which Luther believed he lived, God has granted a
reprieve, whereby preachers, armed with the truth of the Gospel, fight to free souls from the
shackles of Satan.
Luther's person and reform program conveyed different meanings and images to his
contemporaries. To some Luther was a prophet, one who stood against pope and emperor. To
leaders in the Catholic hierarchy, Luther was just a new heretic, spouting old heresies. The
church knew how to handle such problem cases; this controversy would soon blow over like
ashes in the wind. Instead, Luther received protection from his secular prince, and thus church
authorities were not allowed to arrest the troublesome professor. Eventually, several other
German dukes joined Luther’s reform program. They converted to his reform program and then
seized control of the church property within their respective realms. Some may have acted out
of genuine religious zeal, others out of greed and ambition. Princes confiscated church property
and substituted Protestant ministers for Catholic priests. With the support of Protestant pastors,
these rulers mounted a kind of public relations campaigns. They projected themselves as pious
rulers, deserving the veneration and obedience of their subjects. Instead of talk about the
"freedom of the Christian" these pastors exalted the virtue of submission to one's
superior—children to parents, wives to husbands, men to rulers. They emphasized sermons on
the Ten Commandments than on I Corinthians 13, where Paul extols Christian love.
C. The Common Man's Revolt. Luther's opposition to the established church emboldened
others to attack abuses affecting their lives. German and Swiss peasants and townspeople
adopted planks from Luther's reform platform. The peasants latched on to a popular late
medieval phrase which Luther incorporated as well, the "freedom of a Christian." To Luther this
meant the freedom from guilt, doubt, and self-effort once a Christian realizes that he/she has
freely received salvation as a gift from God. Peasants intertwined this phrase and an idea called
"godly law, " which meant laws based on biblical principles of justice. Together these slogans
summed up a new peasant idea of 'freedom,' i.e., freedom from feudal injustices and from
serfdom.
The peasants had been caught in an economic crunch forced on them by their landlords,
secular and ecclesiastical. Landlords resorted to charging old feudal taxes and expanding control
over the peasants' lives to squeeze more income from the laborers. Even in bad harvests lords of
manors demanded the same rate on rents and tithes. They confiscated more land from common
lands and strictly enforced hunting and fishing fees and fines.
In 1525 throughout Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, peasants revolted, and in several
areas they were supported by the lower classes in the towns. Two of the peasant leaders
synthesized over 300 grievances into a set of 12 clearly defined summations known as the
Twelve Articles [SWT readings]. These articles expressed the social and political demands of
the peasants, along with religious issues.
The nobility refused to negotiate with peasants, forcing the latter to revolt in order to obtain
their demands. In the following months, bands of peasants raided the countryside. They
ransacked monasteries and manors where they destroyed property and burned deeds and
contracts that they felt were binding them to near slave labor. There were very few lives taken,
but the landed nobility, lords sacred and secular, were outraged and paranoid of social upheaval.
Armed with shovels and pitchforks, the peasants were no match for knights; 70,000 peasants
were killed. The peasants' revolt was in most places a dismal failure.
D. City Reformations. Luther's voice was heard as well by the urban literate laity. From their
ranks both secular and ecclesiastical arose leaders who collectively initiated another reformation
movement designated the City Reformation. The City Reformation refers to those German and
Swiss cities that reformed their churches and law codes. In these cities such as Geneva in
Switzerland, city councils legislated changes in the public worship modeled upon reforms taught
by Luther and their own indigenous reformers.
City reformers seized upon another plank of Luther's reform, the principle of "scripture
alone," meaning all doctrine and church ordinances were to be taken from the bible. City
reformers wished to apply the principle of scripture alone to legislation, civil and criminal
legislation. The city reformers were often trained as lawyers or humanists. Through their
preaching, and by organizing a corp of like-minded ministers, they hoped to effect a "godly"
change in morals and ethics within city walls. They debated with city councils and Catholic
opponents with the goal in mind of transforming cities into, using the biblical phrase "a city on
the hill," an example to all the world of pious living and brotherly love. The scriptures alone
were to be the basis for all city legislation. In the cities which accepted this reform program, the
mass was abolished, images were removed from churches, monasteries and convents were
closed, as the Catholic clergy were expelled and replaced by Protestant married pastors.
E. Imperial Politics and the Catholic Reformation. The emperor who ruled during Martin
Luther's adult life was Charles V, elected in 1519. Since 1515, Charles was the king of Spain as
well. He was indeed a most powerful ruler whose family also ruled Austria (see textbook
map). He saw himself as the champion and defender of the Catholic church, a role not
appreciated by popes who resented his interference. Charles wished to gain more control over
the German principalities, but for several reasons, among them the Reformation, he failed to do
so.
As early as 1525, Charles called for a general church council to heal the rift in Germany.
Popes vehemently opposed calling a council, for they feared that a church council called by the
emperor would lessen papal authority. A church council was finally convened in 1545.
The Council of Trent met in three sessions: 1545-47, 1551-52 and 1562-63. This council was a
major component of what has been termed the Catholic, or Counter Reformation. Instead of
healing the rift, Trent made no concessions to Protestants and hammered out correct Catholic
doctrine. Moreover, reforms were enacted that included the establishment of seminaries in every
diocese to train Catholic clergy and much tighter enforcement of the code of conduct for priests
(no more married clergy). In conjunction with these efforts, Catholicism received a spirited
boost of commitment from the work of the Jesuits, a new order of ultra-devoted clergy, willing
to infiltrate Protestant countries and to take Catholicism to Asia and the Americas.
Battle lines were drawn along confessional
boundaries. War broke out between the
Lutheran princes and the Emperor and his Catholic supporters in 1546. In 1547 Charles V
defeated the Protestants. Protestant princes were forced to restore property taken from the
Catholic church; cities that had abolished the mass were forced to return to Catholic worship.
But in 1552 Charles was caught off guard by a turncoat ally. He was then defeated by Protestant
princes. A truce was declared between Catholics and Lutherans, known as the Peace of
Augsburg (1555). It stipulated that the religion of a prince in his territory determined the
religion of his people. Dissenters were required to leave.
In review, one might call Luther’s Reformation, the "Reformation of Proclamation." If the
Gospel is proclaimed, Luther believed, it would transform people's lives. Luther called upon
people to repent in the last days before God's judgement. The theologian Luther was heeded by
the city reformers who persuaded city councils to accept their teachings and legislate changes.
The City reformation we may call the “Reformation of Legislation.” It involved more than that,
but legislation was one of the key methods utilized by city councilors and reformers to unify and
organize inhabitants according to a new social code, based on their reading of the bible.
The peasant revolt may be called the "Reformation of Democratization," but this
reformation failed. The peasants revolted to obtain a more equitable society wherein people
from the lower ranks of society received fair and just treatment. But without the support of
Protestant reformers or Catholic leaders, and facing the animosity and fear of the landed nobility,
the peasants' cause was doomed.
The Princes' Reformation might be termed the "Reformation of Consolidation." The
princes that accepted Luther's teachings used their position to overhaul the church system within
their borders. They attempted to solidify their rule and unite their subjects into one confessional
bloc. They consolidated their sources of control and influence in the religious and social
spheres. This process resulted in the formation of state churches. The Catholic Reformation was
in many ways the "Reformation of Conservation." It was intended to win back hearts and souls
to Catholicism and maintain its hold elsewhere.
Topic 15: Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Overview and Reading Assignment
This topic focuses on views about women, primarily from the perspective of writers belonging to
'learned' culture, which includes religious writers, Catholic and Protestant, humanists, educators,
and political theorists. Most of the authors cited are men. Thus we will examine their opinions
about women, which may reveal as much, if not more, about the authors than about women. We
will be considering definitions and perceptions of sexual differences, which were based on social
and cultural attitudes. In the sixteenth century, gender identities were believed to be biologically
determined, but in the twentieth century, people began to recognize how much gender roles and
identities were constructed by society and culture, not by biology.
The extant views and opinions of late medieval and early modern women are skewed, for
they come from the educated elite of the time. How a peasant husband thought about his wife,
working beside him in the field, or gathering the bushels he left at the end of the field, while she
attended as well to the children and prepared meals, may have been and probably was different
than the view of women held by a Lutheran university professor or by a Catholic bishop. But,
and here is the crucial point, as history moved forward which view became dominant? In other
words, did peasant husbands, turning into day laborers and later factory workers, maintain a
separate, distinct perception of gender definitions, or did they assimilate the same opinions held
by their social superiors? Recall that European women were not allowed to vote in national
elections until the first decades of the previous century. Women's history in early modern Europe is discussed from three perspectives: issues and
themes related to the body, to the mind, and to the spirit.
In conjunction with Topic 15, one should read in Hunt, et al., The Making of the West, Vol.
I: To 1740, 2nd ed., pp. 564-65, 599-603, 615-17.
XV. Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe
A. The Body. Focusing first on the body, the perceived stages in women's lives in the early
modern period, views about particular female and male anatomical structures and physiological
characteristics, women's domestic roles, and women as workers and contributors to the European
economy are discussed.
In late medieval and early modern literature and in the graphic arts, e. g., paintings and
wood cuts, men were seen to have basically seven stages in their lives. The number of stages
differed, but the usual number given was seven: infancy, boyhood, adolescence, young
manhood, mature manhood, older manhood, and old age. By contrast women were generally
depicted or conceptualized in arts and literature in terms of only three stages: a virgin, a wife, or
a widow, or in another paradigm: a daughter, wife, or mother. Men were seen as clearly the
more complex and interesting human. The key position in either triad about women is the
middle one, the role as wife. For most late medieval and early modern women, marriage was the
defining stage of their lives. How she would be treated the rest of her life depended so very
much on her husband, whether alive or dead. A wife was not seen as an independent,
autonomous figure, but always in relationship to her husband.
Infancy. Differences in how men and women were valued and treated began at birth.
Male children were more prized than female babies. German midwives, assisting in the delivery
of babies, were rewarded a higher payment for delivering male babies. One reads in letters from
English women that they sometimes felt compelled to apologize for giving birth to girls. In
orphanages, girls significantly outnumbered boys.
Sexuality. Women's bodies were viewed as inferior, based on classical conceptions of
Aristotle and Galen. Those views were commented on and maintained through the Middle Ages
and into the sixteenth century. Women were said to be of a colder and damper nature; therefore,
Galen argued that in the fetus, females did not produce enough heat to push out the reproductive
organs, which were simply inverse male sex organs. Women were seen as bottomless pits,
draining men of vitality, of heat, and of sperm. They were said to be sexually insatiable; women,
not men, were depicted as sexual predators. The loss of sperm was seen as especially
troublesome, for some believed brain tissue, bone marrow, and semen were basically the same
substance. Experts posited there was a connection between the brain through the spine to the
penis. Too much love-making drained away brain fluid. Leading intellectuals such as Leonardo
da Vinci and Francis Bacon, along with other men, were concerned about this problem. (And
now we understand the derivation of the modern joke e.g. 'his thoughts originate below his belt
buckle' or 'he thinks with his glands.')
In Catholic circles, the stigma of sex as polluting, as less than holy, remained the official
stance throughout this period. Sex was deemed proper only in marriage and for procreation, not
recreation. Protestant reformers broke away somewhat from this view and spoke more
enthusiastically about sex connected with spousal affection. They valued matrimony more than
celibacy. But Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther were unable, or unwilling, to
completely embrace the notion of the spontaneity and joy of sex [see handout]. Women as
wives are useful for a number of things according to Luther, including as an “antidote” and
"medicine" for sin.
Here one senses the insecurity of Luther, representative of early modern man. Unlike his
Catholic counterparts, Luther did not believe that women are inherently inferior beings. Before
Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, sinned against God in the garden of Eden, Luther
believed that Eve was Adam's equal—mentally, spiritually, with no physical defects. But since
the 'fall' from innocence in the garden, Luther contended that all humans have been corrupted,
especially their sex drives. During the sex act man loses control, Luther explains; he is no longer
rational as he descends from the vertical position and assumes the horizontal in the presence of
someone who has been and will continue to be subordinated.
Marriage. Marital patterns varied according to region and social class. In western and
northwestern Europe, a pattern unique in the world was formed in which couples waited until
their early- to late-twenties to marry; husbands tended to be no more than two to three years
older than wives. Demographers estimate that in this area, 10 to 15, even 20% of the population
never married. In southern and eastern Europe, marriage was performed between teenagers, who
continued to live with one set of parents for a time, or between a man about thirty with a much
younger woman. In early modern Italian cities, men married about the age of thirty, women
fifteen.
Upper- and middle-class mates were chosen not for romantic reasons, but on the basis of
more pragmatic concerns. Contrary to Islamic and other non-western cultures, European women
had considerably more say over who they would marry, especially if they were not upper-class;
women from lower ranks in society at least had some control over this momentous decision in
life. It is interesting to note that Protestant marriage regulations stressed the importance of
parental consent more than Catholic ones.
People in rural areas married younger than their urban counterparts; women of high social
rank married younger than those of lower rank, since wealthy families felt the pressure to secure
a favorable marriage opportunity at the earliest time possible.
Once the vows had been spoken, husbands ruled. William Gouge, the author of
Domesticall Duties (1622), decreed that: "the husband is as a king in his own home." William
Harrington in his Commendations of Matrimony (1528), counseled wives to obey, for "the
husband hath the pre-eminence and is master and ruler of his wife." Wives had virtually no
control over their own property or dowry; upon a husband’s death, the customary right in
England was for a wife to inherit one-third of her husband's property.
Divorce in the modern sense was not recognized; annulments were difficult to come by.
Most partners that wished to end a marriage simply separated and moved. A census of the poor
in Norwich, England taken in 1570 indicates that about 8.5% of the married women mentioned
in the survey had been deserted by their husbands. The average duration of a marriage, before
the death of one or other partner, was twenty years. About 20% of marriages lasted for thirty-five years.
Motherhood. It was not so easy to determine whether someone was pregnant. The
cessation of menstrual flow was not widely regarded as conclusive proof. Rather, women looked
forward to the "quickening," when they first detected that their infant moved within them. Once
this had been felt, sixteenth-century women had at their disposal much printed information, full
of advice, warnings and prescriptions to help with childbirth.
Until the mid-seventeenth century, child birthing was strictly women's business. The
husband was not present unless a wife was dying. Male medical practitioners took little interest
in childbirth.
The change in which men became involved in deliveries first occurred in France
and later spread to England. Male midwives were never accepted in early modern Germany. On
the other hand, German midwives were among the best educated and most literate of women.
The vast majority of women nursed their own children, often to the age of two. Middle- and
upper-class women relied more on wet nurses, not necessarily voluntarily; their husbands tended
to insist on this practice. Wet nurses were carefully screened, for it was believed that children
received much more than milk from their nurses; thus, Catholics did not employ Protestant wet
nurses and vice a versa. Evidence of this belief about tainted milk has been cited as proof in
Spanish sources of the change from anti-Judaism to overt anti-Semitism. Christians would not
allow their children to be wet nursed even by a converted Jew for fear of contamination; a child
nursed by a Jewish woman might convert to Judaism.
Wet nurses often became quite attached to the children in their care, becoming servants in
later years. Some historians have theorized that children from these upper classes, switched
from one wet nurse to another, deprived of their biological mothers, and then separated once
weaned from the only female they had known, were unable to develop healthy relationships with
women. There is much to be said for this insight.
Widowhood. The effect of a loss of a spouse was much greater for a woman than for a
man. Her relationship to society and economic opportunities were dependent on her husband's
status. If a woman was wealthy, widowhood finally gave her limited freedom to make her own
decisions and dispose of her resources as she saw fit. But the patriarchal legal systems of the
early modern period seemed incapable of coping with independent, unsupervised women. Thus
some laws encouraged remarriage by stipulating that widows had to have male guardians co-sign
financial transactions and legal documents. But the same law codes might specify that upon re-marriage women lost rights over children from first marriages.
Widowers were much more likely to remarry than widows. In France in the seventeenth
century, statistics indicate that 50% of widowers remarried, only 20% of widows did. The census
of the poor in Norwich mentioned earlier reveals that there were twelve times more widows or
other unmarried women over 60 than there were men.
Women's Work. Although in many cases the actual work performed by men and women
was very much the same, their relationship to the work and their work identities were quite
different. Like men, women's avenues into the workforce were affected by age and class
determinants, but overall their opportunities were much more restricted than men's.
Men's work was honored and profiled. In religious processions, celebrated during major
festivals, the various guilds of men marched in processions together, wearing distinctive clothing
which indicated the guild to which the men belonged. Women were denied access to these
public displays of solidarity.
At the same time women were receiving less formal training in many crafts. They were
being excluded from some occupations. In the Middle Ages, both female and male practitioners
of medicine were called physicians. By the sixteenth century only men who had attended
university could be called 'physicians.' In law codes, tax records, and ordinances passed by
guilds, one sees that increasingly women's work is described as "domestic work" or as
"housekeeping" even if the work was performed for someone outside the family. Men's work
performed at home was designated with a more positive label, "production." Women's work was
demoted and lumped under one category, "domestic work." Thus the gender of the worker and
not the type of work, nor the location of the work performed, determined the status of the work.
Discrimination also appeared in terms of what was considered 'skilled' and ‘unskilled’ work.
Women were judged unfit to perform some skilled labor such as glass blowing and using a
knitting frame, and yet work with silk and lace threads, which woman had been performing for
centuries and would continue to practice, required a higher level of dexterity. In seventeenth-century Geneva, watchmakers were strictly forbidden from teaching their craft to their
daughters.
These gendered definitions of work, whatever their origins, meant that women were paid
significantly less the men, usually about half as much, even while performing the exact same
work as men. The reasoning behind this pay scale seems to have been that if a woman was
single she had only herself to support; if married, she was only contributing to the income of her
husband. The fact that mothers might be taking care of many children or sick husbands, or they
might have lost their husbands did not enter into authorities' reasoning.
Owing to the limits of an introductory class, the many ways women contributed to the
economic welfare of early modern Europe must be curtailed. But one area I do want to highlight
is the role of women in retail trade, a business dominated by women. Selling piece goods and
produce in markets, women contributed substantially to the overall expansion of production in
the early modern period. Before 1500 city magistrates appointed women as grain inspectors,
cloth measurers, toll collectors, official weighers of merchandise at city scales, and other
important positions. Through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however, less and less
women were appointed to these positions, reserved for educated men. Wives of male officials
might assist their husbands or actually perform the services required of their husbands, but they
were not considered officials in their own right, nor did they swear an oath to an office.
Why did women's lot decline in this era? One may point to several factors. The population had
recovered the from the Black Death devastation. More workers were available which meant
more competition for jobs. In the sixteenth century, Europe was still in the transitional phase
from the manorial system to a commercial economy. There was considerable economic turmoil
and relatively high inflation. There were several years of bad harvests and periodic famines. In
the midst of these troubles, authorities reacted conservatively, attempting to gain control over
market forces. Guild corporations stiffened regulations that continued to suppress the
journeymen, who in turn vented their frustrations against women, whom they viewed as
competitors. Women were excluded from political office or representation; moreover, they were
denied access to one of the great economic boosters—education.
B. The Mind. In this section, we consider early modern attitudes towards education and
women, what was thought to be proper instruction for women, and a comparison of statistics
which indicate general patterns of how many boys and girls received education in different parts
of Europe.
In the Early Modern period several individuals called for women to be educated, calls
voiced by educated men and women. Generally, most appeals for women to be educated were
limited to arguments that better educated women would make better Christians. By far the
majority of petitions for women to be educated were not aimed at making women more active in
social and, God forbid, political affairs. Advocates of women's education, male and female,
went out of their way to ease fears that political or social upheaval would result once women
could read and write.
Nonetheless, some formal training was implemented. Education was granted to girls, with
more resources employed in Protestant states than in Catholic ones. In 1580 in Saxony, records
indicate that 50% of the parishes had licensed German-language schools for boys, 10% had
schools for girls. By 1674, the percentage's had risen to 94 and 40 respectively. Girls tended to
attend school much less than boys, both in terms of numbers of hours per day and in number of
years in school.
Statistics from Catholic areas reveal that even less effort and resources were expended on
education for girls. In Venice, a survey of schools in 1587-88, shows that there were about
4,600 boy students, probably about one-fourth of the boys of that age in the city. There were
only thirty girls cited in the survey. Figures in other Catholic lands also indicate that education
for girls lagged considerably behind education for boys. A survey of school-age children in
southern France in the late eighteenth century reveals that about two-thirds of the boys received
some schooling, while only one in fifty girls received any education in schools.
Less time in school meant that sisters did not learn to write as their brothers did.
Information gleaned from parish records, marriage contracts, and wills indicates that twice as
many men as women from similar social classes could sign their names. Teaching daughters to
read would mean more time in school, more expense. Women who could write would be able to
express themselves, a dubious ability to some, a threatening, dangerous prospect to others.
What were women reading? Based on wills and inventories of books it seems women were
slightly more likely than men to own books devoted to religious themes. The first books written
solely for girls were Protestant religious works such as prayer books and books with stories
about virtuous female biblical characters. Obedience to one's parents was strenuously
emphasized. There were also books on marriage, cookbooks, and midwives' guides. The vast
majority of books for women were written by men. Suzanne Hull, an historian who
studied English books for
women published between 1475-1640, sums up the underlying message of these works: women
were to be "chaste, silent and obedient."
Not all women acquiesced and blindly accepted the misogynous attitudes prevalent in the
later middle ages and early modern periods. Christine de Pizan in her work, City of Ladies
(1405), attacked such views [SWT Readings]. She observes that only men hold such negative
opinions about women, often men who wasted their lives chasing women. Their opinions are
not reasonable nor logical. Moreover, their arguments are often as not cloaks for their fears and
insecurities. She admits that women at present were not the intellectual equals of men, but the
reasons for the discrepancy were obvious: lack of education, denied access to new ideas and
experiences, and society refuses to grant women positions of leadership. What makes De Pizan's
thesis so potent is that it is not based solely on notions of Christian equality; rather, she critiques
her opponents on the basis of logical analysis.
C. The Spirit. In this last section we focus on the appearance of the most negative views of
women: the witchcraft trials of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Not all people
condemned as witches were women, but in western and central Europe about 80% of those
arrested and executed for witchcraft were women. The witch-hunts seem to have been a direct
result of misogynist attitudes formed in the Later Middle Ages, compounded by social, religious
and economic factors that gave rise to heightened hysteria over the forces of evil. These fears
were used by some to launch assaults against perceived enemies: their main targets in much of
Europe, women. Admittedly, not all the victims were women, but a European woman was four
times more likely to be accused of and executed for witchcraft than a man. The Early Modern
era stands as one of the most oppressive for women.
The upsurge in witchcraft trials in the Early Modern period cannot be accounted for by one
single explanation, but rather by a multiplicity of factors. Belief in witches had been maintained
through the Middle Ages. The idea then was that a witch was someone who used magic to do
evil deeds (maleficia). A women or man was branded a witch on the basis of an act; one's basic
nature was not indicted. This idea of witches continued through the Early Modern period in
popular culture. But in the Later Middle Ages, a new idea about witches was developed in
learned culture, specifically clerical culture. This new, terrible view of witches appears in the
Malleus maleficarum, The Hammer of Witches (1486/87; see Handout). Written by two
Dominican inquisitors, Heinrich Krämer and Jacob Sprenger, this book served as a guide for the
identification of witches, providing helpful hints for the discovery and persecution of witches.
In The Hammer of Witches, statements taken from classical and scriptural sources are
adduced to prove that women are most susceptible to Satan's temptations and schemes. They are
weaker mentally; they are more gullible than men. They are weaker emotionally; indeed, they
are extremely unstable. They flip-flop irrationally between love and rage. They can never be
trusted. Women, in today's parlance, are physically, mentally, and spiritually 'challenged,' to
such a debilitating extent, that they are prone to renounce the faith: "Therefore a wicked woman
is by her nature quicker to waver in her faith, and consequently quicker to abjure the faith, which
is the root of witchcraft." For all these reasons and especially because of "carnal lust," women
are most likely dupes for Satan's deceptions. They are sexually insatiable, and because they are
spiritually suspect, they can not distinguish between real human lovers and demonic shape-shifters.
In learned society, witches were defined as those individuals who had made a covenant
with the Devil or with his demons, the sin of diabolism. They no longer simply did evil deeds;
they became tools of Satan, ready to do his bidding. Witches were what they did; they
themselves were inherently evil.
This demonological view of witchcraft became pervasive and persuasive owing to several
factors: 1) the heightened religious tension and conflict of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. To many people the world was seen in disarray; order was supplanted by chaos. A
popular expression of the time was "the world turned upside down." The forces of evil were
believed to be on the rise, and witches serving in the hordes of the devil, had formed an unholy
conspiracy to overthrow Christendom.
2) The conflation of state-building and Christianity, part of the process termed
confessionalization. In the sixteenth century rulers and princes sought validation and
justification for policies which gave the central government more power, i.e., influence or
control over their subjects. In simple terms, religion was used to bolster state power. Protestant
rulers had to justify their decisions to break away from the Catholic fold and switch to
Protestantism. They had to ensure that the people continued to revere, or at least, fear rulers.
Catholic authorities likewise used religion to project a pious image of themselves and enforce a
code of proper behavior. These rulers felt compelled to prove their piety and religious
commitment. How? Suppress heresy, sniff out witches, then stamp them out.
3) Changes in prosecution made witch hunting easier. Increasingly, the inquisitorial
procedure was adopted. The accused did not meet the accusers face to face. Torture was
allowed, in fact, encouraged, in order to draw out confessions and the names of co-conspirators.
4) Economic and demographic factors also had a major impact. There was much
population displacement. More vagrants and transients passed through towns and villages which
aroused townspeople’s and villagers’s suspicions. It is estimated that 10 to 20% of the
population never married. It appears that female life-spans increased. Therefore, in western
Europe there was an unusually large number of older widows, unattached to male figures,
dependent on neighbors' aid. These were the people most likely charged with witchcraft. About
80% of those charged were women in England, France, Germany (Holy Roman Empire) and
Switzerland. In the last three named areas, there were more large-scale witch-hunts and
executions. In the Scandinavian countries and in Russia fewer women than men were charged,
and there were no mass panics.
Women were singled out in the aforesaid areas as the most likely abettors of demons.
Women often had connections to areas of life that seemed mysterious, beyond rational
explanation, for example, in the births of babies. Thus, The Hammer of Witches singles out as
particularly suspicious, mid-wives. This idea originated from learned culture; no such hostility
appeared in popular culture.
Women took care of the sick, both human and animal, who might suddenly die. Older,
widowed women had reputations as scolds, busybodies, and healers. Their reputations may have
protected them in past generations, but as pressures built up, villagers and townspeople lashed
out at these women.
In some parts of Europe, these older women, whose sex drives were said to be stronger than
ever, were believed to have sex with demons; this belief was not maintained in popular culture.
A woman would be handed over to authorities who interrogated and tortured the suspect, intent
on determining whether or not the suspect had made a pact with the Devil. Suspects were
stripped and shaved in order to find 'witches' marks' on their bodies. If no mark was found, the
defendant might be pricked with a needle in order to discover a spot on the body insensitive to
pain, a sure sign of demonic contact.
In Spain and Italy, less effort was made to discover connections between maleficia and
demonic witchcraft. Cases in which the defendants were guilty only of the former were often
simply dismissed. Even if demonic cooperation was 'proven,' the criminals were whipped or
faced some similar form of punishment; they were rarely executed. In Friuli, in northern Italy,
one hundred and thirty-one persons were charged with witchcraft between 1596 to 1670. While
85% of the defendants were women, not one of these individuals was executed.
One of the main questions that has not been adequately answered by historians is what
effect did the witch hunts have on women in general. Some historians argue that women learned
to avoid behavior that led to charges of witchcraft. In other words, older women in particular
stopped being scolds and gossips. One can see changes in the stereotypes of older women,
portrayed in the Middle Ages as aggressive, bawdy, and on the prowl for sex, yet in the
nineteenth century they were depicted as sweet grandmothers, passive, quiet, asexual. There
does seem to be a parallel rise between witchcraft and an increase in other types of crimes which
women were accused of committing, a trend to criminalize more female behavior.
We have highlighted a development originating in the Later Middle Ages and culminating
in the Early Modern period in which women were increasingly viewed with suspicion. Views of
their bodies, taken from ancient authors, portrayed them as inferior creatures. Although,
women's contributions to the overall increase in economic production was considerable, they
were paid half as much as men, and increasingly, their work was demoted and restrictions placed
on occupations previously available to them. Many more boys and than girls received
elementary education; higher levels of education were denied to women, with a few exceptions.
Worst of all, beginning in learned religious circles, but eventually extending into city halls and
village communes, a new, sinister attitude towards women took hold. Not just inferior, women
were seen as demonic conspirators, in league with Satan, bent on toppling Christian Europe.