Discussion 3 - Admission/Application Essay Example

Early Medieval Witchcraft Belief and Legislation Discussion For three centuries in the early European history, diverse societies were consumed by panic over alleged witches in their midst. Witch hunts resulted in executions and torture of tens of victims especially women. I tend to agree that women were not primarily involved in the practice of witchcraft, but it was a wave of belief during the medieval generation that the devil was using women to lure men into his cult, Perhaps. As pointed out by Enn, women were seen as sexual beings that could convince men even those who were in power to do things that they wanted.

Goddesses were mostly women in the Roman Empire and other religions that worshiped idols. Such could give a clear insight into why many people associated women by witchcraft, in belief that it was the devil changing into beautiful women to conquer the world(Skaria, P.132). In the early medieval Europe, many people were persecuted due to the association of witchcraft. However, when some laws were introduced like the witness accounts it led to some changes in the way people were being persecuted.

I tend to support the argument of Daniel that, in the early medieval time the legal system was not particularly interested with protecting the right of an individual, but rather protecting the society, with the society being likened to Christianity. It led to the rise of punishment of witchcrafts since Christians were the people who defined those whom they thought to be practising witchcraft because they were not following their beliefs and traditions.Discussion 2 Bernardo of Siena, who is a priest, applies more of his theological knowledge in justifying the presence of witchcraft in the society.

In most of his sermons he warns of what will befall the people if they are not aware of the existence of witchcraft, and how it may emerge in their villages. He criticise the healing magic perform by some people in the society, and insist that it is only God who can perform true healing, otherwise the devil is just changing their mind to believe in things that do not happen, a point echoed by Kelly pang. Sienna went ahead and preached that women sorcerers were turned in and executed because of not mentioning those in the act.

Indeed many communities got involved in the witch hunt for fear of their own safety which was threatened by the existence of witches and God himself. Malleus description of women is wanting and outrageous. Women are described as those beings that are very evil and defective by nature, they are viewed as naive thus making the easy targets for the devil. Women are thought to be people who are weak in mind and body, and that what makes them get involved in witchcraft as a way of protecting themselves.

In support of Kelly statements that, women are either bad or good, they don’t have to be neutral, and they are always seen to be people who like gossiping and sharing their evil lives to each other. It’s quite interesting to note that, Malleus saying that when a woman thinks alone she just thinks of evil. Women are perceived to make the lives of men harder, this is traced back in creation as Eve was made from a bent bone of a man, and according to Malleus, and the bone was bent because it was on the contrary direction to the will of man.

In all, women are taken to be attributed to all evil on earth (Fulton & Holsinger, pg. 27).Work citedFulton, Rachel, and Bruce W. Holsinger. History in the Comic Mode: Medieval Communities and the Matter of Person. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Print.Skaria, Ajay. “Women , Witchcraft And Gratuitous Violence In Colonial Western.” Society 155 (2012): 109–141. Print.