How Is Suzanne Guilty Of Witchcraft

During the late fifteenth century the medieval Catholic Church was in war with a supernatural element, witchcraft. Witchcraft was seen as the devil’s way to corrupt faith in God. Citizens were fearful that friends and family in their community were practicing witchcraft leading to creation of the Malleus Maleficarum. The Malleus Maleficarum was guide used to help identify suspected witches, especially women. The guide was a sense of protection to the community against witchcraft. During this time if you were suspected of witchcraft your ultimate punishment was death. Suzanne Gaudry was suspected of killing a man’s horse and acting in supernatural spirits, witchcraft. Suzanne was example of how the process of the handbook, the Malleus Maleficarum, was a wrongful conviction system. The court found Suzanne guilty of witchcraft acts, even though Suzanne pled not guilty of these charges of practicing witchcraft. Following the handbook process, Suzanne was tied down to a table and stretched until she confessed. Suzanne cried for her life while her body was pulled apart as she deny of any practice of witchcraft, eventually giving into the torture she clams that she is a witch. Torture is not the best approach when trying to get a true confession

Women were seen to be from a different nature compared to men. Women were perceived to have a dark side and have motivation for being naturally evil. The main interest in the handbook was focus on women because they were seen to be the reason why evil existed in the world. Wickedness was little compared to the wickedness of a woman, leaving this element that women are the source of evil. Women were seen to be more superstitious and impressionable than men. Devil uses these characteristics of women to control them into corrupting Gods faith within men. Women were seen to sin and given into temptation even if that meant to consort with