ipl-logo

What Is Malmesbury's View Of Witchcraft

710 Words3 Pages

Throughout the medieval times, fears about witchcraft and the devil rose exponentially as the church became weary of magic. This is apparent in the writings of many theologians of the time, including William of Malmesbury; who, in his story “The Witch of Berkley”, writes of the events surrounding the death of a witch and her relationship with the devil. Through his retelling of these events, it becomes clear that William perceives not only that witchcraft and the devil are real, but that there is distinct a connection between the two.
It can be assumed that William of Malmesbury believed witchcraft to be real as he explains that he trusts the man who claimed to have witnessed the events foretold in the story. As for how he views witchcraft, he describes the Witch of Berkeley as “addicted to witchcraft”, “excessively gluttonous, perfectly lascivious”, and as “setting no bounds to her debaucheries”. This connects his idea of witchcraft to sin, suggesting that William did not have a pleasant view of witches. This also distances …show more content…

This suggests that the woman herself knew that she was consulting with the devil or some other demonic spirit, but also thought that she needed protection from them. This aligns with Kieckhefer’s definition of demonic magic which “invokes evil spirits” and was “religion that turned away from God and towards demons for help”. The need for protection is also expressed in the lengthy list of acts she feels are necessary to save her body from the devil, which her children try their best to follow, though their actions are not enough to protect her. William blames this on the woman’s guilt and the “devil’s violence”, drawing yet another distinction between the

Show More
Related
243 Words | 1 Pages

After reading “Devil in the Shape of a Woman: The Economic Basis of Witchcraft “by Carol Karlsen I was intrigued by Karlsen’s interpretation, and upset about the ways women were treated. During these witch hunts women and men alike were accused of the crime, but the majority were women. I found it interesting that she related the commonly known Puritan beliefs, which lead to accusations of witchcraft, with gender roles. She ultimately says that Puritans feared these accused women because they symbolized female independence. I found it shocking that women, often the wealthier, had a greater chance of being let go of their accusations if they had a husband to spoke on their behalf.

Read More
895 Words | 4 Pages

Most of the citizens in Stamford did not want any witches or supernatural things around them, for their fear of the devil. Richard Godbeer gave the reader specific scenarios about witchcraft, to show how apposed people were to it despite it being so

Read More
387 Words | 2 Pages

Religion was a major factor to why many people were accused of being a witch since the puritans were paranoid about the devil being everywhere. This is especially evident during an examination of Mrs. John Proctor, when Justice says, “You see, the Devil will deceive you. The children could see

Read More
3262 Words | 14 Pages

On page 595 Abigail is seen stating “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” All the people mentioned in the quote have no ties towards witchcraft and were falsy accused. This direcly correlates with how McCarthyism operated in which multiple people were convicted of being communist spies.

Read More
128 Words | 1 Pages

In his book, “A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft (1702),” clergyman John Hale comes forth to confront the recent events going on at the time. Initially, Hale alludes to the questionable actions and activities of the townspeople being accused of witchcrafts, and being imprisoned as punishment. In addition, he discloses how everyone suspicious will be accused, not even young children are safe from the hands of this fate. Hale’s purpose of publishing this book was to describe the incident of the Witch Trials, and to reveal his experience of the trials, since his own wife was accused. By employing a didactic tone, Hale relays the actions of the past that targeted the Puritans and those wrongly accused of witchcrafts, so this occurrence

Read More
712 Words | 3 Pages

In Document B, Demos presents that most of the accusers of witches were single females in their younger years of age. In the late 1600s, women were extremely dependent upon men for their financial stability, overall safety, and mental/emotional well being. In an interpretation of this document, it can be assumed that these younger female women were seeking family ties and protection in a harsher time period. On the same hand, Document C, a most likely extremely biased account, recounts the “bewitched actions” of Bridget Bishop, a witch, upon the afflicted. Samuel Parris, the examiner of Bishop, seems to shed a negative light on Bishop.

Read More
167 Words | 1 Pages

The devil figure is represented by Abigail Williams because she always made sure she was accusing somebody of witchcraft,

Read More
864 Words | 4 Pages

In the book, the reader sees how individuals accused their loves ones of “compacting with the devil”. For instance, Martha Corey was accused of witchery from her own husband. With this accusation, there was no evidence to be seen, other than what her husband, Giles Corey, suggested; therefore, these accusations were only based on here-say. Martha Corey states, “I am innocent to a witch. I know not what a witch is” (83).

Read More
316 Words | 2 Pages

In the medieval times witches were authenticated by confessing to have slept with the Devil, or if they had done any harm to women in their fertility. The book highlights descriptive ways on how witches became the Devil’s property. Some witches stated that a man that they were sexually fantasizing with would come and have sex with them. Then they would notice such difference once they were intimate, the witches described the intimacy they had as abnormally cold. “The strange coldness, typical of the Devil, who does not have a human body; the hard feet, which hints that these are cloven animal hooves” (Roper, 2004, p.84).

Read More
721 Words | 3 Pages

The Witches were able to project themselves as innocent beings before attack an unsuspecting victim. Of course, the only sources Mather’s had to back up his arguments were his spiritual faith, the Bible, and court

Read More
419 Words | 2 Pages

"In an ordinary crime, how does one defend the accused? One calls up witnesses to prove his innocence. But witchcraft is, ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be a witness to it? The witch and the victim.

Read More
825 Words | 4 Pages

“Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you,” (Act I, 160). She was the first person in the play to accuse a person of seeing people summon spirits of the Devil. This caused a massive, wide-scale witch hunt to take place; families torn apart, mothers, fathers, and even children murdered for what was considered to be the greater good. Now, others began to accuse people of witchcraft and people who had been lifelong friends to each other now had no choice other than to point fingers at each other or be put to death. Widespread panic and unreasonable action was sweeping through everyone in Salem, all because of a little lie by

Read More
708 Words | 3 Pages

This reveals how the fear of persecution and the desire for absolution led many individuals to falsely accuse others of witchcraft and to betray their friends and neighbors in order to save their own

Read More
801 Words | 4 Pages

As I said, what they possibly though were witchcraft back then could be something treatable by now. Unlike in 1690’s, they didn’t have proof to back their hypothesis that it was bewitching. But now that the reason behind the said incidents were already established and proved wrong by people who studied what might have happened back then. People might still believe witchcraft does exist in present time solely because they have no idea that it might just be an illness that they had no idea about. That the reaction of people around toward something can affect greatly on how things can be

Read More
1059 Words | 5 Pages

"The story of witchcraft is primarily the story of women . . . ." Karlsen argues for the relevance and importance of women’s roles in the panic of witchcraft fear in 17th Century American society. She subtly contests that specific interests were at work in the shaping of witchcraft accusations; book elaborates that a specific type of woman risked accusation based on her demographic representation in society. Karlsen further elaborates on her theme with,

Read More

More about What Is Malmesbury's View Of Witchcraft

Related Topics

Open Document