XXIX
Motherhood childbirth and midwife.
The old manor walls has a long story to tell about the past. The story that changed the divinity of birth destroying the midwife and the secret of birth.
The midwife is a figure that accompanies the history of the human kind, taking care of woman and child physically and psychologically in the delicate period of pregnancy, childbirth and after.
The old walls heard lots of new lives cryes.
Midwife was not a doctor, but her knowledge was transmitted from woman to woman. The art of the midwife was brn with the need of women being aided in the time of birth and influenced by magical rites and practices as they were in ancient times all the important moments of life.
The birth has always been held as a women's secret in high esteem and was operated exclusively by women, doctors (which often were also priests) as for the Indians, the Greeks and the Egyptians, were authorized to intervene only in case of parts difficulty.
What Happened.
From the middle ages the church undertook to destroy the Witches because they were a demonstration survival of Paganism. It was assisted in this by those exercising the medical profession that considered witches the worse enemy in their economic field. The witch woman of great knowledge was always called as midwife and had the reputation of easing child birth. Such action for men of the church was against the will of God. Suspect was handedness of midwife accused of being the main enemy of the faith, to kill children, provide them to the devil, to cause infertility and impotence.
Widespread kind of witch-midwife and inquisition opinion was then behind each midwife could conceal a witch.
It is difficult to estimate the numbers of victims. Some sources speak of thousands, others of millions of dead. Most of the victims were exclusively women.
The churches changed society that recognized the role of motherhood as a power and where they were many goddesses (Goddess of earth, moon goddess, great mother goddess etc.) to a rational and scientific society. Obstetric and science begain in the Renaissance during the intellectual climate of the 1500. It began with the slaughter of women helping wemen.
From the late Middle Ages, the Church undertook to destroy the witches because they were a manifestation of survivor paganism. He was assisted in this undertaking by those who practice medicine, describing the witches their most dangerous rivals in the economic field. The witch (or woman of great knowledge) was always known as a midwife and was honored and loved. Many of them had achieved a high degree of specialization and had the reputation of being able to alleviate the pain of natural childbirth. This action for men of the church was against the will of God that principle had cursed Eve and all its descendants. Religion and medical science were united against witches who were exterminated and denigrated.
Suspect had the skill of the midwife, the knowledge of the secrets of women, advice on contraception. The midwife is accused of being the main enemy of the faith, to kill the children, offer them to the devil, to cause infertility and impotence. Widespread is the kind of witch-midwife and say the inquisitors was that behind every midwife could conceal a witch.
It 'difficult to estimate the number of victims, some sources speak of thousands of deaths, while others speak of millions of deaths. It is, for most of these victims, only women.
The midwife = witch story has two basic sources.The first is that part of the demonological literature which followed the Malleus. There had been no emphasis on midwives before that. The author or authors of the Malleus played an important part in the shift from the medieval image of literate male sorcerors, often clerics, conjuring demons to do their will to the subsequent stereotype, adopted in much of Europe.
The passive and impoverished women, trapped by the Devil into a pact that was characterized by physical marks or demonic sexuality, became crucial witnesses to the physical reality of the Devil. The sacrifice of infants became a core part of the perverse rituals that were alleged, as also against the early Christians and medieval Jews. Where were infants to be obtained, if not from criminal midwives?
Midwives were obviously vulnerable to accusations of successful cursing by the very nature of their work and from their usually being past childbearing age, but extremely few were actually accused, except in those panics where almost any well-known person might be named.
A moment's thought will show the reason. Midwives had to be drawn from among the most trustworthy women in the town or village. They were usually more literate than their neighbours and often more affluent. Large numbers did not need the money, but were taking part in the community in the same sort of way that a Protestant minister's wife would.
The other source of the myth lies in the romanticization of witchcraft as a form of social protest or alternative religion. This has involved ignoring all the more fantastic accusations and concentrating on more mundane ones, even within the same testimony.
The French historian Michelet saw the witches as rebels and the English Egyptologist Margaret Murray saw them as crypto-pagan healers. A notable manoeuvre of hers was the equation midwife = sage femme = wise woman = witch. However, "sage femme" was never used to describe anyone other than a midwife in France and "wise woman" was a specifically English term. Moreover, it was not healing but alleged harm that led to accusations.
This system of thought was reinforced by Ehrenreich and English, who claimed that the Church and the medical profession wanted to take control of childbirth away from women. Churchmen had no such aim, although they wanted to ensure that midwives were respectable rather than petty sorcerors. Medical practitioners did not begin to enter the practice of assisting normal childbirth until after the era of the trials.
David Harley
