What role did Gender play in the treatment of Deviant groups?

Introduction:

In considering the role of gender particularly in the prosecution of deviant groups, there has been a
large emphasis on the persecution of women in the witchcraft crazes, prompting the inception that
the witch hunts were essentially women-hunting, which of course can be supported by the large
influence of works such as Kramer’s Malleus1 which narrowed on women, for what he deigns as due
to them being ‘the particular sex of which he (The Devil) is known to have power over 2’. The idea of
Gender being pivotal in the treatment of some groups has been echoed by historians such as
Mangione3, arguing that women were treated much more harshly than their male counterparts not
only as witches but also in other deviant groups, while there is credence to the argument, this essay
aims to challenge the popular school of thought with the proposal on the grounds that treatment of
those in the deviant groups, particularly in the case of witches and heretics to propose that gender
did not affect the punishments or the general stigma towards those labelled as deviant groups,
therefore, playing a minor role in the treatment received by deviant groups. To accurately judge the
effect of gender on the treatment of deviant groups a valid criteria must be used, in this case being
whether or not the treatment of men and women in deviant groups differed greatly based upon
gender, whether the allotted punishments were similar regardless of gender and finally whether
gender was the sole reason for being labelled as a deviant.

Witches:

In regards to witches, the popular notion appears to be that the witch hunts were in a way ‘women
hunts’ as evidenced by the fact that eighty percent of those accused of witchcraft were women.
Karlsen argues further stating, ‘Statistics can establish the extent to which New Englanders
considered witchcraft the special province of women, but they cannot convey the vindictiveness that
characterised the treatment of female subjects. 4’. Her implication here is that women were not only
treated harsher than men in regards to the punishments received but were labelled as witches as
part of a ‘deep seated misogyny’ inherent of that patriarchal society. Her argument holds weight
somewhat with the context that in the famous Salem Witch Trials in colonial Massachusetts, of the
thirty people found guilty, fourteen women were hung to only five men, suggesting that women
were more likely to receive death than men. However, while the idea of women being treated
harsher on the grounds of their gender has credence, contrary evidence proposes that the
punishments and overall stigma towards witches as a whole remained equal regardless of gender. It
can be argued that while women may have been more commonly labelled as witches particularly in
countries such as England, Scotland and Germany, this was not the general status quo. As for
example, in Normandy, Estonia, Russia and Iceland the majority of those tried as witches were men
and on this basis it can be proposed that the overall labelling of witches was not sex-specific, a
sentiment echoed by Larner who proposed that, ‘the crime of Witchcraft while sex-related was not
sex specific5’. For that to have been the case, the treatments of both male witches and female
witches had to have been the same regardless of gender. To highlight this, we can consider the case
of the father and son duo of Jon Jonsson in Iceland, a country where ninety-two percent of witches
1
Malleus Maleficarum. N.p., Library of Alexandria.
2
Malleus Maleficarum. N.p., Library of Alexandria.
3
Mangione, Mark J., "The Effect of Misogyny on the Persecution of Women as Practitioners of Magic In
Ancient Greece, Rome, Medieval and Early Modern Europe" (2011). Honors Bachelor of Arts. 27
4
Karlsen, Carol F., 1940-. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman : Witchcraft in Colonial New England. New
York :Norton, 1987
5
Larner, Christina. Enemies of God : the Witch-Hunt in Scotland. London :Chatto & Windus, 1981.
were male, in the 1655 Kurkjubol Witch Trial 6. The case of the Jonsson duo was in a similar vein to
that of most cases of witchcraft, as both were accused by Reverend Magnusson of witchcraft and
were both burned at the stake after being found guilty of sorcery. As further evidence of
punishments being similar regardless of gender, note that in Iceland of the 121 people found guilty
of witchcraft between 1625 and 1683, of the 21 executed there were 20 men and 1 woman.
Moreover, there were even cases where children were persecuted for witchcraft as in the Basque
Country, between 1610 and 1614 1,384 children were tried for witchcraft, suggesting that it was
more than gender that denoted the poor treatment of those who were labelled as witches but
rather a sense of ‘justice’ against evil. This is an idea Dillinger noted in his article ‘Terrorists and
Witches’ where he argued in a similar manner that ‘church and state administrations strove to
eradicate evil7’- therefore, all seen as evil were subjugated to harsh punishments. This shows that
treatment of deviant groups, particularly witches, were mostly similar regardless of gender despite
the fact that there were undoubtedly more women tried, therefore offering credence to the
argument that gender played a minor role in the treatments towards deviant groups.

Heretics:

Heresy as defined by Bishop Robert Grosseteste as ‘an opinion chosen by human perception,
contrary to holy scripture, avowed and obstinately defended’- By definition heresy appeared to be
little to do with gender and instead more concerned with those who went against the rules of the
Church. Heresy was regarded in a similar fashion to witchcraft albeit with less extreme punishments
as evidenced by Thomas Aquinas’ objections, ‘The Heretic should be admonished the first and
second time: and if he be unwilling to retract must be reckoned as already subverted 8’, he further
adds in a later objection, ‘If heretics be altogether uprooted by death then it is not contrary to our
Lord’s command9’. It’s implied that the main punishment for heresy was not death but rather
admonishment or exclusion with execution as a last resort. To discover how big of a role gender
played in how heretics were treated we must identify whether punishments varied greatly between
men and women. In England, one particular group that faced large amounts of persecution were the
Lollards10- A protestant group inspired by the works of John Wycliffe. Heavy punishments for the
Lollards began in after the 1401 ‘De Heretics Comburendo 11’ was passed by Henry IV which
encouraged the burning of Heretics in order to maintain order. The Norwich Heresy Trials 12 were a
key example of the sorts of punishments were assigned to the Lollards in which 51 men and 9
women were prosecuted for heresy- of course these numbers were due to the larger amount of
male Lollards13. Of these some of the cases included William White who was burned at the Lollard’s
pit for preaching dissent against the church. Female Lollards also suffered punishments of a similar
6
Ankarloo Bengt and Gustav Henningsen. Early Modern European Witchcraft : Centres and Peripheries.
Clarendon Press 19931990.
7
Johannes Dillinger (2004) Terrorists and witches: popular ideas of evil in the early modern period, History of
European Ideas, 30:2, 167-182
8
Mullan, David George. Religious Pluralism in the West : an Anthology / Edited by David George Mullan.
Blackwell, 1998.
9
Mullan, David George. Religious Pluralism in the West : an Anthology / Edited by David George Mullan.
Blackwell, 1998.
10
Wilks, Michael. “Anne Hudson. The Premature Reformation: Wycliffite Texts and Lollard History. New York:
The Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press. 1988. Pp. Xii, 556. Albion, vol. 21, no. 4, 1989, pp. 620–622.,
doi:10.2307/4049547.
11
https://w3.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/heretico.html
12
Lambert, M. D. “Heresy Trials in the Diocese of Norwich, 1428–31, Edited … from Westminster Diocesan
Archives MS. B.2. Edited by Norman P. Tanner. (Camden Fourth Ser. Vol. 20.) Pp. Vi 233. London: Royal
Historical Society, 1977. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, vol. 32, no. 1, 1981, pp. 118–118.,
doi:10.1017/S0022046900034370.
nature such as Margery Baxter who was put on trial in October 1429 for expressing unorthodox
sentiments, she received the punishment of flogging in the Parish Church. This offers more credence
to the argument that gender did not play a large role in the treatment of deviant groups, considering
in both cases of male and female Lollards the punishments remained widely consistent- particularly
in keeping with the sentiment of Thomas Aquinas. To further widen the scope of consideration, an
example of a heretic group outside of England were the Paulicians 14 founded in Armenia by
Constantine Silvanus. Similarly to the Lollards, most of the followers of the Paulicians were burned at
the stake with Constantine being stoned also. While, a brief example shows that in most regions of
Europe, gender played a minor role in the extremeness of the punishments but in a similar fashion
to the crime of witchcraft it was the idea of going against the church and the belief in evil.

Conclusion:

While this essay is somewhat limited for the fact that it only makes a comparison between two
deviant groups; between the deviant groups of Witches and Heretics of Europe there are clear
corelations between the treatments they received. The idea of gender being a large factor in the
treatment of deviant groups this appears untrue especially considering that while there may have
been disparities in the number of women to men convicted of witchcraft the consistency of
punishments for both men and women as both Witches suggests otherwise. Moreover, in examining
the case of Heretics there were also more men than women that saw convictions and yet once again
the punishments remained consistent- Take the cases of Norwich Heresy Trials being consistent with
the recommended punishments proposed by Thomas Aquinas. Further, even looking past the
England overall, in other areas of Europe as seen in the Kurkjubol witch trial, punishments and
overall stigma towards both deviant groups remained regardless of the gender. Therefore, it
becomes prudent to argue that when it came to the treatment of deviant groups gender played a
minor role, rather it could be stated that it was mostly the ideas of eradicating evil and maintaining
the influences of the Church that was the greatest cause for the harsh treatments towards the
Witches and the Heretics. This follows in accordance to the established criteria, as the punishments
remained consistent regardless of gender and it was clear both male witches, heretics and female
witches and heretics all received similar levels of treatment and stigma and as proposed by Larner,
the crimes ‘were not sex-specific’. Therefore it can be stated that gender played a minor role in the
treatment of Witches and Heretics.

Bibliography:

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Mangione, Mark J., "The Effect of Misogyny on the Persecution of Women as Practitioners of Magic
In Ancient Greece, Rome, Medieval and Early Modern Europe" (2011). Honors Bachelor of Arts. 27
Karlsen, Carol F., 1940-. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman : Witchcraft in Colonial New England.
New York :Norton, 1987
Larner, Christina. Enemies of God : the Witch-Hunt in Scotland. London :Chatto & Windus, 1981.
Ankarloo Bengt and Gustav Henningsen. Early Modern European Witchcraft : Centres and
Peripheries. Clarendon Press 19931990.
Johannes Dillinger (2004) Terrorists and witches: popular ideas of evil in the early modern
period, History of European Ideas, 30:2, 167-182

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McSheffrey, Shannon. Gender and Heresy: Women and Men in Lollard Communities, 1420-1530. University
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14
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1414/six-great-heresies-of-the-middle-ages/
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