Of Witches and Midwives
by Sam Thomas For many years, historians knew one of two things about midwives in pre-modern Europe. If you asked medical historians, they were decrepit old crones, with no medical training. They were untrained, lived on the margins of society, and probably dabbled in witchcraft. If you asked (some) women’s historians, they would agree that midwives practiced witchcraft, but in this account, they were the distant heirs to a pre-Christian religion, practitioners in an early modern Earth-Mother cult. These rebellious figures rejected the Church’s authority, and for their trouble were often burned at the stake. Both of these accounts are complete bunk. Malleus Maleficarum The connection between midwives and witchcraft dates back to the notorious Malleus Maleficarum (Latin for Hammer of Witches ), written in 1486 by two Dominican inquisitors, Jacob Spernger and Heinrich Kramer. In Malleus , Sprenger and Kramer offer lurid accusations that midwives murdered newborn children and sacrificed...