The Evolution of the Medieval Witch – and Why She’s Usually a Woman

The Evolution of the Medieval Witch – and Why She’s Usually a Woman

By Jennifer Farrell, Lecturer in Medieval History, University of Exeter. First published on The Conversation.

Flying through the skies on a broomstick, the popular image of a witch is as a predominantly female figure – so much so that the costume has become the go-to Halloween outfit for women and girls alike. But where did this gendered stereotype come from? Part of the answer comes from medieval attitudes towards magic, and the particular behaviours attributed to men and women within the “crime” of witchcraft.

Taking one aspect of the witch’s characterisation in popular culture – her association with flight – we can see a transformation in attitudes between the early and later Middle Ages. In the 11th century, Bishop Burchard of Worms said of certain sinful beliefs:

Some wicked women, turning back to Satan and seduced by the illusions and phantasms of demons, believe [that] in the night hours they ride on certain animals with the pagan goddess Diana and a countless multitude of women, and they cross a great span of the world in the stillness of the dead of night.

According to Burchard, these women were actually asleep, but were held captive by the devil, who deceived their minds in dreams. He also believed that none but the very “stupid and dim-witted” could think that these flights had actually taken place.

Why the Catholic Church Is So Slow To Act In Sex Abuse Cases: 4 Essential Reads

Why the Catholic Church Is So Slow To Act In Sex Abuse Cases: 4 Essential Reads

By Kalpana Jain, Senior Religion + Ethics Editor. First published on The Conversation

The Vatican’s retired ambassador to the United States, Carlo Maria Vigano, has accusedPope Francis and other officials of covering up that they were aware of sex abuse allegations against Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington.

The accusation follows a grand jury report in Pennsylvania that revealed a long and shocking scale of sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Francis, who accepted McCarrick’s resignation last month, after an investigation found the allegations to be credible, has refused to comment on Vigano’s letter.

A Minimum of 30-40% Of Catholic Priests Are Gay, Asserts NY Times, As Vatican Prepares Sex Abuse Summit

Theodore McCarrick, previously the Archbishop of Washington, DC and Newark and a high-ranking Cardinal was defrocked last week and sent to live out his days in “prayer and penance'“ over sex abuse claims against him.

A Minimum of 30-40% Of Catholic Priests Are Gay, Asserts NY Times, As Vatican Prepares Sex Abuse Summit

The New York Times has delivered a staggering, in-depth look at the Catholic Church and its crisis over sexual abuse — and sexual abstinence generally, considering the scale of it homosexual population among priests. Entitled ‘It Is Not a Closet. It Is a Cage.’ Gay Catholic Priests Speak Out, writer Elizabeth Dias navigates the complexity of church doctrine that drives away homosexuals in shame, while attracting a preistly population estimated to be minimally one-third gay.

The Blame Game: Taylor Swift Delivers Emotional Thank You; PA Condemns Over 300 Priests As Perpetrators Of Sexual Abuse

The Blame Game: Taylor Swift Delivers Emotional Thank You; PA Condemns Over 300 Priests As Perpetrators Of Sexual Abuse

It's a year ago that Taylor Swift won her sexual assault case against Colorado DJ David Mueller, who sued her for $3 million in damages after she claimed he placed his hand under her skirt and grabbed her butt hile posing for a photo. Swift filed a countersuit asking for a symbolic $1 in damages, which the jury awarded her in winning her case. 

Swift addresed the issue during an emotional speech for her Tampa Reputation concert. Thanking her fans for their support while stressing the need for better justice for sexual assault victims, Taylor said: "I guess I just think about all the people that weren’t believed and people who haven’t been believed and the people who are afraid to speak up because they think they won’t be believed. And I just wanted to say that I’m sorry to anyone who ever wasn’t believed because I don’t know what turn my life would take if people didn’t believe me when I said that something had happened to me. And so I guess I just wanted to say that we have so, so, so much further to go, and I’m so grateful to you guys for being there for me during what was a really, really horrible part of my life." viaELLE US

The pop star's words ring so relevant this morning, with publication of "a searing report" about bishops and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania covering up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over 70 years. The report covered six of the state's eight Catholic dioceses, identifying more tha 1,000 victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests. 

Barbara Jatta Appointed First Female Director of Vatican Museums

Pope Francis' Tuesday announcement that art historian Barbara Jatta will become the new director of the Vatican Museums, marking the first time that a woman will lead one of the most important art institutions worldwide. Previously, Jatta worked at the Vatican Library, overseeing its collection of prints.

A Rome native, Jatta has worked for the Vatican since 1996 and will now become one of its most powerful administrators. While Pope Francis wants to increase the roles for women in the Catholic Church, he remains firm that the most important Vatican posts are reserved for cardinals and bishops, who are universally male. 

The Vatican Museums represent 54 galleries acrross seven kilometers, receiving six million visitors in 2015. Regularly listed among the top 10 visited museums in the world, the Vatican museums represent one of the Holy See's biggest income sources. Estimates are about $311 million in gross revenues and $41 million in profits are driven by Barbara Jatta's new assignment.

'Radical Grace' Tells Stories Of 3 Defiant American Nuns Under The Vatican Gun

‘Radical Grace’ Tells Stories Of 3 Defiant American Nuns Under The Vatican Gun

This film comes at a major crossroads in the Catholic Church, and the nuns are everything that’s right with the institution. They stand with the marginalized, and won’t be bullied by the hierarchy. I feel a deep connection to the women featured in ‘Radical Grace’. ~ Susan Sarandon, ‘Radical Grace’ Executive Producer

RedTracker | Femen Feminist Arrested At Vatican | Quiet End To American Nun Investigation | Pope Francis Rebuke

RedTracker | Femen Feminist Arrested At Vatican | Quiet End To American Nun Investigation | Pope Francis Rebuke

FEMEN activist Iana Aleksandrovna Azhdanova is chilling out in a Vatican cell, awaiting possible trial for “disturbing the peace, obscene acts in a public place, and theft.” Her crime? Naked from the waist up in traditional Femen fashion, Azhdanova stormed the Vatican’s nativity scene and plucked the baby Jesus statue out of its crèche. The message “God Is Woman” was written on her torso.

Eye | Pope Francis & Dolce & Gabbana Both See Red | Are American Nuns Off The Hook?

The Captivating Beauty of Libraries Around the World My Modern Met

DesignTracker

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2015 Campaign

Dolce & Gabbana up the ante on family celebrations, embracing mature mamas with a love of Italian/Sicilian glitter. Add bullfighter José Maria Manzanares and models Bianca Balti, Vittoria Ceretti, Irina Sharipova and Blanca Padilla — then let it rip to welcome spring 2015. See the rest of the images at Dolce & Gabbana website.

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2015 Collection

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2015 Style.com

Today there was a black net sheath, a black corset paired with thigh-high black stockings, a black jacket and pencil skirt combination that had the sexy severity of the racy widow—all of it adding up to enough Catholic guilt to choke a pope.

RedTracker

Pope Francis Delivers Blistering Rebuke to Roman Curia

Pope Francis delivered a stunning pre-Christmas speech to officials of the Roman Curia, accusing them of succumbing to greed, jealousy, hypocrisy, cowardice and “spiritual Alzheimer’s”.

If the NYPD felt that New York cops were the most beleaguered and unappreciated work force in the world, they had major company among the Roman Curia, after Pope Francis challenged the prelates to make “a real examination of conscience.”

The popular CEO pope basically accused his workforce of a host of deadly “illnesses”, including the fault of feeling “immortal, immune or even indispensable”.  Not stopping there, Pope Francis accused the prelates of pursuing wealth, showing off and leading double lives in a mindset leading to “existential schizophrenia”.

Prior to the papal tongue lashing, Pope Francis gave a speech of gratitude to the lay Vatican staff including gardeners and cleaners — with whom the pope often grabs lunch. In great contrast, he asked “forgiveness for the shortcomings of my colleagues and myself, as well as for some scandals, which do great harm. Forgive me.”

Complete text of Pope Francis’ 2014 Christmas Speech to the Roman Curia via Vatican Radio

Related: Rome’s Scrutiny of American Nuns New York Times

For the past six years, AOC has followed the Vatican’s investigation of American nuns, a report that has ended with a generally positive report under the guidance of Pope Francis and not the more authoritarian Pope Benedict.

Alas for AOC, the report comes at a time when I have not only returned from a difficult 2014 and actual hiatus from writing, but also in the midst of a major move of AOC articles into a much simpler organizational format. All of my RedTracker writing on feminism in America, international feminism, religion and women, the lives of women in Africa and the Middle East, female sexuality, women and philanthropy has been moved — but not properly tagged — into my Sensual Rebel blog.  Therefore, I can’t link to all the tagged writing at AOC about the Catholic Church and the investigation of American nuns. It’s a goal to complete this tagging by Jan. 1.

These moves are a larger part of my own second look at what AnneofCarversville.com should be to readers going forward. I will explain the new (old) strategy in a separate post.

Eye | Alber Elbaz Says Designers Are Like Nuns | American Nuns on Real Life

Alber Elbaz At London Vogue’s April 28 Festival

Smart Sensuality designer — and creative director of Lanvin — Alber Elbaz hopes to convince the public that fashion designers aren’t really kingpins, when he talks at the London’s second Vogue Festival on April 28, organized by British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman in association with Vertu. 

Tell that to Karl Lagerfeld, my dear designer and true lover of women!

“Maybe they think that a designer is living a very glamorous life and they start their day not with coffee, but Champagne,” he said. “Trust me, it’s coffee. The designers, photographers and models that I work with, they are hard-working people who devote their lives to fashion. They’re kind of like nuns of fashion.”

Albers continued in a recent interview with London’s The Independent:

“Everybody thinks that because it’s luxury it should be very intimidating; you go into the store and it should look like a pharmacy,” he told The Independent. “But guess what? We’re not buying Tylenol! We’re buying a red bag, a diamond shoe and a printed dress, so I think that we should have a little lightness and be a little less strict about everything. If you come to a pharmacy and everything is arranged, then you don’t want to touch it. I don’t want people to be intimidated.”

What a fresh voice in a muddle of frequently self-absorbed people! 

Tom Craig’s Louis Vuitton Photography Exhibit

In conjunction with the festival, Louis Vuitton will host a Tom Craig and Bay Garnett photography exhibition ‘All Four Corners’, held at the Bond Street store’s private apartment. Craig will showcase a collection of Vogue imagery including Rachel Weisz and Stella Tennant. 

Rihanna NOT Fronting Chanel Accessories

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Will Fashion Help Challenge America's Catholic Bishops?

Will Fashion Help Challenge America's Catholic Bishops?

This editorial ‘Pagan Something’ on Flamboyant Magazine is a discovery via Vogue Italia’s Talents focus on photographer Marco D’Amico and stylist Italo Pantano.

The editorial begins with a quote by Theda Kenyon, author of ‘Witches Still Live’:

The blackest chapter in the history of Witchcraft lies not in the malevolence of Witches but in the deliberate, gloating cruelty of their prosecutors.

Pope Asserts God Was Absolutely Behind Big Bang in Universe

RedTracker| The Vatican had a busy day, with the Pope moving from news of his new Discovery Channel series on exorcisms from the Vatican files to denouncing the big bang theory of life in our universe as a result of chance.

The Pope rarely talks about science and creation, but today was unyielding in his assertion that “The universe is not the result of chance, as some would want to make us believe.”

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