Jacoba Felicie

Jacoba Felicie was a healer brought to trial in 1322 by the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Paris, on charges of illegal practice. Unlike the majority of female peasant healers, Jacoba was literate, had received some kind of formal medical training, and catered to the middle and/or upper classes. Accusations against her claimed that she was a knowledgeable, skilled, and successful healer. However, her skills or competence was not questioned by the courts. Instead, she was charged with having "dared to cure at all" (55). Jacoba's story demonstrates that the skill of female healers was irrelevant to the ruling medieval powers in the face of their main goal: to keep women from practice medicine of any kind whatsoever.

Reverends Kramer and Sprenger

The Reverends Kramer and Sprenger are the co-authors of The Malleus Maleficarum or Hammer of Witches, a medieval text which served as "the...