Female Healers and Witches

The main thesis of the first chapter of Witches, Midwives, and Nurses is that a clear connection was drawn between female healers and witchcraft in the early modern period, resulting in a stigmatization of female lay healers and midwives that would last for centuries. While the authors acknowledge that it is impossible to know the professions and practices of each and every woman who was tried and/or convicted of witchcraft, the connection that witchhunters made between female healers and witches is indicated by the primary source records they left behind. The main document cited by Ehrenreich and English is The Malleus Maleficarum or Hammer of Witches which was written in 1484 by the Reverends Kramer and Sprenger. This document essentially served as a guide and manual for witchhunters and clearly illustrates the malevolent connections that the ruling religious classes made between female healers and heresy...