{
  "id": 14414056,
  "title": "On Medieval Europe’s Systemic Slaughter of Nonconformist Women",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/14/on-medieval-europes-systemic-slaughter-of-nonconformist-women",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-14T09:09:05.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Literary Hub",
    "slug": "literary-hub",
    "url": "https://lithub.com/on-medieval-europes-systemic-slaughter-of-nonconformist-women/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "By the end of the Middle Ages, it was widely believed that women in Europe had been seduced by Satan and enabled to practice wicked magic in his name. Numerous treatises argued that anyone doubting this concept of women as witches was misguided and dangerous. These witches, in league with the devil, were empowered to perform various forms of mischief and magic. William Perkins, a prominent advocate of witch fever in late sixteenth-century England, claimed that any supernatural power attributed to witches or their objects was merely borrowed from Satan. In reality, witches possessed no inherent power, as stated by Perkins, whose work primarily served to describe the nature and power of Satan. This Christian legacy in the perception of female monstrosity gave rise to the witch hunt era, in which women were no longer autonomous monstrous beings, but mere vessels for Satan's will. The root cause of witch persecution was the fear of women's sexuality, which was considered the most threatening aspect of their supposed diabolical nature. Two significant crimes attributed to witches by Jean Bodin were the murder of their own children and the murder of other women's children to drink their blood and consume their flesh. Despite being diabolical and evil, witches had no true power of their own, as all their actions were mere intercession from the devil. In response to the widespread fear of witches, states developed precise mechanisms to extract confessions from accused women, often employing brutal and dehumanizing torture methods. Accused women were frequently stripped naked and shaved, with inquisitors sometimes raping them to determine virginity. The supposed connection between virginity and innocence was crucial, as a proven virgin could claim protection from accusations. Furthermore, the tortures often had sexual undertones, reflecting the fear of witches' sexuality. Public burnings of accused witches served not only to eliminate the perceived threat but also to deter others from following their \"evil\" path. In some cases, the daughters of accused witches were forced to witness the brutal murder of their mothers, witnessing their agonizing death and subsequent flogging. This traumatizing experience would likely leave the young girls traumatized and socially ostracized, forcing them to choose between denying their mother's guilt or accepting her fate as just retribution. The widespread execution of women during this period undoubtedly inflicted a massive scale of mental and emotional trauma on the surviving daughters, who would have to grapple with the realization that their mothers, who had nurtured and raised them, were deemed guilty and deserving of such inhumane treatment.",
  "summary": "By the end of the Middle Ages, it was a broadly accepted truth that women were running around Europe who had been seduced by Satan and then enabled to perform wicked magic in his stead. Numerous treatise writers began to",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}