[HPforGrownups] Re: Anti-Potter groups

[B.C. French]

No: HPFGUIDX 1484

At 3:41 AM +0000 9/15/00, Rita Winston wrote:
>  > The physics did something along the lines of lobbyists nowadays,
>>  and got the king (James) to re-write the Bible, anti-witch,
>
>As I understand it, James' scholars did not have to be lobbied by
>physics to know that James had long had an obsession / phobia of
>witches, whom he blamed for all his problems including headaches.

This is the truth. James also "flowered up" the language and added 
some of his own editorializing. Amazing how often that happened.

A lot of the anti-female stuff. particularly editorializing, in the 
Bible can be traced back to Jerome and the Vulgate, but it goes back 
a lot farther than that -- Paul, Augustine, Chrysostom.

(I hope nobody thinks I'm anti-male by any of these writings. I love 
men. I'm married to one (smile). I'm just pointing out some 
historical facts here).

>  > Snape would have probably been spared (aka a man, urgh), but
>>  Hermione would have been (hanged, wasn't it?) right away
>
>Men were executed for 'witchcraft' same as women.

In some areas of Europe, men were actually persecuted more than women 
were. I've read some accounts of so-called "witch hunters" who stated 
that while women were tempted by the Devil in greater numbers, the 
men were actually more dangerous because, of course, they're smarter 
and can do more damage. Some could occasionally find shelter in 
courts as "alchemists", something women could not generally resort to.

And yes, although the movies like to show witches being burned (how 
many movies about Salem have you seen about this? Of course no one 
burned in Salem -- eighteen or nineteen were hanged and one 
unfortunate was pressed to death) hanging was more commonly practiced 
by secular authorities. Burning was a more common fate of heretics 
persecuted by the Church, particularly the infamous Spanish 
Inquisition (which, BTW, was originally formed to root out heretics, 
particularly the Cathars and Albigensians), although witches were 
certainly heretics and that whole thing got caught up in the entire 
mess. The reason the Church favored burning is that they were 
forbidden to spill blood, and, taking the idea literally rather than 
figuratively, decidede burning someone would be a way to get around 
the prohibition. Go figure.

...Barb

-- 
Barbara French
bcfrench at rochester.rr.com
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