Regulations in Society

Regulating fertility and marriage was a big part of early modern history. In Roper's chapter on Fertility one of the most common regulations for marriage was being financially stable. Not only was it required that you be in a financially stable position but also that you weren't too young. Of course with age comes more money such as if a parent dies and one inherits the assets. One of the regulations was even that they didn't want you marrying an "outsider" or the example Roper gives, you must show documentation of the properties owned by the person you wish to marry. One man was denied the marriage to a woman for not being able to provide documentation. For regulations on fertility it's pretty reasonable to regulate the amount of births in a community due to food shortages or something of that matter. It would be much harder in today's world but as adults we can make that decision ourselves based on our situations in life. We may read this chapter and think how can they put regulations on fertility and the birth of children let alone who you fall in love with and the denial of marriage. But is it all that crazy? If we think about it our parents tell us as we are growing up not to get married to young and that we need to save money as we go so that we will have a comfortable lifestyle. Although there is no actual law regulating this I think we still follow these guidelines in today's world.

Regulations on Fertility and Marriages

Regulations on Fertility and Marriages

Regulations and rules were put on marriages and fertility because of the wide fear of witches and this way they can have some control over society.  Limiting population was a concern for the early modern government because of the lack of resources and the down fall of the economy. Keeping population down was important because the resources, like food, were limited. To be able to get married a couple must be financially stable and able to provide from themselves. This helped to decrease fertility by making couples wait to marry and to have children sooner. As woman age it is harder for them to conceive and by making them wait there is a less chance they will have multiple children. Parental permission was another regulation on marriages, if two people decided to get married without permission it was considered ‘irresponsible marriage’ (Roper 129). There are multiple rules that stop fertility and marriages throughout Germany.

In this chapter Roper used many images that displayed fertility, which was a common theme in many witch trials. The painting Allegory of Nature displays the connection between human fertility and the earths fertility. Like woman providing for her children the earth provides nourishment when the time comes. During this time the earth was not as fruitful and there for woman could not bear as many children.

What did you think about the images that Roper displayed in chapter six?

What did you think about the regulations and restrictions on marriages and fertility? 

Post-Partum Depression and Fertility

As I read Roper's chapter on womanhood, I'm realizing just how many risks, both real and imagined, surrounded a pregnancy. First you have the worry that you may miscarry, if you manage to reach birth, then the mother, child, or both might end up dying, and if you're lucky enough to make it to the laying in period, well your child may end up being killed by a witch. Roper's accounts of the "terrors, anxieties and dependence" brought about by the childbed makes me wonder whether post-partum depression played a part in the accusations of witchcraft. We know from prior readings about guilt transfer, and from the actions surrounding the "satanic abuse" cases, just how heightened a mother's sense of guilt can be. I wonder if perhaps feelings brought on by post-partum depression would cause a new mother to feel extremely guilty, and therefore try to transfer her guilt onto someone else if something happens to her baby.
The government crackdown on marriage and illegitimacy, combined with the need to continue lineages and the population overall, caused quite a catch 22. One can see why fertility became so important. By having to wait longer for marriage, a woman decreased her likelihood of having children and in conjunction with the high infant mortality rates, women of the time became less and less likely to have living children. Without knowing that her "advanced" age would have an effect on how many children she would bear, its easy to see why a jealous witch may want to steal what fertility she has left.

Roper 126-159

Midwives, Stepmothers, and the Old Crone Who Lives Next Door

The image of a witch as an old crone is incredibly pervasive today, just as it was in the early modern period. Today witches in popular culture are almost invariably presented as old women, sometimes supernaturally ancient and sometimes just old. Witches (understandably) are cast as the antagonists, the villains, and in many cases witches were close to the protagonist or their family members prior to becoming evil or their powers revealed (think Snow White and Into the Woods).
These associations have firm roots in the witch hunts of early modern Europe, when the majority of those tried for maleficia were women and the average age exceeded 50, even 60 years of age in some regions. Thus, the average witch could be understood to be a menopausal or postmenopausal woman. The association of witches with fertility is an ancient one, brought about when pagan fertility rites became heretical with the popularization of Christianity.
Mothers and midwives were a natural extension of the fertility association, and while Levack points out that the image of a witch as a midwife was less common in the early modern period than modern associations would have one believe, he also brings up the idea of family members accusing each other of witchcraft as an allowable vengeance in the early modern period. Accusations of this sort, such as a young person accusing their mother, stepmother, or another older female family member of witchcraft as payback for her opposing an early marriage, were not common per se, but were definitely not unheard of.

Thinking about witches in modern popular culture, what might be some historical bases for the way they are presented today?

Levack, 141-163.