![]() ![]() It also showed that it wasn't just old "crones" who were accused of witchcraft. Juditha's motive in confessing to a host of murders of her non-blood related family members revealed how sometimes familial revenge seemed key in exlaining violent witchcraft. Roper ends this section with the story of an adolescent witch named Juditha at the end of the 17 th century. In the Wurzberg witch trials, about 75% of the 190 accused were women over the age of forty, and over half were menopausal or post-menopausal. Many a story were told of old women visiting a nursing mother, perhaps offering a poisoned apple as many accused witches confessed to (like the medieval tale of the evil stepmother, jealous of Snow White's youthful beauty), causing the infant's failure to thrive. This story was meant to illustrate that witches were a wicked symbol of anti-fertility, and that pregnant and chlid-weaning women, being the essence of fertility, were most susceptible to the evil machinations of the fertility-hating forces of Satan. ![]() Then, in an act of envy, they viciously attacked a pregnant woman, robbing her breastmilk and killing her baby. They plotted to steal all the food and destroy the replenishing fruits of spring. ![]() In the section from pages 125-203 of Witch Craze, Lyndal Roper begins with a story from early 16 th century Basel, Switzerland describing a group of gluttonous witches with appetites so voracious as to threaten to starve the entire country. ![]()
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