e, some of which portrayed women in a favorable and competent light. But these were exceptions. Through Malleus witchcraft was "found more in so fragile a sex than in men." Women, it was declared, "are found to be given to superstition and witchcraft." In particular, midwives "surpass all others in wickedness" (Malleus 41). Malleus presents a (spurious) etymological proof for the connection between women and witchery, which is that the Latin for woman, femina, is derived from fe, Latin for faith, and minus, Latin for small or weak: "Therefore a wicked woman is by her nature quicker to waver in her faith, and consequently quicker to abjure the faith, which is the root of witchcraft" (Malleus 44).
Witchcraft was not only spiritually but also politically subversive. Summers cites plots against Edward II and Henry VI in this regard, as well as the attribution of witchcraft to Anne Boleyn by Henry VIII, "proven" by the fact that Anne had borne him no sons. Mary Queen of Scots was accused of witchcraft in connection with her plots against Elizabeth's life. Accusations of witchcraft were made by Elizabeth's advisors with a view toward enacting laws whereby witches could be blamed for political conspiracies. In the minds of men of the period, "sorcery was inexplicably mixed up with politics" (Summers xxiii). Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and James I each authorized legislation for persecution of witches (Williamson 23).
Renaissance women who survived demonization were not infrequently objects of veneration. St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) was a renowned mystic and stigmata rec
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