The power of women over sexual relations was feared by frustrated Christian men from the early days of the Church into the Middle Ages. Four centuries after the Fathers taught that women can diabolically control the disobedient penis, Archbishop Hinemar of Rheims declared in the year 860 that women should not use magic to make men impotent. (227Eu) In the 13th Century, 400 years further on, church gatherings frequently condemned sorceresses "who put spells on married people so they cannot engage in conjugal relations." These included the synods of Salisbury in 1217, of Valencia in 1255 and of Besel in 1434. p 229 Eu

Women were persecuted for their power over sexuality for much of the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance thousands were being burnt while Shakespeare wrote and Michelangelo carved. A provincial synod held in Lombardy in 1579 under the authority of a man later 'sainted', Charles Borromeo, imposed penalties against sorcery that impeded conjugal intercourse. The Synod of Naumur in 1662 renewed laws against this "because we know that every day marriages are thrown into confusion by enchantment." P233 Eu

A much feared spell was said to done by tying a knot in lace while saying words designed to impede male sexual desires. This was practised throughout the Middle Ages from at least the 12th century. Montaigne wrote in the 16th Century that "people are no longer talking about anything else." Eu233 The Jesuit Professor of Physics in Palermo explained: "No other kind of magic is more widespread and feared nowadays. In some places married couples no longer dare to be married publicly in church before the pastor and witnesses but they do it at home the day before and then go to church on the following day." (Eu234) The Church officially allowed marriages to be dissolved because of magical spells that stopped consummation.. There may have been something behind this apart from the fear of women. I suspect that in some cases women may well have been using magic, or the fear of magic, to impede both forced weddings and male sexual power..

This "knot spell" was also part of Roma (Gypsy) magic. In the 14th-15th centuries many thousands of these pagan nomads arrived in Europe. They were of North Indian origin and were well known for practicing magic. Some had arrived in Europe via Egypt and thus came their popular name 'Gypsies' - although they preferred their own names for themselves such as Roma or Romani. They reportedly still have "love knot" spells. A version of this was to tie knots in a cloth while concentrating on the person one wants to bond with, then to wear it for a day before giving it to this person as a love present.(46) Young girls would make clay beads in which they would mix their first menstrual blood. This was a charm against pregnancy. They kept them safe until when they wanted to get pregnant. They would then take them to a stream, toss them in and wish for pregnancy as they slowly dissolved. All such charms were aides to human will. It is not hard to imagine versions of these same spells designed to protect a woman from marriage or pregnancy. Some Aborigines in Australia have today this kind of magic.

Women needed to find ways to control their own future so some may well have resulted to magic. The village witch or wise woman who used folk magic sometimes was tolerated in the early Middle Ages unless she seemed to challenge the influence of the church or state. As the Church grew in power in Europe at the end of the "Dark Ages", women were increasingly traded between noble families as commodities in order to cement alliances. Peasant women were also at the mercy of the noble families under the so-called "doit seigneur".

The Roma soon became the subject of persecution and of expulsion. In 1539 the French Parliament called on: "all those impostors known by the name of Bohemians or Egyptians to leave the kingdom under penalty of the galleys." Henry VIII expelled them from England in 1531 - although many escaped expulsion. Those that remained became the target of attempts to "assimilate" them by getting them to abandon their nomadic lifestyle.

The influence of the Roma, as many of them call themselves (they often object to the misnomer of gypsy meaning Egyptians) should not be ignored. Despite Church sanctions the Roma talents in divination or spell craft were much in demand. The Romany word for "Wise Woman.". Shuvihani, had much the same meaning as "witch". She knew the rites and rituals for such occasions as weddings and baby blessings as well as of spells and herbs.

Despite this reputation for witchcraft, the killing and enslavement of these people has not generally been counted by historians in assessing the numbers of witch-hunt victims. Thus we have historians state that none there is no evidence that any of those accused were pagans. (ref Hutton) The Roma however were killed explicitly as pagans. "Heidenjachten" (pagan-hunts) were organised against them in Holland and cavalry hunts against them in Saxony. A 1646 Bern city ordinance gave anyone the right to hunt and kill "heiden" (pagans - taken as meaning mostly "Gypsies") and hunting them continued in Denmark until 1835. (Pp197-8 PE). They were also enslaved for over 300 years. In 1370 40 Roma families were given as slaves to the monastery of St Anthony in Voditza. In 1665 they were deported from Edinburgh to be slaves in the West Indies.( Some 250,000 - 300,000 gypsies died because of racial prejudice at Auschwitz during the Second World War. The New York Holocaust Centre estimated that some 500,000 to 1,500,000 Roma died at Nazi hands in what the Roma call "The Devouring".)

Interested in learning more? Link to a very interesting book on Gypsies and their Magic