Stocking Stuffer

 I'm happy to share a documentary I was interview for on my research on the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas. Grab some hot chocolate and enjoy!

A Visit from St. Nicholas...to the Archives

 Happy holidays! As we start to hear the sound of sleigh bells and carols outside, there's some Christmas magic in the archives too. Please enjoy this article I wrote on the history of the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas.

Book Review: The Six Wives of Henry VIII

 Antonia Fraser is one of my favorite historians. She presents her subjects with such empathy that you feel like you’ve known them for years, and she weaves together their lives like they’re one beautiful tapestry. She’s able to bring primary sources to life in a way that few can. And she always adds interesting details that many would have not considered. For example, did you know that being an artisan for Henry VIII would have been a pretty lucrative job? Every time a new queen ascended, her coat of arms replaced those of the former queen everywhere from stained glass to doorways. 

The Six Wives of Henry VIII is a detailed portrait of all of Henry’s brides. Fraser’s masterful work looks at these women as people in their own right, not simply royal consorts. She’s sympathetic to each in turn and is quick to dispel any politically motivated rumors. Anne Boleyn is presented as a quick witted and learned woman rather than the scheming seductress she is often portrayed as. Fraser is also unafraid to point out Henry’s capricious and downright brutal treatment of these women. Anne was executed for treason, incest (with her brother), and adultery. However, during her trial it was ruled that her and Henry’s marriage was invalid. How she could be adulterous against a man who was said not to be her lawful husband is beyond me! 

One of the most interesting chapters focuses on Anne (Anna) of Cleves. Out of all of these women, she gets off the easiest! You can’t help but sympathize with her naivety and grace in a very difficult situation. Henry made it very well known that he was not sexually attracted to her to anyone who would listen. On the topic of why she wasn’t pregnant yet, Anne said that she didn’t know because Henry came into her room every night and kissed her before retiring. Wasn’t that enough? One of her ladies remarked “there must be more if there will be a prince.” As part of the divorce, Anne was granted accommodation and money in addition to being seen as “the King’s sister.” She would be seen as quasi family and a subject of the King. She escaped the much more gruesome fate of her compatriots. 

The Six Wives is an excellent piece of history with its detail and empathetic treatment of all of these women. For more Tudor history from Antonia Fraser, check out her biography of Mary, Queen of Scots. The appendix featuring text in Old Scottish is incredible! 

Season of the (Canadian) Witch

 

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Canada, and in light of my last post I got to thinking about historical witch trials in Canada. After some digging in Canadian archives, I came across the trial of Jean Campaga, who was accused of witchcraft in 1684-5. Check out that link to see the hand written trial documents. And check out this Wiki for details of the trial in English.

One interesting thing about this trial is that the accusations against Jean were pretty similar to those made against women accused of witchcraft. His neighbors blamed him for a poor harvest, the death of livestock, and ultimately the death of a woman from a mysterious illness. These accusations began after Jean was rejected twice as marriage material. Luckily for Jean he was acquitted. I made up this chart for quick reference on how his trial differs and mirrors witchcraft trials against women in Europe and America:

Similarities	Differences
Accused of deliberately hurting neighbors using spells	Male defendant
Testimonies used as evidence	No torture/intimidation to elicit confession
Jealousy and revenge as motives	Defendant did not face execution (only banishment)
Vulnerable defendant (Jean was an immigrant from France)	Location

 

Something Witchy this Way Comes

 I know Halloween is over a month away, but I'd thought it would be fun to share a post about witches and the book that served as a guide to all of your witch hunting needs. And of course, there will be some archives fun thrown into this brew. This post was originally written by me for The Conversation and is under a Creative Commons License. 

How do you spot a witch? This notorious 15th-century book gave instructions – and helped execute thousands of women

The ‘Malleus Maleficarum,’ a medieval handbook, was used to try and execute supposed witches. Its influence lasted for centuries – including at the Salem Witch Trials. Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Melissa Chim, General Theological Seminary

Books have always had the power to cast a spell over their readers – figuratively.

But one book that was quite popular from the 15th to 17th centuries, and infamously so, is literally about spells: what witches do, how do identify them, how to get them to confess, and how to bring them to swift punishment.

As fear of witches reached a fever pitch in Europe, witch hunters turned to the “Malleus Maleficarum,” or “Hammer of Witches,” for guidance. The book’s instructions helped convict some of the tens of thousands of people – almost all women – who were executed during the period. Its bloody legacy stretched to North America, with 25 supposed “witches” killed in Salem, Massachusetts, in the late 1600s.

As a reference librarian and adjunct professor at the General Theological Seminary in New York, I have the rare opportunity to hold an original copy of the “Malleus” in my hands and share this piece of history with my students and researchers. Much has been written about the contents, but the physical book itself is a fascinating testament to history.

Witches 101

The “Malleus” was written circa 1486 by two Dominican friars, Johann Sprenger and Heinrich Kraemer, who present their guide in three parts.

The first argues that witches do in fact exist, sorcery is heresy, and not fearing witches’ power is itself an act of heresy. Part Two goes into graphic detail about witches’ sexual deviancy, with one chapter devoted to “the Way whereby Witches copulate with those Devils known as Incubi.” An incubus was a male demon believed to have sex with sleeping women.

It also describes witches’ ability to turn their victims into animals, and their violence against children. The third and final part gives guidelines on how to interrogate a witch, including through torture; get her to confess; and ultimately sentence her.

Twenty-eight editions of the “Malleus” were published between 1486 and 1600, making it the definitive guide on witchcraft and demonology for many years – and helping the prosecution of witches take off.

Targeting women

The authors of the text reluctantly admit that men can be agents of the devil, but argue that women are weak and inherently more sinful, making them his perfect targets.

Accusations were often rooted in the belief that women, especially those who did not submit to ideals about obedient Christian wives and mothers, were prone to be in league with the devil.

The authors detail “four horrible crimes which devils commit against infants, both in the mother’s womb and afterwards.” They even accuse witches of eating newborns and are especially suspicious of midwives.

Women on the fringes of society, such as healers in Europe or the slave Tituba in Salem, were convenient scapegoats for society’s ills.

Hand-held history

At the General Theological Seminary, anyone interested in examining our copy of the “Malleus” needs to make an appointment to visit the special collections reading room. Due to the book’s fragility, visitors are asked to wash their hands before touching it.

One striking aspect is its size. The “Malleus” is just under 8 inches long, with 190 pages – this book was meant to travel with its reader and be stored in a coat or bag.

Our copy is from 1492, and it was published by the famous bookbinder Peter Drach from Speyer, Germany. This makes it a rare example of “incunabula,” as scholars call European books published before about 1501 – the earliest period of printing.

After much wear and tear, this copy was rebound in leather in the 19th century. Small handwritten notes cover most of the pages. On page 48, for example, a reader numbered three points and wrote the words “delightful religious journey” on the opposite page. Numerous pages feature hand-drawn arrows pointing to paragraphs.

Another point to consider when looking at this edition is its provenance, meaning who has owned it over the years. This copy is originally from the collection of the Rev. Edwin A. Dalrymple, who was the rector of a school and Episcopal church in Virginia in the mid-19th century. The book moved from his shelves to the Maryland Diocesan Library until it entered our library system.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this “Malleus,” in addition to the text itself, is a bookplate pasted on its back cover. This bookplate states: “It was the handbook of the Witchcraft Persecution of the 15th and 16th centuries. This copy possesses much the same interest as would a headman’s ax of that date in as much as it has probably been the direct cause of the death of many persons accused of sorcery.”

It’s unclear who attached this statement, but its sentiment rings very true: The “Malleus” represents the power of ideas – for good or ill.

[3 media outlets, 1 religion newsletter. Get stories from The Conversation, AP and RNS.]

Melissa Chim, Adjunct Professor and Reference Librarian, General Theological Seminary

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Historical Sketch: Margaret Guenther

 Today's historical sketch is on a very fascinating woman in the Episcopal Church named Margaret Guenther. She served as the Director of the Center for Christian Spirituality at General Theological Seminary and was a pioneering voice in the field of spiritual direction. I had the wonderful opportunity to co-author a book about Margaret back in 2022. Here are some interesting facts about Margaret, and some fun things I found in the archives!

-General Theological Seminary: Seminary in New York City founded in 1820. The Center for Christian Spirituality was founded in 1976, shortly after women were allowed to be ordained in the Episcopal Church.  In 2022, my colleague Dr. Anne Silver (retired Director of the Center for Christian Spirituality) and I won a grant to write an Open Educational Textbook. We decided to write about the Center for Christian Spirituality, General’s most popular program. There were over 30 boxes of material in the archives, which I created a finding aid for. Our textbook is entitled Living Archives: A History of the Center for Christian Spirituality  PDF view of the file Living Archives.pdf    

-Spiritual Direction as defined by the Center for Christian Spirituality: “Spiritual direction is about companionship. In a Christian context, a spiritual director is someone who accompanies you as you explore your spirituality and grow in relationship with God. Spiritual direction can help you listen for God and live more fully into Christian faith. A spiritual director will invite you to reflect on your life in the light of faith, guide you in prayer and spiritual practices, listen to you and with you in discerning God’s purposes, and encourage your baptismal discipleship.” 

-Margaret Guenther: Before entering the Episcopal priesthood, Margaret earned her PhD in German Language and Literature from Radcliffe. She earned her MDIV in 1983 from General Theological Seminary, and became the first female Director of the Center for Christian Spirituality in 1986. In June 1997, she retired from General Theological Seminary after revamping the spiritual direction program.   

- In 1992 Guenther’s first book, Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction, was published by Cowley Publications. In it she offered metaphors of spiritual directors as hosts, as good teachers, and as midwives to the soul. She wrote of the spiritual director as an amateur in the original sense of the word: “one who loves, loves the art that she serves, loves and prays for the people who trust her, loves the Holy Spirit who is the true director in this strange ministry called spiritual direction.” She included a chapter on women and spiritual direction, and she wrote in a down-to-earth, distinctly female voice: “I can write only from my own perspective. First and foremost, this is the perspective of a woman, a woman who has been married for over three decades and who has borne and reared children.” 

-How Margaret described spiritual direction: “I am not the star or even a major player, but rather . . . both of us are waiting upon the action of the Holy Spirit. . . . It’s not a performance and certainly no feat of professional bravura. It’s just sitting there in my quite comfortable chair, with no expectations and no agenda, and doing my best to honor the person in the other chair.” This was a new way to look at spiritual direction, beforehand it was seen as a special calling. Margaret described spiritual directors as “amateurs.” 

-A fun quote showing Margaret’s sense of humor from the Center’s Newsletter 1994: “I’m not a professional fundraiser,  but just a spiritual Strudel stretcher.”  

 

 

Historical Sketch: Hannah Cullwick

I recently had the opportunity to do some research on a fascinating woman that lived in the late Victorian period named Hannah Cullwick. Hannah was a maid of all work, which was one of the most difficult and thankless jobs a lower class woman could have. What makes her such an interesting figure is that she left behind seventeen volumes of detailed diaries about her life. Here is a brief historical sketch of her including some of her diary quotes:

Biographical details 

-May 26, 1833-Jul 9, 1909 Shifnal, United Kingdom 

-mother was a lady’s maid, father was a stableman 

-height and weight: tall, weighing 11 stone (154 lbs) 

-Worked as a maid of all work and other similar jobs (pot girl in an inn, nurserymaid, etc) 

-Unique for her time-childfree, able to read and write, proud of her work performing physical labor 

 

Historical context 

-Victorian views of dirt and uncleanliness: Dirt was a class issue, use of soap signaled a higher class. Use of gas lamps also required constant cleaning.  Lower class women’s labor was supposed to be invisible 

-Maid of all work: responsible for all work in a Victorian home, often only servant employed in a middle class house vs upper class/gentry with a large household staff. Low wages, little personal freedom and rights, no safety net or legal recourse 

Diary quotes 

-Last diary entry in 1873: “This is the last day o' the month, & Massa only wishes me to write to the end. And I am glad of it somehow, for I've got so thoroughly tired o' writing what I think to most people must be very tiresome & certainly disinteresting. I hardly think I shd care to read one lady's diary of twenty years standing tho' of course their'n would be more varied than a servant's can possibly be. And so I've told M. that by making me write for so many years he has quite tired me of it, & yet for some things I am most glad that he's not tired of reading it.” 

-In “her dirt:” “Massa told me to go & have my likeness done in my dirt.... So I went one morning just as I was... & I was partly black wi' cleaning boots and grates & that. I had a dirty lilac frock on & old boots, & a coarse white apron on & my striped one wi' me, & of course a cap on. My hands was quite black & my face & arms grimed, but I pul a good patch o' black lead on my left arm to do 'em.” 

-Her perspective on her work: “I am thirty years old this month... though I don't feel any different than I ever did except in feeling lower in heart I think, for I've been a servant now 20 years or more. Always the lowest kind, but I think different about it now a good deal than I did ten years ago 'fore I knew Massa. He has taught me, though it's been difficult to learn thoroughly, the beauty in being nothing but a common drudge & to bear being despised by others what don't have to work the same way.” 

-Typical daily tasks: “Lighted the fire. Swept the birdroom & dusted the other rooms. Clean'd 3 pairs of boots. Got breakfast up & made the beds & emptied the slops. Clean'd & washed up. Put the linen for the wash. Cleaned the brass rods & the bedroom windows & the sills. Put up clean curtains. Clean'd away & then went upstairs & clean'd the bedrooms on my knees. Got tea. Clean'd away & wash'd up in the scullery. Went out on errands & got supper ready. Mr Cleveland was expected but didn't come till after. I took a note to Mr Brewer for the Missis & then had supper. Clean'd away & wash'd up & to bed at 11.” 

-On her marriage “I like the life I lead - working here & just going to M. when I can of a Sunday, & a chance time to clean of a week day when I can get leave now & then, oftener of course if I could - better even I think than a married life. For I never could make up my mind to that - it's too much like being a woman. . . . So let it be, only I don't wish the world to see me anything else nor a servant, but M.'s love I couldn't do without” 

 

Controversial marriage with Arthur Munby 

-Munby was a barrister (middle to upper class) 

-met in 1854, Munby was attracted to her “peasant” physical features from hard labor, combined with her “ladylike” grace and intelligence. Often objectified working class women 

-He enjoyed seeing her “in her dirt.” She would come home from work with her clothes dirty from her and then transform into “respectable” clothing 

-Both participated in a “master/slave” relationship, she would wear a “slave band” and a padlock necklace to which he held the key. She was dismissed from one employer for not removing the slave band while serving dinner. Referred to him as “Massa” 

-Munby took numerous photographs of her in different costumes, such as a slave, chimney sweep, high class lady, etc 

-Unconventional marriage-Hannah didn’t live with him full time, would visit him after work on Sundays. Had him compensate her for any domestic duties 

 

For more information, check out an upcoming episode on Hannah Cullwich on the Infinite Women podcast.