PART I.
QUESTION VI.
Why
Superstition is chiefly found in Women.
As
for the first question, why a greater number of witches is found in the fragile
feminine sex than among men; it is indeed a fact that it were idle to
contradict, since it is accredited by actual experience, apart from the verbal
testimony of credibly witnesses…When they are governed by a good spirit, they
are most excellent in virtue; but when they are governed by an evil spirit,
they indulge the worst possible vices.
Now
the wickedness of women is spoken of in Ecclesiasticus xxv: There is no
head above the head of a serpent: and there is no wrath above the wrath of a
woman. I had rather dwell with a lion and a dragon than to keep house with a
wicked woman. And among much which in that place precedes and follows about a
wicked woman, he concludes: All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a
woman. Wherefore S. John Chrysostom says on the text, It is not good to marry (S. Matthew
xix): What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an unescapable
punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a
domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature, painted with fair
colours! Therefore if it be a sin to divorce her when she ought to be kept, it
is indeed a necessary torture; for either we commit adultery by divorcing her,
or we must endure daily strife. Cicero in his second book of The Rhetorics
says: The many lusts of men lead them into one sin, but the lust of women leads
them into all sins; for the root of all woman's vices is avarice. And Seneca
says in his Tragedies: A woman either loves or hates; there is no third
grade. And the tears of woman are a deception, for they may spring from true
grief, or they may be a snare. When a woman thinks alone, she thinks evil.
Other again have propounded other reasons why there are more superstitious
women found than men. And the first is, that they are more credulous; and since
the chief aim of the devil is to corrupt faith, therefore he rather attacks
them. See Ecclesiasticus xix: He that is quick to believe is
light-minded, and shall be diminished. The second reason is, that women are naturally
more impressionable, and more ready to receive the influence of a disembodied
spirit; and that when they use this quality well they are very good, but when
they use it ill they are very evil.
The
third reason is that they have slippery tongues, and are unable to conceal from
the fellow-women those things which by evil arts they know; and, since they are
weak, they find an easy and secret manner of vindicating themselves by
witchcraft. See Ecclesiasticus as quoted above: I had rather dwell with
a lion and a dragon than to keep house with a wicked woman. All wickedness is
but little to the wickedness of a woman. And to this may be added that, as they
are very impressionable, they act accordingly.
There are also others who bring forward yet other reasons, of which preachers
should be very careful how they make use. For it is true that in the Old
Testament the Scriptures have much that is evil to say about women, and this
because of the first temptress, Eve, and her imitators; yet afterwards in the
New Testament we find a change of name, as from Eva to Ave (as S. Jerome says),
and the whole sin of Eve taken away by the benediction of Mary. Therefore
preachers should always say as much praise of them as possible.
But
because in these times this perfidy is more often found in women than in men,
as we learn by actual experience, if anyone is curious as to the reason, we may
add to what has already been said the following: that since they are feebler
both in mind and body, it is not surprising that they should come more under
the spell of witchcraft.