La Sorcière

The author traces the origins and consequences of European witchcraft beliefs, portraying accused women as heirs to ancient feminine religious and healing traditions whose skills in herbalism, midwifery, and prophecy were recast as crimes by clerical and judicial powers. Drawing on trial records, folklore, and inquisitorial manuals, the work examines how communal fears, jealousy, and institutional authority combined to produce widespread persecution, torture, and executions, and how medical and practical knowledge transmitted by women was both indispensable and condemned. It considers cultural transformations that turned respected female practitioners into outcasts and interprets witch-hunts as a symptom of larger social and religious change.