Witches

We come now to the most fantastic accusation of all: The witch is accused not only of murdering and poisoning, sex crimes and conspiracy — but of 
helping and healing. As a leading English witch-hunter put it: 

“For this must always be remembered, as a conclusion, that by witches we understand not only those which kill and torment, but all Diviners,Charmers, Jugglers, all Wizards, commonly called wise men and wise women... and in the same number we reckon all good Witches, which do no hurt but good, which do not spoil and destroy, but save and deliver... It were a thousand times better for the land if all Witches, but especially the blessing
Witch, might suffer death.”

Witch-healers were often the only general medical practitioners for a people who had no doctors and no hospitals and who were bitterly afflicted with poverty and disease. In particular, the association of the witch and the midwife was strong: “No one does more harm to the Catholic Church than midwives,” wrote witch-hunters Kramer and Sprenger. The Church itself had little to offer the suffering peasantry: 
“On Sundays, after Mass, the sick came in scores, crying for help, — and
words were all they got: “You have sinned, and God is afflicting you. Thank
him; you will suffer so much the less torment in the life to come. Endure,
suffer, die. Has not the Church its prayers for the dead?” ”
Jules Michelet

This is a few lines taken from a book called : Witches, Midwives, &Nurses by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English

The first time I read this I was appalled at the fact it made me so angry and sad at the same time. “You have sinned, and God is afflicting you." I know not what kind of God they know, but the one I've come to know would not afflict me. If I chose the wrong paths in my life than I may bring affliction onto my self. But I have done that, not God. Most of the suffering in those times came from being poor. Unlike today's afflictions of drugs, alcohol and other abuses of the body. If you were poor you did not eat well and you drank water that was bad.The two most common were malaria (that was transferred by mosquitoes) and scurvy from low vitamin C levels. People would die from Small pox, Scarlett Fever, Common Cold,or just the flu... Thousands of children died from these. I'm sure that God wasn't afflicting them for their sins. And I'll bet less would have died if there were a few more "witches" around. These woman were mothers and care giver that held the secrets that were significance of healing. Past down though centuries. Don't get me wrong I am in no way cutting modern medicine. Today is a whole different issue from in times past. But I do believe that there is a day coming when the knowledge that was past over in that time will be needed again. I may not see it but my grand daughters might.