The Witch Trials in Salem
practice of medicine among the upper classes. They were ready to take on a key role in the elmination
of the great mass of female healers the ,,witches."
The partnership between Church, State and medical profession reached full bloom in the witch
trials. The doctor was held up the medical ,,expert," giving an aura of science to the whole proceeding.
He was asked to make judgements about whether certain women were witches and whether certain
afflictions had been caused by witchcraft. In the witch-hunts, the Church explicitly legitimized the
doctors' professionalism, denouncing non-professional healing as equivalent the heresy: ,,If a woman
dare to cure without having studied she is a witch and must die." Finally, the witch craze provided a
handy excuse for the doctor's failings in everyday practice: Anything he couldn't cure was obviously
the result of sorcery.
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