Did Eve Fall or Was She Pushed?
In the 1500s, a witch-hunting craze spread throughout Europe. Hundreds of thousands of women were accused of sorcery, tortured and executed. The witch craze, as it was known, was spurred by the publication of a guide to the identification—and elimination—of witches. Written for the Roman Catholic Church, this influential manual, called Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer Against Witches), traced the roots of witchery back to the first woman:
For though the devil tempted Eve to sin, yet Eve seduced Adam. And as the sin of Eve would not have brought death to our soul and body unless the sin had afterwards passed on to Adam, to which he was tempted by Eve, not by the devil, therefore she is more bitter than death.1