Authority 10

They teach their own people not to obey their masters, they tevile the wealthy, hate the king, ridicule the elder, condemn the boyars, regard as vile in the eyes of God those who serve the king, and forbid every serf to work for his lord.

Silvia Federici 2004: 56

Presbyter Kosma was a Bulgarian writer in the late 10th century. His best-known work, from which the quote comes, is directed against the Bogomilia, an ascetic religious community that was widespread in present-day Bulgaria.

Within radical movements of religious heretics, women played a central role (Federici 2004: 22). Mostly founded by women, they emerged in the 11th century in France and Italy as well as in other regions (ibid.). They were vehemently opposed by the church, as the quote makes clear. During the Inquisitions of the Middle Ages and later, people, most often women, were labelled as witches, which act constituted a strategy for breaking up communities and punishing resistant individuals. It is estimated that 200,000 women were tried, convicted and/or murdered during the three centuries when witchcraft persecution was at its peak (ibid.: 208). In southwest Germany alone, 3,200 women were burned as witches between 1560 and 1670 (ibid.).

*Silvia Federici (2004): Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. New York: Automedia.

1000