2007-05-20 11:17:55 · 6 answers · asked by Terry 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
The original meaning of the word was three fold; a scribe, a bookseller, and a keeper and recorder of information.
Cite: Oxford English Dictionary.
2007-05-20 14:47:26 · update #1
Having access to information that might be damaging to the propaganda that the church was putting forth would have been enough to have them made a target. Librarians are the keepers of knowledge and the church functions the best when it's members are as ignorant as possible. They would have been the most likely to be able to refute what ever nonsense the church was trying to put out by facts. I can imagine that a great number of books of that day were destroyed as well if they didn't conform to what was currently being taught by religious leaders. We would probably be amazed at the knowledge that the people who came before us had if those precious tomes were still with us. Sad. Plus who says they were women for the most part?
2007-05-20 11:31:09 · answer #1 · answered by Praire Crone 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Even in modern day "cleansings", the educated are targeted. El Salvador's civil war in the 1980's eradicated most of the country's intelligentsia, for example- its teachers, artists, engineers, historians, etc. Knowledge is power, and education is seen by the uneducated as dangerous. Entire countries have been denied education to keep them compliant for indentured labor. A heretic is often nothing more than a person who asks questions. Coming from that platform, it may be easy to see why a keeper of knowledge, history, and wisdom is dangerous.
2007-05-20 14:49:34 · answer #2 · answered by Hauntedfox 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well in that era librarians were mostly women and they were well educated when most other women were not. So a smart woman was instantly thought to be a witch.
2007-05-20 13:15:13 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't quote me here, but I would I magine it was because they were well-educated women in a time when a woman's place was in the kitchen.
2007-05-20 11:21:02 · answer #4 · answered by OhKatie! 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because it was thought that if women could use other tallent than those for procreation and kitchen work knew magick or where in some way wiches
2007-05-20 19:00:43 · answer #5 · answered by Zero Cool 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well the church has never wanted people to have access to the truth have they???
SADLY
It seems not much has changed.
*Blessings*
~*Ariel*~
2007-05-20 18:22:36 · answer #6 · answered by *~Ariel Brigalow Moondust~* 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋