The Basque witch trials of the seventeenth century represent the last attempt at rooting out supposed witchcraft from Navarre by the Spanish Inquisition, after a series of episodes erupted during the sixteenth century following the end of military operations in the conquest of Iberian Navarre, until 1524.
The trial of the Basque witches began in January 1609 at Logroño, near Navarre, bordering Basque territory. It was influenced by similar persecutions conducted by Pierre de Lancre in the bordering Labourd, French Basque Country. Although the number of people executed was small in comparison to other persecutions in Europe, it is considered the biggest single event of its kind in terms of the number of people investigated: by the end of the phenomena, some 7,000 cases had been examined by the Inquisition.
Process
Logroño, though not a Basque city, was the setting for an Inquisition tribunal responsible for the Kingdom of Navarre, and for the provinces of Alava, Gipuzkoa, Biscay, La Rioja and the North of Burgos and Soria.[1] As was typical of "witch trials", those accused of witchcraft were predominantly women, however this tribunal also targeted children and men, including priests allegedly guilty of healing with nóminas,[1] which are amulets bearing the names of saints.[2]
The first phase ended in 1610, with a declaration of auto-da-fé against thirty-one of the accused, five or six of whom were burned to death including Maria de Arburu. Five people were included in the declaration symbolically, as they had died before the auto-da-fé.
Thereafter proceedings were suspended until the inquisitors had a chance to gather further evidence on what they believed to be a widespread witch cult in the Basque region. Alonso de Salazar Frías, the junior inquisitor and lawyer in training, was designated to examine the matter at length. Armed with an Edict of Grace, promising pardon to all those who voluntarily reported themselves and denounced their accomplices, he traveled across the countryside during the year 1611. He visited mainly the vicinity of Zugarramurdi, near what is now the French-Spanish border, where a cave and a water stream (Olabidea or Infernuko erreka, "Hell's stream") was said to be the meeting place of the witches.
As was usual in cases of this kind, denunciations flowed in. Frías finally returned to Logroño with "confessions" from nearly 2,000 people, 1,384 of whom were children between the ages of seven and fourteen, implicating a further 5,000 named individuals.[3] Most of 1,802 people[4] retracted their statements before Frías, attributing their confessions to torture. The evidence gathered covered 11,000 pages in all. Only six people out of 1,802 maintained their confessions and claimed to have returned to sabbaths.
Of about 7,000 people accused in the Basque witch trials, only six were ultimately executed: Domingo de Subildegui, María de Echachute, Graciana Xarra, Maria Baztan de Borda, Maria de Arburu and Petri de Joangorena. They were condemned to be executed by the Inquisition because they had repeatedly refused to confess, regret and ask for mercy, despite having been accused for a number of sorcery acts by several different people, and burned at the stake, alongside the effigies of five more who had died in prison prior to execution, in Logrono 1 November 1610.[5]
In the stir of the events, proceedings were started in Hondarribia in 1611, some 35km away from Zugarramurdi and 19km from St-Jean-de-Luz, main hotspots of witchcraft allegations against presumed female witches accused of casting spells on living creatures and meeting in Jaizkibel in akelarres, led by a he-goat shaped Devil. Men in this Bidasoa region were recruited in droves for Basque whaling, leaving women on their own (sometimes along with the priests, children, and elders) for long periods. According to evidence given by a witness as attested in the record, "the Devil summoned in the Gascon language those from San Sebastián and Pasaia, and in Basque those from Irun and Hendaye, addressing a few words to them."[6]
Skepticism
Belief in witches was comparatively low in Spain. Although it was never strong, it became weaker under the Visigothic law, established by the Visigoths during their last century of rule in Spain and preserved by the Christian nations during most of the Middle Ages. According to this law, belief in supernatural phenomena of any sort such as witches, fortune tellers, and oracles was a crime and a heresy. The belief in witchcraft had survived, though to a lesser degree in the northmost mountain regions of Galicia and the Basque Country.[7]
The Spanish Inquisition persecuted mainly Protestants, Conversos (baptized descendants of Jews and Moors), and those who illegally smuggled forbidden books into Spain. As far back as 1538, the Council of Inquisition had warned judges not to believe all that they read in Malleus Maleficarum, the infamous witch-finding text.[citation needed] In March 1610, Antonio Venegas de Figueroa, the Bishop of Pamplona, sent a letter to the Inquisition in which he claimed that the witch hunt was based "on lies and self-delusion"[8] and that there had been little knowledge of witchcraft in the region before the trials.
Educated Spaniards were typically skeptical of witchcraft and considered it a northern or Protestant superstition. Salazar, the youngest judge in a panel of three, was also skeptical about the ordeal, stating that he had found no substantive proof of witchcraft on his travels, in spite of the numerous confessions. In addition, he questioned the central basis of the trials. Because of the judges' disagreement on how to proceed, the matter was referred to the Inquisitor-General in Madrid. The senior judges, Alonso Becerra y Holquin and Juan del Valle Alvarado, accused their colleague of being "in league with the Devil." Some of Salazar's objections are remarkable:
The real question is: are we to believe that witchcraft occurred in a given situation simply because of what the witches claim? No: it is clear that the witches are not to be believed, and the judges should not pass a sentence on anyone unless the case can be proven with external and objective evidence sufficient to convince everyone who hears it. And who can accept the following: that a person can frequently fly through the air and travel a hundred leagues in an hour; that a woman can get through a space not big enough for a fly; that a person can make himself invisible; that he can be in a river or the open sea and not get wet; or that he can be in bed at the sabbath at the same time;... and that a witch can turn herself into any shape she fancies, be it housefly or raven? Indeed, these claims go beyond all human reason and may even pass the limits permitted by the Devil.
The Inquisitor-General appeared to share the view that confession and accusation on their own were not sufficient evidence of witchcraft. For some time, the central office of the Inquisition had been skeptical of claims of magic and witchcraft and had only sanctioned the earlier burnings with considerable reluctance, resulting only from the reported mood of panic from Logroño. In August 1614, it was ruled that all of the trials pending at Logroño should be dismissed. The determination issued new and more rigorous rules of evidence that brought witch-burning in Spain to an end, long before the practice ended in the Protestant North.[9]
Discussion
The background and circumstances leading to the trials are not obscure. In the wider context of religious persecution and conflict in Europe, the Catholic Church aimed to suppress old customs or belief systems that they perceived could threaten the authority of the church. Witch trials were one of the ways by which they were able to quell old traditions while reasserting their power.
The so-called sabbaths and akelarres may have been meetings out of reach of the official religious and civil authorities.[citation needed] Those who attended the meetings would eat, drink, talk, and dance, sometimes all night long, in the forest or caves, at times consuming mind-altering herbs and ointments.[10]
While academic research into the Basque Witch Trials has traditionally focused on the mechanisms of persecution, in recent years scholars such as Emma Wilby have argued that the presumed witches drew on a range of experiences to inform their accounts of the witches’ sabbath, from folk magic and collective medicine-making to popular expressions of Catholic religious practice such as liturgical misrule and cursing masses.[11] The emphasis on Catholic liturgy in the Zugarramurdi trials is the reason why, along with the trials simultaneously conducted by Pierre de Lancre in the French Basque country, these persecutions produced the most sophisticated descriptions of the Black Mass to emerge anywhere in Europe.
In popular culture
The "Cave of the Witches" near Akelarre in Zugarramurdi.
It was reported that the witches of Zugarramurdi met at the meadow of Akelarre (Basque for "meadow of the he-goat"). In Spanish, aquelarre has become a loan word from the original Basque and refers to black sabbath.[12]
The village of Zugarramurdi is home to a Witchcraft Museum that commemorates the witch trials of the region and pays tribute to the victims.
The Basque witch trials were also featured as a subplot in season 4 of the HBO series True Blood, when the spirit of powerful witch Antonia Gavilán being fed upon, tortured, and condemned to death by vampire priests in the city of Logroño in 1610, takes possession of a modern-day Wiccan in order to exact revenge on vampires.[citation needed]
A Witches' Sabbath is a purported gathering of those believed to practice witchcraft and other rituals. The phrase became especially popular in the 20th century.
Akelarre is the Basque term meaning Witches' Sabbath. Akerra means male goat in the Basque language. Witches' sabbaths were envisioned as presided over by a goat.
Baztan is a municipality from the Chartered Community of Navarre, northern Spain. It is located 58 km (36 mi) from Pamplona, the capital of Navarre. It is the largest municipality in Navarre, with around 376.8 km2 and just over 8,000 inhabitants.
Zugarramurdi is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre in northern Spain. It passed into history as the setting of alleged occult activity featured in the infamous Basque witch trials held in Logroño in the seventeenth century. The town is home to the Basque witch museum and the Witch Caves. Every year, spectacular fires are lit in the caves near Zugarramurdi for the celebration of the ‘day of the witch’ on the summer solstice.
Sorginak are the assistants of the goddess Mari in Basque mythology. It is also the Basque name for witches, priests and priestesses, making it difficult to distinguish between the mythological and real ones.
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition, was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. It began toward the end of the Reconquista and was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under papal control. It became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Catholic Inquisition, along with the Roman Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition. The "Spanish Inquisition" may be defined broadly as operating in Spain and in all Spanish colonies and territories, which included the Canary Islands, the Kingdom of Naples, and all Spanish possessions in North America and South America. According to modern estimates, around 150,000 people were prosecuted for various offences during the three-century duration of the Spanish Inquisition, of whom between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed, approximately 2.7 percent of all cases. The Inquisition, however, since the creation of the American courts, has never had jurisdiction over the Indians. The King of Spain ordered "that the inquisitors should never proceed against the Indians, but against the old Christians and their descendants and other persons against whom in these kingdoms of Spain it is customary to proceed".
Alonso de Salazar Frías has been given the epithet "The Witches’ Advocate" by historians, for his role in establishing the conviction, within the Spanish Inquisition, that accusations against supposed witches were more often rooted in dreams and fantasy than in reality, and the inquisitorial policy that witch accusations and confessions should only be given credence where there was firm, independent, corroborating evidence. He was probably the most influential figure in ensuring that those accused of witchcraft were generally not put to death in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Spain. The Spanish Inquisition was one of the first institutions in Europe to rule against the death penalty for supposed witches. Its Instructions of 1614, which embodied Salazar's ideas, were influential throughout Catholic Europe.
Ars Magica is the second novel of Spanish author Nerea Riesco, first published on May fourth 2007. Its rights are sold for translation in Italian, German, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Romanian.
The Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition is the hypothesis of the existence of a series of myths and fabrications about the Spanish Inquisition used as propaganda against the Spanish Empire in a time of strong military, commercial and political rivalry between European powers, starting in the 16th century. According to its advocates, Protestant Revolutionary propaganda depicted inquisitions of Catholic monarchs as the epitome of human barbarity with fantastic scenes of tortures, witch hunting and evil friars. Proponents of the theory see it as part of the Spanish Black Legend propaganda, as well as of Anti-Catholic propaganda, and one of the most recurrent Black Legend themes.
María de Zozaya y Arramendi was prosecuted for being a witch in 1609, during the Basque witch trials that were part of the Spanish Inquisition.
The Navarre witch trials took place in the Pyrenees in the Kingdom of Navarra in 1525-1526. It was a significant event in the treatment of witchcraft cases in Spain, as it led to a decision from the Spanish Inquisition in how to conduct witch trials.
The Witch trials in Spain were few in comparison with most of Europe. The Spanish Inquisition preferred to focus on the crime of heresy and, consequently, did not consider the persecution of witchcraft a priority and in fact discouraged it rather than have it conducted by the secular courts. This was similar to the Witch trials in Portugal and, with a few exceptions, mainly successful. However, while the Inquisition discouraged witch trials in Spain proper, it did encourage the particularly severe Witch trials in the Spanish Netherlands.
María de Echachute, was one of the victims of the Basque witch trials, and one of six people executed by over hundreds of accused.
Petri de Joangorena was a Spanish alleged witch. He was one of the people charged with sorcery in the Basque witch trials (1609-1614), and one of only six people executed of 7,000 who were accused.
Domingo de Subildegui was a Spanish alleged witch. He was one of the people charged with sorcery in the Basque witch trials (1609–1614), and one of only six people executed of 7,000 who were accused.
Graciana Xarra was a Spanish alleged witch. She was one of the people charged with sorcery in the Basque witch trials (1609–1614), and one of only six of 7.000 accused to be executed.
Maria de Arburu was a Spanish alleged witch. She was one of the people charged with sorcery in the Basque witch trials (1609-1614), and one of only six people executed of 7,000 who were accused.
Maria Baztan de Borda was a Spanish alleged witch. She was one of the people charged with sorcery in the Basque witch trials (1609-1614), and one of only six of 7.000 accused to be executed.
María de Ximildegui was a Spanish alleged witch. She was one of the people charged with sorcery in the Basque witch trials (1609-1614). She played an important role in the development of the Basque witch trials.
Maria Johan was a Spanish alleged witch.
References
General
Henningsen, Gustav (November 1980). "The Greatest Witch-Trial of All: Navarre, 1609-14". History Today. 30 (11): 36–39.
Henningsen, Gustav (1980). The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609-1614). Reno: University of Nevada Press. ISBN0-87417-056-7.
↑ Henningsen, Gustav, ed. ‘The Instructions Issued by the Council for Dealing with Witchcraft Cases (Madrid, 29th August 1614)’. In Salazar Documents: Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frias and Others on the Basque Witch Persecution, 472–491. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2004.
↑ Wilby, Emma. Invoking the Akelarre: Voices of the Accused in the Basque Witch-Craze 1609–14. Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2019. ISBN978-1845199999
María de Endara, sentenced to confiscation of her belongings and life in prison. Freed later.
Inesa Gaxen, their belongings were returned and she was indulted. Upon her return to Hondarribia, the local administration did not accept the Inquisition decision; she and her companions were banned to Hendaye.
Joanes de Goiburu, sentenced to confiscation of his belongings and life in prison.
Miguel Goiburu, died in prison. His image was burnt at the stake.
María Presona, sentenced to confiscation of her belongings and life in prison.
Alonso de Salazar y Frías, inquisitor. His reports led to the practical suppression of witch burnings in the Spanish empire one century before the rest of Europe.
Joanes de Sansin, sentenced to confiscation of her belongings and life in prison.
María de Zozaya, died from the tortures before the auto-da-fé. Her bones were "relaxed to the secular arm". The article quotes from the confession extracted by Alonso Becerra and Juan del Valle Alvarado.
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