The Basque Witch Burnings

Much is known about the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries. In some countries, much of the original documentation survived in archives like the "Archivo Historico National" in Madrid, and these records have been used by people from different countries to describe the witch phenomenon. Most researchers say that the brutal burnings had been a terrible mistake, many of the witch persecutors in 1610 in the town of Logroño (Euskadi) were punished and later condemned for their acts. A few of the members of the Inquisition, were somewhat responsible, honest and courageous people, who were, however, not always able to control the excesses of some of their colleagues or of the local officials once the process was out of hand.

 

One critic of the witch craze during those days in the Basque country, was the Bishop of Pamplona, the influential Antonio Venegas de Figueroa. His investigations led him to believe that the witch hunt was almost entirely based on lies and self-delusion, and he sent a letter to the Inquisition in March 1610. After interrogating various people the bishop established that there had been absolutely no mention or knowledge of witchcraft before the persecutions started. "Before that time, the people had known nothing about witch sects or aquelarres or evil arts" (Henningson p.127). "The bishop had learned that uneducated and lonely people or people who deviated from the norm of their society, were the first to be supposed to be members of this secret group, where all the rules of society were inverted".

Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frias, one of the Inquisition's own scholars, who was sent to report about witchcraft, wrote in 1612: "There were neither witches nor bewitched until they were talked and written about" (Henningson, p.ix). So why did the church killed and tortured hundreds of innocent people? The church had kept Salazar's, the bishop's and similar reports secret and it was not until three centuries later that several of Salazar's (mislabled) submissions to the Inquisition were rediscovered by the American historian Henry Charles Lea, who used them in his book "Inquisition of Spain" (Henningson, p. 211-237). What was the reason for the church to continue the witch hunt for so many years when it knew very well that there never had been any witches or aquelarres as they described it? Most of the victims of the Inquisition in the Basque Country were women. Women with certain status and influence in society and government. In the other hand, the Inquisition in Spain, persecuted mostly Jewish and Morish men whom "were unwilling to convert to Catholicism". The word "aquelarre" comes from Basque akelarre, akela-arre, Akela (Priestess, witch) or Akel (Ram, male goat) and Larre (Place, reunion) "The witches' social (gathering)". I read somewhere, when I was doing the research for this paper, that the English word "witch" is taken straight from the Basque language; the first three letters of the verb itxuraldatu (to transform, to change shape) were used; itx, pronounced "itch" with a "w" stuck onto it to mask the Basque origin, I am not sure of this interpretation, but it is interesting. Changing shape was something that some "witches" themselves had admitted to do during questioning, whether this was possible or not. Women and witches were thought to change shape, as we can see inSITE97 installation "Rowing in Eden" at the Santa Fe Depot.

In Spain the burning of heretics had been on the decline in the late 16th century, and none had taken place since the "auto de fe" (act of faith) at Logroño in 1593. At that time, twenty-three cases had been prepared: six for Judaism, one for Muhammadanism, one for Lutheranism, one for bigamy, twelve for blasphemous or heretical utterances, and two for impersonating agents of the Inquisition. There were no witches around yet. The "auto de fe" had attracted many people to witness the event, but nothing compared to what was to come. The people who had been executed in 1593 had been punished for offenses which mattered little to the local population. The "auto de fe" of 1610 was very different. Fifty three people were to be sentenced, but eleven were condemned to die for witchcraft. In reality there were only six left alive, the other five had "died" in prison and were represented by effigies carried on long poles.

The peoples' response to the announcement of the new law ("auto de fe") had been astonishing to the church. The scene was described by the inquisitorial commissioner at Vitoria, the treasurer Pedro Gamiz:

"I can assure your Grace that never before have so many people
been gathered together in this town. It is estimated that over
thirty thousand souls have assembled here from France, Aragon,
Navarra, Vizkaya and parts of Castilla. The reason for such
enthusiasm was the publication of the announcement that the vile
sect of the witches was to be revealed at this "auto de fe" "
(Henningson p.184).

But Pedro Gamiz did not realize what he had witnessed. The attraction had been something totally different. The Tribunal sent another account of the "auto de fe" to the Inquisition's "La Suprema" on November 13:

"The people observed the deepest silence during the entire ceremony
and paid the greatest attention, and no untoward incidents of any
kind occurred. The "auto de fe" has been to the great edification of
the people. For all agree that never before have they experienced
anything more solemn, more strange, and more authoritative"
(Henningson p.194).

What these Inquisition members had witnessed was the last of the human sacrifices of the goddess religion in western Europe, at least that is how the local people saw it.

It appears that the Franciscans participated in the witch trials in a supporting or facilitating function by gathering or manufacturing evidence such as for the Logroño witch tribunal (in Euskadi), for which they interrupted their preaching crusade to present a "dressed toad" and pots of "witches' salve" as evidence of witchcraft (Henningson p.345). They were deeply involved in spying out potential witches and reporting them to the authorities. The Franciscans even tortured women extracting false confessions such as the one done by the monk Fray Juan de Ladron. He took part in the witch-hunt in Alava as one of the Inquisition's special emissaries. Three women were reported by him after the priest at Larrea, Martin Lopez de Lazarraga, had tied them by the hands and neck, assisted by de Ladron, who then threatened to take the women to the Logroño showcase witch-trial if they did not confess. They did confess but later told Salazar what happened. Lazarraga had been appointed inquisitorial commissioner and put into the head of one of the women the idea of accusing six uncooperative locals priests of witchcraft. At Logroño many people were tortured into admitting anything the monks told them to say. One of the women, Mariquita de Atauri, felt so bad after denouncing so many innocent people under torture that she drowned herself in the river near her house.

The main culprit in extracting the confessions was identified as the Franciscan Fray de Ladron later in the following trials. (Henningson p.292). The existing records, tell of many such cases where the Franciscans had the power to extract confessions and to report all to the witch tribunals, complete with samples of witches' ointments and toads.

When the Inquisition was established in 1231, the Dominicans were in charge of its organization and the execution of heretics. They created schools of theology at the Universities of Paris, Bologne, Oxford and Cologne to train monks. Especially in the mountainous regions, many people still believed in ancient goddess religions, guided by their priestesses. The Inquisition and the Dominicans concentrated on the Alps of northern Italy. To destroy the followers of the old goddess religions, the use of torture had been officially authorized by Pope Innocent IV in 1252. The monks were to extract admissions of heresy, sorcery and witchcraft from the people. The witch hunt in the Alps and southern Germany killed more people than in any other region.

The Order of the Dominican Mendicant friars collected old stories of the peoples' belief in magic. When the time was right for the witch hunt to begin, some of this stories were collected into the "Malleus Maleficarum", the witch hunter's handbook. The Dominicans trained and guided the judges of the Inquisition and wrote justifications why people should be so very cruelly put to death, in spite of the commandment: "Thou shalt not kill". They laid the entire blame for the existence of witches on the pre-Christian goddess religion where the specific purpose was the elimination of the last signs of women's power and control over a "male institution"

Pope Gregory IX instituted the papal Inquisition in 1231 for the apprehension and trial of heretics. In 1478 Pope Sixtus IV authorized the Spanish Inquisition to combat apostate former Jews and Muslins, and the heretic Alumbrados. This inquisition was so severe that Sixtus IV tried to interfere but the Spanish crown forced the pope to give up his efforts. In 1483 he authorized a grand-inquisitor for Castile, a few months later one for Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia. The person responsible for organizing the Inquisition in Spain, the Dominican Tomas de Torquemada, is regarded as the most effective and cruel witch hunter:

Open hunting season was declared on women, especially herb gatherers, midwives, widows and spinsters. Women who had no man to supervise them were of course highly suspicious. It has been estimated by Dr. Marija Gimbutas, professor of archaeology at the University of California, that as many as 9 million people, overwhelmingly women, were burned or hanged during the witch-craze. "For nearly 250 years the Witches' Hammer was the guidebook for the witch hunters, but again some of the inquisitors had misgivings about this book. In a letter dated November 27, 1538 Salazar advised the inquisitors not to believe everything they read in Malleus Maleficarum, even if the authors write about it as something they themselves have seen and investigated (Henningson p.347)".

The Jesuits were the educators and confessors of the leading men of France and Spain and were highly respected. Many of them were of Basque origin, which made them ideally suited to communicate with the thousands of Basque refugees who had fled the brutal French witch hunt and trials, ordered by King Henry IV of France. They had fled across the border to Spain because at least half of the women had been accused by witch-hunter de Lancre of being witches. The Jesuits do not appear to have had any part in the witch-hunt, but instead they mediated, interviewed, observed, reported, translated, helped and advised where this was necessary. It appears that their good services were mainly responsible for the fact that the Basque language is still spoken today, one of the targets of the Inquisition was the Basque culture and the language, just like it was for Francisco Franco in the 1930's. My farther and grand-father witnessed the bombing of Gernika by Franco and the German army, the German army and Franco are gone, and we still have our culture.

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