Francesco Ferraironi

Witches and Inquisition - Between superstition and reality

INTRODUCTION

History is a whole of good and evil, light and shadow. Historians have the duty to be faithful to historic reality, to underline the light and not to dissimulate the shadow, even when reality does not immediately appear in its complexity. The time of witches was in fact a time of shadow. It was more than four centuries of general hysteria, group madness and morbid popular demonstrations. Witchcraft belongs in fact to occult sciences such as alchemy, astrology, cabale, cartomancy, clairvoyance, fakirism, black magic, spell, sorcery, evil eye, mediumism, metapsychics, telepsychichs, parapsychology, shamanism, spiritism, telepathy, vampirism. Not all for these phenomena can be classified as belonging to science-fiction. Even hypnosis never obtained the approval of official science and has always been considered a sort of sorcery. Today unusual happenings lead us to consider hypnosis as a medical fact worth of consideration and studies.
On the other hand obsession is considered a sort of occult science, identified as a “Devil’s invasion of the soul”. The Church, as known, classifies as “obsessed” those persons led by a bad spirit to destruction of religious icons.

Magic is the art to dominate nature and life in its occult manifestations. In particular white magic has a religious nature and positive aims whereas black magic is a sinful art used for diabolic cults. Both white and black magic alternate in magic formulas, exorcisms and spells and use talismans and amulets supposed to win demons, free from sorceries and have healing forces.
Magazines and newspapers often refer of episodes of sorcery.
In fact, there are people believing in the chance to influence other’s life through magic not just among common people, but also among cultured persons. They believe in a sort of electromagnetic field surrounding the individuum influenced by sympathy, hate, fortune, unfortune, sorceries by other individuums and influencing one’s happiness and health. Sorceries in particular are realized practicing cuts and wounding different parts of the body of a puppet, representing the victim. To enhance the efficacy of the sorcery the puppet must be complete of some organic material belonging to the victim, such as hair.
Another type of sorcery is the so called “evil eye”, where the eye is the way to cause baleful influences on people or farm-products, farm animals, etc. A recent happening: a man kills his wife in Milan, believing she has caused the death of his mother and sister through evil eye (1)….

The latins used the word invidia to call the evil eye, coming from the verb invideo, “to look against”. The only way out from evil eye, amulets made of gold, metal, coral, amber and spells (2), are still used. The English humorist Harold Acton in his book “The prince Isidore” (Il principe Isidoro, Garzanti Editions, Milan, 1951) tells the story of an evil eye, collecting old and known essays on evil eye in Neaples (Valletta, W.W. Story, Dumas, Stendhal). The superstition of evil eye was even more diffused in the ancient Rome, where many magic formulas were used against sorceries. A great number of these formulas, drawn on thin plumb foils and belonging to the ancient and modern Roman age, are jealously kept in the Roman museum in Paris. Clairvoyance at the end in an arte supposed to predict future evocating the souls of dead persons. Fantasy and legends surround the life of the astrologer , magician, physician and doctor Johannes Faust from the XV century, a German popular hero, who came to an agreement with the devil and whose story is told by W. Von Goethe.

The belief in witches began in the Middle Ages (in North Europe in particular), continued in the Renaissance and reached the Modern Age. Especially the VI century was afflicted by sorceries. Trials against witches started even in the West Liguria. A famous one started in Triora (Imperia) in 1558, a perfect evidence of the tragedy investing Italy at that time. Tradition has handed down those facts thanks to several writings such as Le streghe di Triora in Liguria by Michele Rosi (from Lucca, dead in 1934), Chiese e conventi di Triora (Alba, 1929), I processi delle streghe by Sirio Attilio Nulli (Turin, Einaudi, 1939). These writing actually inspired the second parte of this book.

Today those stories are still told during long winter evenings, from November to March, obviously enriched in fantastic details. The stories’ setting is usually the horrible and barren Cabotina, between Triora and Molini, told to be the place where witches met in the night to play ball, using infants instead of balls among the walnutand chestnutrees. Those infants are told to be stolen from their mothers, when these fell asleep. This is the reason why women in particular never spoke about Cabotina. Other stories tell about other places near Triora, Campomavùe fountain (on the way to Loreto houses) and “La Noce” fountain (there was a walnut tree, “noce” in Italian) where witches celebrate their ceremonies and their orgies. Moreover, as people believed, they got drunk in the deserted and obscure street named Dietro la Chiesa (3). But some people believed witches could also bring positive happenings. I myself met an old lady (reassuring me she was not a witch!) who told me a family of the region became rich thanks to a witch: a family’s ancestor had taken a witches’ advice, passing by the Campomavùe Fountain.
Witches did not only live near Triora but also in more oriental regions. People in Costa Rainera say witches used to change into ugly birds and fly over the Gallinara Isle in front of Albenga. Here they met with others coming probably from Toirano, where today you can find the famous cave Della Bagiura (“of the witch”). In Ventimiglia witches built the Pria Margunaira.

Other traditional witches’ meeting places not far from Triora are said to be Molini and Andagna. In Armetta region, between Ferrèira and S. Brigida, there is a Rocca delle Bàggiure (“Witches’ Rock”). In the country of Corte village, on the way from the village to the Sanctuary there is a small cave in a rock, called Tana delle Bàggiure (“Witches lair”). Each year, on the 24th June, the Day of Triora’s patron John the Baptist, people use to light fires in the night along the streets of Triora, near villages and on the Ceppo mount. People believe this tradition to be related with the presence of witches, since this day has always been considered (among ancient Romans as well) a favourable day for witches and demons. Moreover this fact underlines the importance of John the Baptist, said to have exorcizing powers and becoming symbol of the defense against evil (4). But in reality the tradition of making bonfires on the 24th of June in most cases is not related to the presence of witches but is to be considered just a manifestation of popular joy

The belief in witches was a great plague for the European society. A great number of trials were started against witches or against whole families especially in West Liguria, in Triora, Albenga, Ventimiglia, Baiardo (6) (village near Sanremo), Pontremoli, caused by superstition, fancy, manias, foolisch passions and prejudices. In the end most of the times those witches were innocent,, common women, condemned by other peoples’ ignorance or bad faith. Following the different moments of the trials reported in the second part of this book, you’ll recognize errors, prejudices, superstition, negligence and inadequacy, guilt peculiar of the mentality of the time.
A common idea is the time of witches should be forgotten, shouldn’t be even mentioned anymore. My opinion is we have the duty not to forget about it since many people still believe in witchcraft – and by this book I’ve not the illusion to change people’s opinion about it. Moreover the knowledge of the roots of this belief could teach us about many today’s mental diseases and if not, we could still make a useful comparison between past and present. As I’ve already said, there are many people believing in witchcraft also between writers (7). The new scientific progress does not exclude the belief in witchcraft, on the contrary it leads to superstition through new types of suggestion. This is the reason why the world of witches and sorcery ha still not disappeared among the new generations. This is particularly true in certain parts of Sicily where expetially childrens’ deseases are attributed to witches, or in some villages in Abruzzo region where farmers still believe witches come in the night and suck children ‘s blood so that children grow weak and sick. So where doctors prescribe iron and calcium, common people use other methods to heal those children (see next chapters). A peculiar form of sorcery does still exist in Labro on the lake Pediluco (Umbria), where a group of women led by a woman called “witch”, meet every friday in an ancient ruined castle. Their spells contain religious invocations to the Madonna or to saints.

S., a girl living in Torre Maura in Rome, told me: Once I was very sick. I Had become deaf, lost all my hair. Some people recommended me to visit a medium. After giving him a large sum of money he told me I was very sick because as a young girl I had passed under the window of a witch, who had decided she would make an evil eye against the person first passing under her window. The only way to heal was to keep an egg on my nude chest when praying, and then to take egg back to the medium. As soon as I returned he wrote my name on the egg, put it in a towel and asked me to crush it. As soon as the egg was crushed I saw it looked as if it was rotten and it contained some of my hair. The medium said I would heal because my bad blood had been taken away by the egg and the hair contained in it was the sign I would have beautiful hair again. The day after I began to feel better and had new hair. That’s exactly what she told, a fact which can be rationally explained as follows: the medium himself probably put some hair through a little hole in a rotten egg and substitued it with the one received from the girl.
In 1954 in Castro de’ Volsci (Frosinone) an old woman told me long, similar witches’ stories.

The belief in witches is strong even in Rome’s suburb, as referred by Ercole Metalli in his volume Usi e costumi della campagna romana, and in fairy tales and stories for children. This is the story of the popular fairy tale Fiaba della Canapa traditionally told in Polesine’s (Rovigo): Canapa (8) was the king’s daughter, she was beautiful but her heart was made of stone. A witch gave her one hundred filters to be free of all her suitors. One filter could change a man into Indian corn, another into wheat, other ones into tomatoes or into other vegetables. At the end she fell in love with all one hundred suitors but nobody loved her anymore. So she took the last filter and run in the fields where she changed into a strong plant with long and soft hair: a hemp. In general in Italy today people still believe a witch can bring evil through her eyes (evil eye) or through her words (spells). Some examples of this belief come from the inland of Imperia, where few persons (the so called “scacciabaggiure”) are believed to be able to “heal” from evil eye and spells. Two episodes have Triora as setting. The first one is about a child (today she is thirty two) who refused to drink her mother’s milk. Since an old woman was seen near the child a short time after her birth, a “scacciabaggiure” was called. He promised he would help them, but alter 11 o’clock in the night and from his home. Fifteen minutes after 11 o’clock the child did not refuse its mother’s milk anymore.

The second episode is about a three year old child who couldn’t speak out a sentence without putting the word “that” at the beginning. As an example: “That tomorrow I go to the country”. Believing the child was under the malefic influence of a witch, her parents called a “scacciabaggiure” from Val di Nervia. He did not even more: as the parents came to him he just said: “Go home, your child is healthy”. They returned home and they saw it was true. I heard those two episodes from a sixty year old woman who is still alive. The newspapers of February 1952 refer to a long trial started in Poitiers (France) against the “witch of Melun”, Marie Besnard, a fifty- six year old women suspected of having poisoned by arsenic, twelve people among here own family members and friends (including her mother, father and her two husbands). A curious coincidence: the trial took place in the same courtroom where in 1329 Joanne D’Arc was condemned.
Therefore if there are people still believing in witches, this book is not useless.

(1) - From the magazine Il Tempo, Rome, 2nd January 1952.
(2) - See N. Valletta, La iettatura, Rome, 1981; G. Tanfani, Le streghe ed il malocchio nella medicina popolare veneta, 1939.
(3) In English “Behind the Church”. Among other meeting places for witches: Ciàn de la Preve near Mauta bridge and Lagudégnu, a remote and horrible place more or less one hour by walk from Triora. Moreover 3 Km away from Triora in Chaparòixe region there is a fountain named Baggiura (which means “witch” in ligurian dialect), but there is no tradition reporting it as a meeting place for witches. A popular saying in still in use “Quandu u ciove c’u sue, e bàgiure i fan l’amùe” which means “when it rains and it is sunny at a time, witches are making lore”.
(4) Antichi usi liguri by Ludovico Giordano (Casale Monferrato, 1933), Le streghe: Leggende liguri by D’Albissola Tullio, Milan, 1901.
(5) Monte Ceppo e il santuario di S. Giovanni del Prato, 1926.
(6) The trial against Baiardo witches was starter in 1588. See G. Rossi, Storia della città di Ventimiglia, Oneglia, typography Ghiaini 1886, page 237. In this book is told also about the trial against the witches from Castellaro, near Menton (France), started on 5th September 1622. Five women accused to have killed some children through witchcraft were involved in it. One of these was even accused to change into a cat (see figure n. 7), and to have commercial affairs with the devil. She confessed under torture to make potions with frog powder, dragons’ blood and dead bones, after that she was strangled and burned. Other facts are told in Storia della città e diocesi di Albenga by G. Rossi.
(7) Some examples among magazines, newspapers and books are the newspaper Crimen in Rome (on the 13th July appeared the article Le streghe dell’arsenico with illustrations of twelve witches), Cristo si è fermato a Eboli by Carlo Levi where some witches from Gagliano are mentioned. In the magazine Cronaca nera appeared an article on 29th of April about a trial against witches started in Bologna in April 1948; on Mistero in Milan, appeared an article in 1949 about witches in the Emilia region. Another famous reported trial started in Frosinone in April 1951 against a man called Armando Atonetti who killed his aunt, Quintilia Crocco, because he suspected her of being a witch. On 18th February 1954 newspapers ion Italy refer to a fact happened in Ova near Castelnuovo Scrivia (Tortona): a famer, Ernesto Berri, kills by beating the head of an old woman working on his farm because he suspected her of being the cause of an evil eye. Also in 1954, on 26th April a farmer in Benestare (Reggio Emilia) kills himself believing he was a victim of a sorcery.
(8) “canapa” means hemp in Italian.

FIRST PART

Chapter I - Witchcraft

The question is did really witches exist? The best answer is witches did exist, but they were mostly innocent common women suspected or accused of being witches. Wizards are still believed to exist among Eskimos, in Californian and Amazonian tribes, in Siberia, Peru, India, New Guinea, Africa and Australia. Wizards are believed to bring good or evil through a particular kind of magic called “sympathetica”. Primitive man believed he was a doctor able to heal through magic spells. Elsewhere he is a soothsayer able to dominate the occult forces and cause supernatural phenomena in nature, or a shaman (follower of Shamanism, a religious cult existing in Siberia and East Asia) a sort of priest guiding religious ceremonies and dances. Other wizards are believed to communicate with spirits or are similar to India’s fakirs.

But our subject of interest are witches. The term “witch” has a relation with the word “goat” in some languages. In german, for example, “Hexe” derives from the greek word “aix” (goat).
King Numa’s nymph Egeria was a witch represented in iconography by a goat. Moreover in Italian the word “strega” (witch) comes from the latin term “strix” meaning “little owl”, which has a relation with the fact that in ancient times (even among Romans) little owls were believed to be changed witches. In latin witches were called “lamie”, from the mystic name of Zeus’ jealous lover queen Lamia, who sucked Zeus’ and Juno’s children ‘s blood. Another latin word for “witch” was “sagae” from the verb “sagire”, “to predict”. Today in ligurian dialect, as said in the introduction to this book, they are called “baggiure”, “bazure” or “foituréire”.

The belief in witches does still exist in Liguria. Following tradition the “baggiure” are represented (see picture 4) as ugly, obsessed, toothless and wrinkled old women with white and ruffled hair, sullen look, usually only child. In reality they were usually beautiful women who became very rich thanks to their frauds. The history of witches is often a mixture of religious and magic elements. See in mythology Circe, Medea (9), Horace’s Canidia, a great number of medieval witches and those of our times. We all heard, as children, stories about witches flying on brooms through the night. Every student heard about the wicked Canida or about Shakespeare’s horrible trio (11), or Faust’s witch or even laughed of the funny adventure of Benvenuto Cellini’s necromancer at the Coliseum in Rome. But those are all fantastic witches from literature, just like sylvans, fauns, satyrs, nymphs, pythonesses, sylphs silenus, fairies (12). You need the real, scaring witches in Inquisition manuals from XV and XVI century and in trial archives. Those trials – as we’ll see – are terrible as their magic was considered uncommonly dangerous for the Church and society. Witchcraft is a great fairy tale. But a terrifying one, having caused so many victims.

Witchcraft was the madness and the obsession especially of the XVI century but we should not forget it also existed in ancient times, Medieval Age, Renaissance and even in modern times. The legends about witches are handed down through generations and the stories vary slightly from town to town. The witch is the perfect expression of that dark medieval soul looking for a ray of light and whose anxious search leads to madness. Thus madness is the consequence of superstition and exists in so many forms. In all forms superstition is based on occult and mysterious forces and is therefore more common among ignorant people. Sometimes stories of witches are influenced by other forms of superstition and literature. Even lycanthropy was believed a matter of witchcraft: a strange or mysterious disease, today considered an extreme form of autosuggestion by modern scientists. In improbable stories about witches many writers recognize the signs of mental disorders or political and historical relations; other ones consider some diabolic ceremonies the consequence of manichean, albigensian, catharist, albigensian, templar rites.

The belief in Devil’s existence has not only a Christian tradition but also a German pagan one, established through many never forgotten ceremonies and rites, all based on a manichean conception of bad and evil, God and Devil.
We shouldn’t wonder about the diffuse belief in magic since even scientists and doctors often believed in witchcraft. Paracelso (XV century) was inspired by the legend of Giason who became invulnerable thanks to Prometheus’ miraculous ointment. Long alchemic studies lead Paracelso to the discovery of a “war ointment” which could protect soldiers from every sort of wound. In XVIII century the doctor and poet Camillo Brunori from Mendola in his poetical and medical treatise celebrates the great scientific value of Paracelso’s ointment. The same value was attributed to talismans, astrology, magic arms and formulas, amulets, divinities, fairies.

Demonism is both a cult and a fobia. In the Medieval Ages people believed they could sign a contract with the Devil so to gain the power to dominate all demons (13). Even witches were believed to have signed a sort of contract with the Devil. The Church’s theory was God created the Devil and all demons who were in origin positive beings turning then into negative beings as they tried to be similar to God. The same happens to many humans asking to the Devil what they cannot obtain from God such as bad passions’ satisfaction or enemy ‘s death (14). Most of popular literature goes back to the XVI and beginning of the XVII century: stories, essays, trial documents (15), help us out to study this phenomenon.

What did witches do? Why were they condemned? Originally witches only predicted one’s destiny, were responsible for evil eyes and created love and youth magic potions. They were believed to fly on brooms and billy goats through the night causing storms, killing and eating children, playing and dancing with demons, healing without medicines, making orgies, causing death and illness, transforming love in hate, threatening and cursing, changing into animals and persons, particularly in long tailed cats, black goats, monkeys, snouts and bats. They were also suspected to use wax puppets (16), filters, amulets, talismans, narcotics, drugs, poisons, to call demons from Hell, make sorceries, create insects or mice destructing agricultural products, to cause infertility and impotence, to lead wolves to folds, free prisoners, find treasures, make abjure one’s religion, to spit on crucifixes, and laugh of religious ceremonies. In conclusion people believed they could have a negative influence on everything: love, war, fortune, pregnancy, spirits. They could dominate all occult forces in nature, cause good and evil, fortune and unfortune. They knew secrets about how to control health: they knew healing forces of particular herbs. They had the right medecine for every disease but they were also able to use poisons. Some witches were midwives with not only positive aims: they could cause abortion, chastity or use aphrodisiac potions. At the end witches were generated by hate, desperation, jealousy of money, by family relations, defamation.

In Liguria people believed also witches suck children ‘s blood. Those children would grow under the witch’s influence and would have themselves negative powers on other children. For this reason families avoid to let children out of the house after the “Ave Maria”. For the same reason families avoid to leave outside children ‘s clothes: witches were believed to use them to wrap up infants like balls and to use them to play among walnut chestnut trees (see picture 2). But also women should pay attention: many stories from Tuscany tell a witch does not die until she is not near to a woman whom she can transmit her powers. Many witches used also to inhabit deserted houses.

Scaring were their orgies and dances taking place every Saturday night (Sabba), especially in coincidence with religious happenings (e.d. S. Simons’ night on 28th October , the day before All Saints’ on Germany on 31 October). The belief in Sabba was very common in the XIII century but there are also documents relating it in IX. The first Sabba is described by Stefano di Borbone in 1230. In origin the Sabba was sabae’s day (the day of goat) when women partecipate to orgies. Those orgies took place weekly in coincidence with particular phases of the moon. Later Sabba became the demons’ feast, a ceremony to celebrate the Devil, the most important diabolic e orgiastic feast, where religious prays where converted into diabolic spells. Some writers deduced the word Sabba derives from “Saturday” because on that day witches ate a lot of meat contrasting with the Church’s forbid. Sabba used to be celebrated in a desolate place where more streets cross, on the top of a ravine (e.d. the one in Cabotina, Triora), in woods or on the top of a hill. Otherwise in old abandoned houses, castle ruins or trees. The Devil chaired the Sabba and directed dances and banquets (17) changed into goats. In some Nordic legends Brocken (mount Bacterius in Harz) in Germany, the Puy-de-Dome in France or remote churches as Blokula in Sweden are referred to be Sabba places. The same some places in Italy: Benevento, Barco near Ferrara, the Mirandola’s valley near Modena, mount Paderno near Bologna, Cabotina in Triora (Imperia district), Basto in Cuneo district with its Maima Castle. As satyrs and gnomes, witches met in the night. Even séances took and take place in the night because darkness facilitates tricks.
Why women only were accused of witchcraft? This attitude probably derives from the medieval belief women were symbols of sin. Moreover since women could not serve God as men did they venge serving the Devil. Only rarely men were accused of witchcraft. A famous trial was started against a priest, Urbano Grandier, accused by a nun of evil eye and libertinage. Many books refer of this episode (18).

How did people defend themselves and how they still defend themselves from witchcraft? In order to keep witches far from home they know a bit of salt into the domestic fire on every saturday, a knife under a chair, keep a piece of iron, a horseshoe or better still a chair or a broom behind the door (before entering a witch should count every thread). In some towns in Abruzzo they use to tie the child’s neck a scarf with little salt on it, they cut a lack and take the child to hear Mass. At the same time the father should observe a pot on top of an oil lamp for seven nights without having any sleep, being ready to put the witch into it if coming. This popular use is described in D’Annunzio’s Trionfo della Morte. In many trial documents you can read the tortured witches’ confessions where women were convinced of their guilt and got burned. In many cases they were led to these confessions by the use of poisonous herbs (such as hemlock and henbane) causing the illusion of long flights. This is maybe the general cause of the belief of witches’ ability to fly. Herbs used with positive aims were dill, cumin, parsley, privet, rue, origan and thyme, believed to have the power to keep the Devil away.

Against witchcraft Christians recognized the presence of the Devil, therefore they introduced the use of exorcisms, a sort of Christian therapy against diabolic obsession, a spiritual way to keep the Devil away. Today the Church is more critical towards apparent episodes of diabolic obsession, recognizing in most cases their cause in people’s ignorance, fantasy and prejudices or even tricks.

(9) Medea was a witch who killed her own two sons because of the hate towards her unfaithful husband. The story inspired one of the most famous Euripide’s tragedies.
(10) A popular saying meaning “with mind and Begonia, from Peru till Lapland”
(11) There are witches appearing in four scenes of Shakespeare’s terrible but human tragedy reminding us of the offender king of Scotland.
(12) Fairies, on the contrary, were considered as innocent, beautiful beings, as satyrs, fauns, gnomes, Cyclopes, lemurs, nymphs, sirens, hippogriffs, unicorns…
(13) G. Cochiara, Il diavolo nella tradizione popolare italiana: saggi e ricerche, Palermo, 1945; A Pazzini, Demoni, streghe e guaritori, Milano 1951; Warlen von Rudolf, Satanisme.
(14) J. Francais, L’église et la sorcellerie; précis historique suivi des documents officiels des textes principaux et d’un procès inédit, Paris 1890 ; J.Regnault, La sorcellerie et ses rapports avec les sciences biologiques, Paris, 1987 ; Ch. Lancelin, La sorcellerie des campagnes, Paris 1911.
(15) U. Molitor, De lamiis et phitonicis, mulieribus, Konstanz, 1489 ; T. Erastus, Disputatiuo de lamiis seu istrigibus, 1572 ; J. Bodin, Demonomanie des sorciers, 1580 ; G.A. Scribonio, De Sagarum natura et potestate, 1574 ; M. Del Rio, Disquisitionum magicarum libri VI, Magonza, 1599 ; Fr. M. Guaccius, Compendium maleficarum ex quo nefandissima in genus humanum opera venefica… conspiciuntur, etc., Milan, 1626.
(16) See also the trial against Urban VIII, later in this book.
(17) G. Tartarotti, Del congresso notturno delle Lamie; libri tre, Rovereto, 1749.
(18) E.D. Michelet, Loredan, Bremond. The most complete is A. Huxley, The devils of Loud.

Chapter II - The causes of witchcraft

There is no scientific answer to the question why so many women as that time admitted to have caused evil or to have met the Devil. Probably it was a matter of autosuggestion and suggestion, delirium, hysterysm, hallucination, erotic and nevrotic frenzies in many cases caused by the use of drugs and narcotics. There was for example a famous unguent made of mandrake, aconite, hemlock, hanbane and deadly nightshade, all herbs causing sleep and hallucination. Moreover they often used these unguents and every sort of drug, filters and decoctions in closed places, saturated of fumigations.
This led them to a condition of delirium in which they really believed and could swear to have been to Sabbas and ceremonies.
Another famous unguent was a sort of poison causing sudden death. Its ingredients were cats, frogs, snakes, scorpions and other organic material of plague victims, plus everything disgusting you could imagine. All these ingredients were boiled in a cauldron (see picture n. 5).
We should not forget the particular social conditions in most cases leading to superstition. People were ill-fed, lived in terrible hygienic conditions, were afflicted by nervous disorders, somnambulism, cretinism, epilepsy… The XV and XVI century were morbid historical and social moments. The end of the XVI century is a period of great religious revolutions trying to turn people’s attention from the religious cult to interior spiritual life. People were superstitious because they needed to. The belief in witches was a general tendence as demonologic literature shows: Fontes, Marteaux, Formuliers, Fustigationes, Lanternae.
The belief in witches and other superstitions went together with the belief in plague spreaders. This fear was very common for many years especially in Milan. It was such a radicated superstition that people often confessed to be plague spreaders despite their obvious innocence. A reasonable explanation for this confession was plague spreaders were condemned to death and through death they could have the liberation from a terrific and ill life. Moreover in most cases a terrific a both psychological and physical torture led them to confess.

Chapter III - Trials against witches

In XV century there were also people defending witches from their inhuman accusations. Among them especially doctors and advocates who clearly exposed in many scripts the question of witches’ existence. On the one hand doctors explained they were ill women, on the other hand advocates remarked they could not be condemned because of the constant lack off evidences. In recent times the problem was faced by Cesare Cantù, astonished by the enormous amount of trials and victims. Can such a great number of victims be just the product of people’s ignorance and suggestion?
The XVI and XVII centuries were the most terrible in witches’ persecution especially in Germany (in Slavic regions they mostly believed in vampirism rather than witchcraft), the same place of elfs and gnomes. Because of the great presence of superstition Innocent VIII with his bull Summis desiderantes on 5th December 1484 institued the Inquisition through two dominicans.
In the same centuries also catholic states believed in witches: Spain, France, Flanders and Italy. In Italy there were less trials than other states, the most afflicted regions were Biella, Bergamo, Come, Brescia (Iseo lake), Trento, the Valleys Tellina, Camonica and Trentino. A very famous trial happened in Piacenza. Other famous trials were in Ventimiglia and Albenga where the trial described in the second part of this book began.
Thousands of witches got burned in a few weeks in Treviri, Geneva, Touluse Bamberg, Wurzburg, among them young women or even twelve, thirteen year old girls. A famous witch was the saint heroine Joanne D’Arc named in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, in Quincey’s, Andrew Lang’s scripts. And if you wont to read more about witches other writers are Bergeret, Belloc, Show, Federico di Spee…. In the Enciclopedia Italiana (Italian Encyclopaedia) you can read of one million people condamned to death between 1575 and 1700 by the Inquisition. By Inquisition I refer to the “Roman” one, institued by Paul III in 1542 and then substitued by Sistus V. But two other Inquisitions existed: a medieval one (institued by Gregory IX in 1232, led by Dominicans since 1236 and by Franciscans since 1246) and a Spanish one in the XV century institued by Sistus IV and existing till 1834. These two were a sort of Tribunal for heretics with the aim to make them abjure or to condemn them to death.
Witchcraft was one of the most serious guits and was punished through capital punishment. Since it was impossible to catch evidences, presumptions were sufficient to tortures and punishments. This attitude can be justified if we consider that the Medieval Age attributed to spiritual fact an objective value we do not admit today. Moreover supernatural facts were considered superior to any kind of earthly happening. Torture, fasting, isolation were the instruments to confession used by the Church but also by laic institutions. These methods certainly influenced the suspected ability to reason and to objectively expose facts which led to false confessions. Often particular drugs having effects on will were used, maybe the same ones used today as “truth serum”: scopolamine and pentothal.

In 1583, after having reformed his diocese in Milan, S. Carlo Borromeo, was charged by Gregory XIII to visit Brescia, Bergamo, Como, and nearby Swiss regions’ diocese in order to take his reform there. Visiting Mesolcina in June 1583 the valley authorities reported to him of damages caused by witches and asked him to procede against these facts. So in October 1583 he sent there the famous juris consult Borsato from Mantova for a preliminary investigation. Following the procedure of the time he used torture, but he used it in a human way. San Carlo went there on 12th November when more than one hundred persons were accused. The Cardinal exhorted them to convert so to free the majority of them. Only eleven people were judged and condemned to death.
Among the trials against witchcraft there is also the already mentioned attempt to Urban VIII’s life. Giacinto Centini, a nephew of the newly elected Cardinal of Ascoli Felice Centini, projected to kill the Pontiff in order to replace him with his uncle. In 1629 he met with friar Domenico Zancone from Fermo, Cherubino Serafino from Ancona and with a hermite, Diego Gucciolone from Palermo. All together they studied the book of necromancy Clavicola Salomonis, Gioachino Da Fiore’s book of prophecies and other books of magic. After that they practiced wodoo on a wax puppet representing the Pontiff, fastening it with pins and making it liquefy. Friar Zancone, feeling remorseful, went to the Inquisition to confess everything to save his own life. The others were imprisoned and condemned in 1635 in Rome (Castel S. Angelo) after fifty-six interrogatories. Four years begfore Urban VIII with is bull Inscrutabilis iudiciorum Dei (1th April 1631) reconfirmed Sistus V’s bull Coeli et terrae creator (5th January 1586), in which it was prohibited to astrologues to arrogate the power to predict the future and to use the occult forces for any purpose.
In conclusion the Inquisition was an instrument of religious politics, in agreement with the mentality and legal system of the time.

Chapter IV - The Church and witches

We’ve already said something about how the Church introduced exocism against diabolic power. Non Christians could accuse Christianism to have reinforced the belief in Devil since he is part of the dogmatic Christian patrimony. Although the Church has always contrasted those who exhalted diabolic forces it arrived to a real dualism with manicheans, catarists, luterans, etc. The history of witchcraft is part of the history of catharist heresy (from IX century on), since heresies were dangerous for both Church and society they caused on urgent need of repression by political and religious authorities. On the one hand trials against witches certainly fed superstition but on the Other hand the Church constituted a call to truth and balance. Objectively condering the time of Inquisition in all its social, historical and religious aspects, the Church cannot be condemned as they did in XIX century. The cause of all sorts of violence and excess was not the Church itself but ignorance, fanatism, uncontrolled passions and the mentality of the time.

The cause were few persons who wrongly interpreted the Gospel and confused political and religious values. This error was made by several men who are not to be identified with the whole Church. The Church itself often contrasted the severity of the state’s legal system. We could say they had an imperfect sense of justice which had to mature and improve in the times. The Inquisition was a human institution, made of men with their own hates, passions and interests. Therefore we should make a distinction between the official members of the Church and its effective members. Moreover we should not forget we cannot judge the mentality of the time with the mentality of our times and we can partly justify their ignorance: they hadn’t a sufficient technical and scientific knowledge, especially as far as medical, legal and psychopatholigic facts are concerned heresy and witchcraft were contrasted not only for their antireligious significance but also for their anarchic and subversive valued, as these were manifestations against good and morality.

The most severe punishments, as death through fire, were applied not only by the Inquisition: in Milan the theft of bread or a public kiss were punished with death.
In the appendix to this book we report some trial documents as an evidence of the laws, usages, prejudices and virtues of the XV and XVI centuries.

SECOND PART

Chapter I - Triora’s witches

At the end of Summer 1587 Triora (Argentina Valley) was afflicted by two years of famine. People attributed the responsibility of this calamity to witches.(19)
So Triora’s parliament assembled (it was constituted by all citizens) to entrust to the podesta (20) the start of a trial against all witches of Triora. In 1587 as the trial was started, the podesta Stefano Carrega received the help of the priest Girolamo del Pozzo, vicar of the bishop of Albenga and the vicar (the name is unknown) of the Inquisitor of Genoa. Before starting the trial they preached in a church describing in details all accusations, so to ensure the support of the population. This way they could write in official documents the trial was not started on the basis of vague accusations but on thebases of unanimous Triora’s parlament’s vote (doc. B., third part).
The two vicars let got prepared some private houses which should be prisons for the witches(21) and ordered to imprison twenty of them. Then condemned thirteen women, for young girls and a boy. Although not all inhabitants of Triora were satisfied by this trial since it cost too much and was supposed to be dangerous. In January 1588 (doc. B., third part) thirty women were accused of witchcraft and tortured. But many of them belonged to the highest social classes, so a council of Triora’s oldest protested against the vicars. Moreover one of the first women imprisoned was Isotta Stella, a rich sixty year old women who died after torture and another one died jumping out of the window (picture 3). The Oldest prayed the podesta to write to the Doge but he refused. So they wrote to the Government of Genoa in order to stop the trial because of the lack of evidence, the cruelty of tortures and the terrific conditions of prisons. In this letter (doc. B., third part) they described in details the torture, and objectively exposed the facts, finally they accused the two vicars to keep in isolation women who never confessed even under torture and women who continuously confess and deny scared of torture and consequent physical deformations. Probably the truth is: an ignorant mass (the Parliament) doesn’t know how to explain a poor harvest. So they accuse ignorant women starting a trial in which they confess under torture even what they are not responsible for. The Oldest are a little more cultured: they seem no to believe in witches and they recognize in trials not the consequence but the cause of evil.
Although the Oldest themselves seem not to be interested in those happenings till the trials do not involve women belonging to their upper class.

(19) Some years later Rome was afflicted by the same famine which made 60.000 victims.
(20) The Judge and the podesta constitued the justice of the village. The podesta was in charge for 2 or 3 years and traditionally was a foreigner.
(21) Following tradition one of these houses is the “Meggia’s” between “S. Dalmazio square” and a way called “Rizetto”. The windows of this house still have a strong garting. Today this house is called 2Ca’ d’e bàggiure” or “Ca’ d’i spiriti”. The house was destroyed on fifth July 1944. The name Rizetto (“recovery”) reminds the house where preserved foods for the population in time of famine were kept. Similar “Rizetti” existed in Liguria and Piemonte as well.

Chapter II - Genoa’s government intervenes. - The vicar of Albenga’s bishop justifies himself

Genoa’s Doge and governators, once received the relation by the Oldest of Triora, wrote to Albenga’s bishop (Luca Fieschi) praying him to intervene. The bishop wrote to the vicar asking him explanations about his methods . A few days later, on 25th January the bishop sent to the government a long letter written by the vicar himself, Girolamo del Pozzo, to justify himself. In this letter (doc. D., third part) he explains to the bishop and the government the trial was based on the principles of legality and justice, denying the lack of evidence and proclaiming the independence of the parliament’s judgment. Moreover he denies the cruelty of tortures confessing tortures not lasting more than a few minutes (in rare cases more than one hour): only four witches got their feet burned, three went through the so called “waking” (they couldn’t’ sleep (picture 13),and only one got her accused were guilty since all confessed under torture. Just one did not confess and was immediately set free. Moreover the one who killed herself jumping out of the window did it because she was probably pursued by the Devil certainly not because she was scared of tortures…. Del Pozzo also précised the number of accused women had been exaggerated by the Oldest: in Triora and nearby villages they were thirteen in total plus four young girls and a boy. The girls and the boy weren’t imprisoned. He also promised not to start trials against thirty or fourty women already accused because of the lack of evidence. In conclusion of this letter he wrote Triora’s inhabitants never stopped having a positive consideration of the trial.
A probable explanation to these facts in that as soon as the Oldest sent the letter to Genoa an 13th January 1588 (doc. B., third part) they could have come to an agreement with Del Pozzo. As a consequence Del Pozzo did not start the trial against women belonging to the upper class. The proof of it are another letter written by the Oldest to the Doge and governators on 20th January and Del Pozzo’s letter to the bishop himself.

Chapter III - The Podesta of Triora justifies the two Inquisitors

In the letter from the vicar of Albenga to the Doge of Genoa (see chapter II) was basically confirmed by the podesta of Triora with another letter on 21th January 1588 (one day after the letter by the Oldest). Writing in defence (doc. C., third part) of the trials against witches, he proclaims they had the support of the inhabitants and that they were absolutely not responsible for Isotta Stella’s death neither for the suicide of the other woman since she was led to jump out the window by the Devil itself. So he justifies the methods of the two Inquisitors.

Chapter IV - The Head Inquisitor of Genoa visits Triora (22)

The republic’s government decided to intervene in the complicated situation in Triora since the trials were started on Genoa’s territory and against Genoa’s citizens. All these fact actually slowed the normal development of the trial. Even the vicar of the bishop of Albenga and the Inquisitor spent some time in Triora departing then on 10th of 11th January and leaving the supposed witches in prison as we can read in a letter written by the podesta of Triora and addressed to the government on 31th January 1588. They departed exactly on the day when the vicar of the bishop of Ventimiglia and another vicar of the Inquisitor started a trial against the witches from Baiardo. The departure of the judges from Triora caused dissatisfaction among the inhabitants who wanted to see the end of this trial. As a result of it many women have been kept in prison for five months, till in May 1588 the Head Inquisitor personally interrogated them. All, except for one, denied everything they had confessed under torture five months before. Finally he left all the women imprisoned , except for a young thirteen year old girl; so nothing really changed.
A new phase of this complicated and confused trial began in June 1588 as a special commissioner was sent to Triora by the government.

(22) By instituting the Inquisition the legal power as far as religious delicts are concerned passes from the laic judges to religious authorities, mostly represented by incompetent judges. Anyway the institution of such a specialized tribunal is a sign of progress in the History of human legal systems.

Chapter V - A civil commissioner arrives in Triora. Thirteen supposed witches are sent to Genoa

On 8th June the special commissioner Giulio Scribani (23) arrived in Triora from Genoa. A few days after his arrival on 27th June the new podesta of Triora, G.B. Lerice, sent the witches to Genoa. The names of the thirteen women are: Manuela Ciocheto’s (Zucheto) daughter Franceschina, Gioanina Ricolfa (Ricolfi), Cattarina del Borigio and her sister Luchina, Gioaninetta Guerra and her daughter Magdalena, Gio Giauna’s (Giauni) wife Battestina, Battestina Stella, Battestina Angera (Angeli), Agostina Carlina (Carlini), Battistina Carlina, Domeneghina Borella (Borelli) e Maria Martellona (Mataloni). Of these thirteen women three only seem to belong to a noble family: Giauna, Stella and Borelli, whereas the other surnames neither existed or had a shirt duration in Triora.
He imprisoned several women and tortured them causing the same protests as the vicars. According to him Caterina Capponi was the cruellest witch (he himself went to her house to look for a pot of “diabolic oil” she confessed to possess, under torture). Bianchina, Battistina and Antonina Vivaldi-Scarella confessed to ha killed the two sons of a smith from Alassio, Antonio and the sons of another smith, Lorenzo. Battistina confessed to have killed several children from Lusignano (4 kms from Albenga) and from other villages af the Riviera, some children in Andagna and a cow, to have caused such a terrible storm that no vineyard had grapes for three years. Antonina confessed to have killed some children and two adults: a hatter, Giacomo, with a special poison made of cat’s brains and human blood and Antonio Musso from Finale by painting his face with diabolic ointment. This is what Scribani referred in his letter to the Doge and governators on 10th July 1588. In the same letters he made a distinction among three levels of offences. Against God, affairs with the Devil and killing of children and adults.
In the meantime new trials were started in Castelfranco (today Castelvittorio), Montalto Ligure, Porto Maurizio and Sanremo (Imperia). A woman, whose surname is Gentile, Battista Moro,s widow from Castelfranco, confessed under torture to have killed twenty –five children (eight of them were her own children), many farm animals and a woman just by touching her back. These facts are told in trial official documents sent by Scribani to Genoa. Among threm also documents referring to a thirteen year old girl, Giovanettina Ozenda from Baiardo who confessed without being tortured, to have participated to nocturnal diabolic dances with another woman called Salvagna. The Commissioner decided to be kind with her because of her young age and because she never killed children: he ordered she would go into a convent.

(23) His signature on official documents was “De Scribani”, according to the use of the time.

Chapter VI - Revision of the process started by Scribani and the auditor Petrozzi.

As soon as they received the trial documents by Scribani, the Republic of Genoa decided to entrust the supervision to its auditor Serafino Petrozzi, probably because Scrivani did not correctly distinguish between common and witchcraft delicts to be entrusted to religious authorities. Petrozzi made his relation (doc. E., third part), cancelling the punishments proposed by Scribani because of the lack of evidence . According to him the simple confession was not sufficient to condemn. The auditor Petrozzi refers to the already mentioned trials against Giovannettina Ozenda from Baiardo (see doc. E and F), the four women from Andagna: Marco Capponi’s wife Caterina, the three daughters of Vivaldi-Scarella, Antonina, Bianchina, Battistina. According to Petrozzi those women are not to be condemned for two reasons: the adoration of the Devil (diabolum ipsum et Sathan adoraverunt), diabolic meetings and similar things (et alia in simibus fieri solita) have to be judged first by the religious tribunal and only then from a laic one; if they really killed children and adults they have to be punished but only after the presentation of concrete evidence.

So on 1st August the government sent a letter to the Scribani asking him not to start trials normally entrusted to the religious authorities and to send to Genoa the evidence concerning the already started trials. Scribani writes back seven days later justifying himself he could not send the evidence since the delicts were done a long time before and in some cases even outside the state’s frontiers, such as in Oneglia (Savoy’s principate). Anyway he had to start those trials again, but arriving at the same conclusions and the same punishment proposals , except for the youngest one: instead of sending her to a convent he condemns her as well with capital punishment (Genoa’s government did not agree and left her in prison with a tutor).

Chapter VII - Two new judges

The conduct of Petrozzi, which we could consider a correct one, turned out to be bad: This happened because when judges operated alone they were usually led by their own sense of justice but when they operated together they had to follow the rules. So, when two new commissioners – Giuseppe Torre and Pietro Allaria reached Petrozzi, they all agreed to condemn the mentioned witches. Moreover they confirmed two other condemned: Piertina, Matteo Bianchi’s wife from Badalucco and Gentile, G.B. Moro’s wife from Castelvittorio already mentioned in chapter V (see also doc. F. and G., third part): The commissioner Scribani sent his registrar in July from Triora to Castelvittorio to look for evidence of the delicts confessed by Gentile, he searched her house, especially looking for diabolic oil pots and found two of them (from a letter written to the governators in Badalucco on 8th August 1588). Since it was not possible to chemically analyse the found unguents, following his ideas, on 30th August 1588 Scribani decided she had to be hung (doc. G., third part), her body burned and her belongings became State property.
Since the three judges approved the six death sentences proposed by Scribani, the senate as well agreed. Nut just when they should be hung, the Head Inquisitor opposed to it, defending his own rights. He namely proclaimed, representing the Saint Inquisition of Rome to have the right to supervision and have decisional powers in trials concerning religious guilt. As a consequence Genoa agreed to the request and informed the Saint Congregation on 27th September 1588.
On October 1588 the commissioner sent the five witches by sea to Genoa, where they got imprisoned just as the other thirteen women condemned by the vicars of the bishop of Albenga and the Inquisitors. Thus we suppose the women savagely imprisoned in Genoa were eighteen, plus another one named Franchetta Borelli (doc. A.).

Chapter VIII - Contrasts between religious and laic authorities

The Inquisitor of Genoa worked in agreement with the Saint Congregation, to which he regularly sent the trial official documents. In the first trial (see chapter I) the Inquisition of Genoa was accused of excessive severity by the Oldest of Triora and the government of Genoa granted the protest asking justifications to the vicar of the bishop of Albenga. Now the Inquisition of Genoa asked its own government to discuss with the religious authorities in Rome about which institution should be in charge of the trials against witches(24).
This phase of the trial was quite static. The government wrote several times to Cardinals with whom it was in touch, Pinelli, Giustiniani and Sauli. He wrote even to the Congregation itself praying to urge the trial’s revision and end because in the meantime witches were kept in bad healty conditions. In a letter of the 8th February 1589 he refers to the three witches died in prison. Finally on 28th April the cardinal S. Severina announced the trial could come to an end. After nearly eleven months of prison thirteen (two more died in April) women were able to gain their freedom.

(24) Legal conflicts and discussions between laic judges and Inquisitors began with the birth of Inquisition. There were conflicts especially where it was difficult to make a distinction religious and civil guilt.

Chapter IX - What happened with the innocent witches

From the documents preserved in the State’s Archive in Genoa we know that on 27th May 1589 the Doge and the governators of Genoa complained by a letter addressed to the Cardinal Sauli about the long duration of the trial. We also know that five witches died in prison: Three in February and two in April or May. Moreover we can suppose the remaining witches were sent back to Triora to their homes. On 10th June 1589 the work of revision of a second trial was still going on: on 28th August the Cardinal S. Severina announced the end of the trial except for three women. We don’t know how long this second trial lasted since no document in the State Archive refers to these three remaining witches.

Chapter X - Scribani was excommunicated and then absolved

As we saw the vicars of the Inquisition and of the bishop of Albenga couldn’t be more inhuman and severe during the trials of Triora in 1588. Scribani was even worse: all the Summer long he inquisited, tortured and condemned to death. On the 30th December 1588 the Inquisition in Rome itself condemned his methods with a letter to Genoa’s government (doc. H., third part). He was saved from an excommunication by a Cardinal Sauli’s letter.
So ended this very interesting trial which shows the contrasts existing between religious and laic authorities about witchcraft trials, how laic authorities accused mutually of excessive severity, judges’ guilt and finally the inhumanity of tortures and convictions to the supposed witches.

In summary:

At the end of summer 1587 some witches are accused and imprisoned in Triora. A trial is started.
Two inquisitors arrive in Triora at the beginning of October: one from Genoa, sent by the Inquisition and one from Albenga sent by the bishop.
On January 1588 the Oldest of Triora protest against the trial Genoa refers to the bishop who assures control, in the meantime his vicar justifies his methods and the podesta of Triora justifies the two Inquisitors.
On the beginning of May the Head Inquisitor arrives in Triora.
On 8th June, at the departure of the Head Inquisitor a special commissioner arrives The thirteen accused witches are sent to Genoa and imprisoned.
The commissioner starts a trial against the other five witches. At first one judge, then two more, are sent to Triora to supervise and look over all the trial. Finally the three judges reconfirm the death sentences decided by the commissioner. The senate of Genoa approves as well.
The Head Inquisitor of Genoa intervenes: only the Saint Congregation and no laic institution has the right to give a sentence.
Five more witches are sent to Genoa and imprisoned in October.
The trials are sent to Rome but the decision is deferred till the end of August 1589. In the meantime five witches die in prison and the others are probably set free.
The Congregation excommunicates who started the trial without the supervision of the Inquisition.