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The Witches' Flying and the Spanish Inquisitors, or How to Explain (Away) the Impossible [1]

2009; Routledge; Volume: 120; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00155870802647833

1469-8315

Gustav Henningsen,

Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies

Abstract The first part of this paper presents four old Spanish explanations of the witches' flying: (1) that (with the Devil's help) they actually did fly; (2) that the experience of flying was the result of narcotic stimulation; (3) that their flying was pure imagination—methodologically demonstrated in the investigations of the Spanish inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías; and (4) that they fly by means of the soul. The latter, although strongly rejected by the Church, remained the most popular opinion. The second part discusses the flying of the Sicilian donni di fori ["women from outside"] of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These were cunning women who served as mediators between the local community and the fairy world. On their nightly excursions "in spirit" they would enter the houses with the fairies, who bestowed their blessing on the homes. Or they would join the fairies in a sort of "white sabbath" where everything was reflective of beauty and delight. In the last part, the author describes his encounter with a contemporary Sicilian "night-goer" who claimed to be able to travel "in spirit." In the concluding discussion, the author asserts that none of the rationalistic approaches used so far leads to a full understanding of the phenomenon. In his reconstruction of the Sicilian fairy cult, the author leaves open the possibility of out-of-the-body experiences and collective dreaming (rêve a deux) being potential explanations for the phenomenon. Notes [1] This article is a revised version of a German paper in Bauer and Behringer 1997 (Henningsen 1997, 168–88). [2] Canon Episcopi, a ruling (canon) beginning with the word Episcopi, was first attested in 906 by Regino of Prüm and probably written by himself; see entry by Edward Peters in the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft (Peters Citation2006, vol. 1, 164f). [3] In 1555 Andrés Laguna published an annotated translation of Materia Medica of the ancient Greek physician, botanist, and pharmacologist, Pedanius Dioscorides. It was re-edited in 1733 by Francisco Suárez de Ribera (Suárez de Ribera Citation1733). I have opted for quoting the latter edition, since it is available online (http://books.google.es) [4] From the period 1615–1700 the Spanish Inquisition was involved in 2520 witch trials (compare Contreras and Henningsen Citation1986, 119, Table 4); however, I have now doubled that figure (to five thousand), as we probably know only about one-half of the trials that took place (compare Henningsen Citation1993, 82f, tables I–II). [5] Luis de Páramo (1545–1608). Born in Borox (Toledo), he made a theological career in Spain. He became Doctor in Theology, archdeacon and canon at the Cathedral of Leon; 1576 inquisitor at Seville; and from 1586, at the tribunal at Palermo, where he served until his death. A competent jurist and historian, he was the author of the first history of the Inquisition (Páramo Citation1598). See Rivero Rodríguez Citation2009 (courtesy of Professor Vincenzo Lavenia). [6] I have omitted "when she was eight years old," found in the confession, since it is probably an insertion provoked by the inquisitors, because earlier in the hearings she had explained that she had gone with the witches since she was eight. [7] See also Elsa Guggino's introduction to the Italian translation of my paper "The Ladies from Outside," with a survey of fairies and related supernatural beings in the contemporary folklore of Sicily (Guggino Citation1998; compare Guggino Citation1993). Recently, the donne di fuori have been dealt with briefly in a monograph on magical trials at the Inquisition of Sicily (Messana Citation2007, 550–73). [8] In the present analysis I have concentrated on the eighteen-year-old prostitute, Gracia Giarraffa (no. 56); the farm labourer's wife, Alfia Zafara, aged sixty (no. 49), who was a renowned healer and night-goer; and Vicencia Cuchinella, aged twenty-six years (no. 53), who also, according to some witnesses, practised as a wise woman [por fama pública era perfectísima mágara]. [9] Old Alfia (no. 49) was arrested in February, Vicencia (no. 53) in May, and young Gracia in October 1638. The case against the latter was obviously initiated because of a revocation she had made before the inquisitorial commissioner at Terranova on 7 September. In this she declared her previous testimony against herself and the two others to be false. She had made her declaration under pressure from the prior, who actually wrote the deposition himself (AHN, Inq., lib. 902, 116r–v). The prior's testimony, we are informed, was substantially identical with Gracia's deposition (ibid., fol. 116v), and from the trial summaries it appears that it was used indiscriminately in the accusations of all three "witches." Thus, in Vicencia's case, when the scribe is required to summarise the prior's deposition for the second time, he gives up, exclaiming that: "to refer to all this would be a never ending story, due to the long-windedness (prolijidad) of the deposition which is of four double folios [16 manuscript pages]" (ibid., fol. 90r). [10] In earlier articles I have called her "Marta" as I did not know whether she would like to have her real name published. She has now given permission for this.