WITCHCRAFT IN ITALY
I. Why is there no Italian witch panic?
Argument from "backwardness" of 16-17th C. Italy
lack
of rapid social change = less tension?
Roman Inquisition (1540-1790's): types of trials
1540-1560's Protestant heresy: "Lutherans"
1560-1650's
"superstition": Magical beliefs
1650-1780's
heretical blasphemy
Procedures: centralized control from Rome
Regulation
of torture: limited, permission required
Supervision of trial procedures
1620
"Instructions on forming trials against
witches and sorcerers": urges moderation
Trials for "superstition" and magical beliefs
Context of general "reform of popular culture"
Types
of offenses (statistics from Modena, Italy):
magical
healing 70%; love magic (prostitutes) 15%
divination 8%; miscellaneous protective magic 7%
Healers as witches: trial of Maria Mariani, 1579
"Who
knows how to heal, knows how to harm."
Ambiguous
position of local clergy and exorcists:
1599
trial of Fra Azzolini of Modena
EXORCISM as "ecclesiastical medicine"
GIROLAMO MENGHI, Franciscan exorcist and theorist
1598:
Flagellum Daemonum (Whip of Demons)
Inquisition trials for superstitious exorcism:
popular
recourse to exorcists against maleficium
Implications
for Keith Thomas'argument on remedies:
did
available remedies prevent Italian witch panic?
BENANDANTI ("those who walk well"): trials 1575-1650
see Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles
Agrarian
fertility cult: Friuli (N.E. Italy); Slavic
Counter-witches,
protect crops
Selection:
born with caul, organized dreaming
Implications:
a) for Margaret Murray's theory?
for origins of witch beliefs in
demonization of remedial magic?
Inquisition tries benandanti as witches:
1575,
Paolo Gasparutto denies
he is a witch
by 1650's some benandanti confess to witchcraft
loss
of self image
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
16th C. German Reformation
1517 Martin Luther breaks with the Church
1540’s start of Catholic Counter-Reformation
reform of Church in response to Reformation
1540-70 Roman Inquisition: suppression of Lutheran heretics in Italy
1570’s onwards: reform of popular culture:
magical beliefs, including benandanti
Look at the different groups involved:
benandanti: what is their self image & self description?
Inquisition: what is their attitude to benandanti?
Witnesses: how does this case come to the attention of the Inquisition?
how are benandanti seen by others in society?