SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS.
Man's effort to supplement the limitations of his powers by the
assistance of spiritual agencies, and to obtain foreknowledge of the
future, dates from the earliest ages and is characteristic of all races.
When this is attempted through the formulas of an established religion
it is regarded as an act of piety; when through the invocation of fallen
gods, or of the ministers of the Evil Principle, or through a perverted
use of sacred rites, it is the subject of the severest animadversion of
the law-giver. When it assumes to use mysterious secrets of nature, it
has at times been regarded as harmless, and at others it has been
classed with sorcery, and the effort to suppress it has been based, not
on its being a deceit, but a crime.
When the Roman domination in Spain was overthrown by the Wisigoths, the
Barbarians brought with them their ancestral superstitions, to be
superadded to the ancient Ligurian beliefs and the more recent
Christianized paganism. The more current objectionable practices are
indicated by the repressive laws of successive Wisigothic monarchs, and
it illustrates the imperishable nature of superstitions that under their
generalizations can be classed most of the devices that have endured the
incessant warfare of the Church and the legislator for a thousand years.
The Wisigothic ordinances were carried, with little change, into the
Fuero Juzgo, or Romance version of the code, but their moderation was
displeasing to Ramiro I, who, in 943, prescribed burning for magicians
and sorcerers and is said to have inflicted the penalty in numerous
instances.[380] It is not probable that this severity was permanent for,
as a rule, medieval legislation was singularly lenient to these
offences, although, about the middle of the thirteenth century, Jacobo
de las Leyes, in a work addressed to Alfonso X, classes among the worst
offenders those who slay men by enchantment.[381]
Alfonso himself, in the Partidas, treated magic and divination as arts
not involving heresy, to be rewarded or punished as they were used for
good or for evil.[382] In no land were they more widely developed or
more firmly implanted in popular belief, for Spain not only preserved
the older errors of Wisigothic times but had superadded those brought by
the Moors and had acquired others from the large Jewish population. The
fatalism of Islam was a fruitful source of devices for winning
foreknowledge. The astrologer and the diviner, so far from being objects
of persecution, were held in high honor among the Moors, and their arts
were publicly taught as essential to the general welfare. In the great
school of Córdova there were two masters who taught astrology, three of
necromancy, pyromancy and geomancy, and one of the _ars notoria_. Seven
thousand seven hundred Arabic writers are enumerated on the
interpretation of dreams, and as many on goetic magic, while the use of
amulets as preservatives from evil was universal.[383] Spain was the
classic land of magic whither, during the middle ages, resorted for
instruction from all Europe those who sought knowledge of its mysteries,
and the works on the occult arts, which were circulated everywhere, bore
for the most part, whether truly or falsely, the names of Arabic
authors.
[Sidenote: _MEDIEVAL TOLERATION_]
Long after these pursuits had fallen elsewhere under the ban of the
Church, the medieval spirit of toleration continued in Spain. Until the
fourteenth century was drawing to an end, astrology, we are told, was in
general vogue among the upper classes, while the lower placed full
confidence in the wandering mountebanks who overspread the land--mostly
Moorish or Jewish women--who plied their trade under the multifarious
names of _saludadores_, _ensalmadores_, _cantadores_, _entendederas_,
_adivinas_ and _ajodadores_, earning a livelihood by their various arts
of telling fortunes, preserving harvests and cattle, curing disease,
protecting from the evil eye, and exciting love or hatred.[384] So
little blame attached to these pursuits that Miguel de Urrea, Bishop of
Tarazona from 1309 to 1316, was popularly known as _el Nigromántico_,
and his portrait in the episcopal palace of Tarazona had an inscription
describing him as a most skilful necromancer, who even deluded the devil
with his own arts.[385]
The Church, however, did not share in this tolerant spirit and was
preparing to treat these practices with severity. There is comparative
mildness, in 1317, in the definition of its policy by Astesanus, the
leading canonist of his time who, after reciting the ferocious imperial
legislation, adds that the canons impose for these arts a penance of
forty days; if the offender refuses to perform this he should, if a
layman, be excommunicated and, if a cleric, be confined in a monastery.
If he persists in his evil ways, he should, if a slave be scourged and,
if a freeman, be imprisoned. Bishops should expel from their dioceses
all such persons and, in some places, this is laudably accompanied with
curtailing their garments and their hair. Yet the uncertainty still
prevailing is indicated by the differences among the doctors as to
whether priests incurred irregularity who misused in magic rites the
Eucharist, the chrism and holy water, or who baptized figurines to work
evil on the parties represented, and in this doubt Astesanus counsels
obtaining a dispensation as the safest plan.[386]
All doubts as to such questions were promptly settled. Pope John XXII
divided his restless activity between persecuting the Spiritual
Franciscans, warring with the Visconti, combating Ludwig of Bavaria and
creating a wholesome horror of sorcery in all its forms. Imagining that
conspirators were seeking his life through magic arts, he ordered
special inquisitors appointed for their extermination and urged the
regular appointees to active persecution. In various bulls, and
particularly one known as _Super illius specula_, issued about 1326, he
expressed his grief at the rapid increase of the invocation and
adoration of demons throughout Christendom, and ordered all who availed
themselves of such services to be publicly anathematized as heretics and
to be duly punished, while all books on the subject were to be burnt.
The faithful were warned not to enter into compacts with hell, or to
confine demons in mirrors and rings so as to foretell the future, and
all who disobeyed were threatened with the penalties of heresy.[387]
Thus the Church asserted authoritatively the truth of the powers claimed
by sorcerers--the first of a long series of similar utterances which did
more, perhaps, than aught else to stimulate belief and foster the
development of the evil. The prosperity of the sorcerer was based on
popular credulity, and the deterrent influence of prospective punishment
weighed little against the assurance that he could in reality perform
the service for which he was paid.
There was no Inquisition in Castile, and the repression of these
unhallowed arts rested with the secular power, which was irresponsive to
the papal commands. The Partidas, with their quasi approval of magic,
were formally confirmed, by the Córtes of 1348, as the law of the land,
and remained the basis of its jurisprudence. Yet the new impulse from
Rome commenced soon afterwards to make itself felt. About 1370 a law of
Enrique III declared guilty of heresy and subject to its penalties all
who consulted diviners.[388] In this the injection of heresy is
significant of the source of the new policy, reflected further in a law
of Juan I, in 1387, which asserts that all diviners and sorcerers and
astrologers, and those who believe in them, are heretics to be punished
as provided in the Partidas, laymen by the royal officials and clerics
by their prelates.[389] That these laws accomplished little is indicated
by the increasing severity of the pragmática of April 9, 1414, which
ordered all royal and local judges, under pain of loss of office and
one-third confiscation, to put to death all sorcerers, while those who
harbored them were to be banished and the pragmática itself was to be
read monthly in the market-places so that no one could pretend
ignorance.[390] Even the Mudéjares assimilated themselves in this to
their Christian conquerors, threatening the practice of sorcery with
death, and warning all to avoid divination and augury and astrology.
This accomplished little, however, and, after their enforced conversion,
the Moriscos continued to enjoy the reputation of masters of the black
arts.[391]
[Sidenote: _INQUISITORIAL JURISDICTION_]
In the kingdoms of Aragon the secular power seems to have been
negligent, and the duty reverted to the episcopate, which was for the
most part indifferent. It was not wholly so, however, for, in 1372,
Pedro Clasquerin, Archbishop of Tarragona, ordered an investigation of
his province by _testes synodales_, and among the matters to be inquired
into was whether there were sorcerers. Even Inquisitor Eymerich appears
to consider it as in no way the business of the Holy Office, when he
seeks to impress upon all bishops the duty of searching for such enemies
of Christ, and of punishing them with all severity.[392]
In Castile, while all the arts of sorcery were reckoned heretical,
jurisdiction over them remained secular, even after the establishment of
the Inquisition although, among Isabella's good qualities, is enumerated
her exceeding abhorrence of diviners and sorcerers and all practitioners
of similar arts.[393] There was evidently no thought of diverting the
Inquisition from its labors among the New Christians, when a royal
decree of 1500 ordered all corregidors and justicias to investigate as
to the existence in their districts of diviners and such persons, who
were to be arrested and punished if laymen, while if clerics they were
to be handed over to their prelates for due castigation.[394]
The question of jurisdiction, in fact, was a difficult one, which
required prolonged debate to settle. It is true that, in 1511, a case in
Saragossa shows the Inquisition exercising it, but a discussion to which
this gave rise indicates that as yet it was a novelty. Some necromancers
were condemned by the tribunal and the inquisitors asked whether
confiscation followed. Inquisitor-general Enguera decided in the
affirmative, but referred to Ferdinand for confirmation. The king
instructed the archbishop to assemble the inquisitors and some impartial
lawyers to discuss the question and report to him; their conclusion was
in favor of the crown and not till then did he order the receiver to
sequestrate and take possession of the property, which was considerable.
The fact that it had not been sequestrated indicates that there had been
no precedent to guide the tribunal.[395] Soon after this, in Catalonia,
there came a demand for the more effective jurisdiction of the
Inquisition, in order to repress sorcery. When the Concordia of 1512
was arranged, one of the petitions of the Córtes was that it should put
into execution the bull _Super illius specula_ of John XXII, and that
the king should procure from the pope the confirmation of the bull.
There was no objection to this, and Leo X accordingly revived the bull
and ordered its enforcement in Aragon.[396] It must have been
immediately after this that the Edict of Faith, in the Aragonese
kingdoms, required the denunciation of sorcery, for, in the Sicilian
instructions of 1515, issued to allay popular discontent, it was
provided that this clause should only be operative when the sorcery was
heretical.[397] Convictions, however, were few, at least in Aragon, for
after those of 1511 there were no relaxations for sorcery until February
28, 1528, when Fray Miguel Calvo was burnt; the next case was that of
Mossen Juan Omella, March 13, 1537, and no further relaxations occur in
the list which extends to 1574.[398]
Castile followed the example of Aragon, and Archbishop Manrique
(1523-1538) added to the Edict of Faith six clauses, giving in full
detail the practices of magic, sorcery and divination.[399] Yet, as late
as 1539, Ciruelo seems to regard the crime as subject wholly to secular
jurisdiction, for he warns sovereigns that, as they hold the place of
God on earth, they should have more zeal for the honor of God than for
their own, and should chastise these offenders accordingly, being
certain that they would be held to strict account for their
negligence.[400]
[Sidenote: _PACT WITH THE DEMON_]
The question, in fact, was a somewhat intricate one, admitting of nice
discussion. In 1257, not long after the founding of the Old Inquisition,
Alexander IV was asked whether it ought to take cognizance of divination
and sorcery, when he replied that it must not be diverted from its
proper duties and must leave such offenders to their regular judges,
unless there was manifest heresy involved, a decision which was
repeated more than once and was finally embodied in the canon law by
Boniface VIII.[401] There was no definition, however, as to what
constituted heresy in these matters, until the sweeping declaration of
John XXII that all were heretical, but in this there was a clear
inference that his bulls were directed solely to malignant magic working
through the invocation and adoration of demons. This, however, comprised
but a small portion of the vast array of superstitious observances, on
which theological subtilty exhausted its dialectics. Many of these were
perfectly harmless, such as the simple charms of the wise-women for the
cure of disease. Others were pseudo-scientific, like the Cabala, the Ars
Notoria and the Ars Paulina, by which universal knowledge was attained
through certain formulas. Others again taught spells, innocent in
themselves, to protect harvests from insect plagues and cattle from
murrain. There were infinite gradations, leading up to the invocation
and adoration of demons, besides the multiplied resources of the diviner
in palmistry, hydromancy, crystallomancy and the rest--oneiroscopy, or
dream-expounding, being a special stumbling-block, in view of its
scriptural warrant. To define where heresy began and ended in these, to
decide between presumable knowledge of the secrets of nature and resort
to evil spirits, was no easy matter, and by common consent the decision
turned upon whether there was a pact, express or implied, with the
demon. This only created the necessity of a new definition as to what
constituted pact and, in 1398, the University of Paris sought to settle
this by declaring that there was an implied pact in all superstitious
observances, of which the result could not reasonably be expected from
God or from nature.[402] This marked a distinct advance in the
conception of heretical sorcery, but it still left open the question as
to what might or might not be reasonable expectation, and it was merely
an opinion, albeit of the most authoritative theological body in Europe.
Discussion continued as lively as ever. In 1492, Bernardo Basin, a
learned canon of Saragossa, considered it necessary to prove by logic
that all pact with the demon, implicit or explicit, if not heresy was
yet to be treated as heresy.[403] In 1494, the _Repertorium
Inquisitorum_ in quoting the canon law, that sorcery must savor of
heresy to give jurisdiction of the Inquisition, still admits that there
is no little difficulty in defining what is meant by savoring of heresy,
while even at the close of the sixteenth century Peña tells us that no
question excited more frequent debate.[404] It is true that, in 1451,
Nicholas V had conferred on Hugues le Noir, Inquisitor of France,
cognizance of divination, even when not heretical, but this had been a
special provision, long since forgotten.[405]
The tendency, however, was irresistible to extend the definition of
heretical sorcery, and to bring everything under the Inquisition. In
1552 Bishop Simancas argues that the demon introduces himself into all
superstitious practices and charms, even without the intention of the
man; he admits that many jurists argue that it is uncertain whether
divinations and sorceries savor of manifest heresy, and therefore
inquisitors have not cognizance of them, but the contrary is accepted by
law, reason and custom, for it is a well-known rule that, when there is
a doubt whether a judge has jurisdiction, the jurisdiction is his, and
this matter is not exceptional; inquisitors can proceed against all
guilty of these offences as suspect of heresy and this is received in
practice.[406] Yet in practice these conclusions were reached
tentatively. In 1537 Doctor Giron de Loaysa, reporting the results of a
visitation of the Toledo tribunal, says that he has examined many
processes for sorcery and desires instructions, for there are a number
which are more foul and filthy than heretical; and even as late as 1568
the Suprema, in acting on the Barcelona visitation of de Soto Salazar,
reproves Inquisitor Mexia for inflicting a fine of ten ducats and
spiritual penances on Perebona Nat, for having used charms and uttered
certain words over a sick woman; such cases, it says, do not pertain to
the Inquisition, and in future he must leave all such matters to the
Ordinary, to whom they belong.[407]
[Sidenote: _INFERENTIAL HERESY_]
The tribunals evidently were less doubtful than the Suprema as to their
powers. Among the practitioners who speculated on popular credulity
there were some called _zahories_, who claimed a special gift of being
able to see beneath the surface when it was not covered with blue cloth,
and who were employed to discover springs of water, veins of metal,
buried treasure and corpses, as well as aposthumes and other internal
diseases. There was no pretence of magic in this but, in 1567, Juan de
Mateba, a boy of 14, who claimed among other gifts to be a zahori, was
sentenced by the Saragossa tribunal to fifty lashes in the prison, to
six years' reclusion in a convent under instruction, and subsequently to
a year's exile, together with prohibition, under pain of two hundred
lashes through the streets, to cure by conjurations, or to claim that he
has grace to effect cures, to divine the future, or to see corpses and
other things under the earth.[408]
Whatever doubts existed rapidly disappeared. It would be difficult to
see where the heresy lay which earned, from the Saragossa tribunal, in
1585, a public scourging for Gracia Melero, because she kept the finger
of a man who had been hanged, together with a piece of the halter,
thinking that they would bring her good luck.[409] In fact, by this time
the omnipresent demon was held accountable for everything. A case
exciting considerable attention in 1588 was that of Elvira de Cespedes,
tried by the tribunal of Toledo, who, as a slave-girl at the age of 16,
was married to Cristóval Lombardo of Jaen and bore to him a son, still
living at Seville. Subsequently at San Lucar she fell in love with her
mistress and seduced her, as well as many other women. Running away, she
assumed male attire and, during the rebellion of Granada served as a
soldier in the company of Don Luis Ponce. In Madrid she worked in a
hospital, obtained a certificate as a surgeon and practised the
profession. At Yepes she offered marriage to a girl, but the absence of
beard and her effeminate appearance caused her sex to be questioned; she
was medically examined, pronounced to be a man and the Vicar of Madrid
granted a licence under which the marriage was solemnized. Doubts,
however, still continued; she was denounced to the magistrates of Ocaña,
who arrested her and handed her over to the Inquisition. In the course
of her trial she was duly examined by physicians, who declared her to be
a woman and that her career could only be explained by the arts of the
demon. This explanation satisfied all doubts; she was sentenced to
appear in an auto, to abjure _de levi_, to receive two hundred lashes
and to serve in a hospital ten years without pay. In this the tribunal
was merciful, for hermaphrodites customarily had a harsher measure of
justice.[410]
[Sidenote: _CONFIRMATION OF BELIEF_]
It is thus easy to understand how the definition of pact by the
University of Paris came to be so extended as to cover every possible
act that might be classed as superstitious--all the old women's cures
and all the traditional usages and beliefs that had accumulated through
credulous generations trained to place confidence in unintelligible
phrases and meaningless actions--for any result greater than could
naturally be produced, if not attributable to God was perforce ascribed
to pact with the demon. Torreblanca thus assures us that, in the cure of
disease, pact is to be inferred when nothing, either natural or
supernatural, is employed, but only words, secretly or openly uttered, a
touch, a breathing, or a simple cloth which has no virtue in itself. So
it is with prayers and verbal formulas approved by the Church, but used
for purposes other than those for which they were framed, or even
exorcisms or conjurations against disease and tempests and caterpillars
and drought, employed without the rites prescribed by the Church, or by
those who have not the Order of Exorcists. There is pact in the use of
idle prayers, as to stop bleeding with _In sanguine Adæ orta est mors_,
or _Sanguis mane in te ut sanguis Christi mansit in se_; or of false
ones, as for head-ache _Virgo Maria Jordanum transivit et tunc S.
Stephanus ei obviavit_; or of absurd ones as the old _Danatadaries_, or
the more modern _Abrach Haymon_ etc., or that inscribed on bread _Irivni
Teherioni_ etc.; or that against the bite of mad dogs, _Hax, Pax, Max_.
Suspect of pact are pious and holy prayers, in which some extraneous or
unknown sign is introduced, written and hung on the neck, or anything by
the wearing of which protection is expected from sudden death or
imprisonment or the gallows: also the use of natural objects which, by
their nature are not fitted for the expected results, or which are
inefficient of themselves and are supposed to derive virtue from words
employed, or are applied with prayers and observances not prescribed by
the Church and, finally, all cures of disease which physicians cannot
explain.[411] Moreover, theologians decided that in sorcery there was no
_parvitas materiæ_, or triviality, which redeemed it from being a mortal
sin.[412]
Thus all wise-women and charlatans became subject to the jurisdiction of
the Inquisition, and no richer field for the folklorist can be found
than in their numerous trials, where all the details of their petty
devices and spells and charms are reported at length. There was the
corresponding duty imposed on it to exterminate all popular
superstitions throughout the land, and possibly it might have had a
measure of success in this if it could have treated these practitioners
as impostors. Unfortunately its jurisdiction over them was based on the
reality of their exercising demonic powers, and their persecution only
tended to confirm popular belief in the efficacy of their ministrations,
while the public reading of their sentences _con meritos_ spread abroad
the knowledge of their powers and formulas.
If aught was lacking to strengthen belief in sorcery and divination it
was furnished, in 1585, by Sixtus V, in his solemn bull _Coeli et
Terræ_. In this he denounced astrology and all other species of
divination, all magic incantations, the invocation and consultation of
demons, the abuse of the sacraments, the pretended imprisonment of
demons in rings, mirrors and vials, the obtaining of responses from
demoniacs or lymphatic or fanatic women; he commanded all prelates and
bishops and inquisitors diligently to prosecute and punish all who were
guilty of these illicit divinations, sorceries, superstitions, magic,
incantations and other detestable wickedness, even though hitherto they
had no faculty to do so, and the rules of the Tridentine Index,
prohibiting all works on divination and magic were to be strictly
enforced.[413] The Spanish Inquisition, as we have seen, had long before
exercised all the faculties conferred by the bull, and it is difficult
to understand why, in 1595, it obtained for the first time, in the
commission issued to Inquisitor-general Manrique de Lara, a clause
covering all who practised these diabolical arts, and all who believed
and employed them--a clause retained in all subsequent commissions.[414]
The Inquisition, in fact, had not welcomed the bull, possibly in fear
of claims based on it of cumulative episcopal jurisdiction. It did not
allow it to be published in Spain until 1612 when, for some reason, a
Romance version was printed and sent to all the tribunals with orders
for its publication and enforcement, leading subsequent writers to
attribute to it the cognizance of these matters by the Inquisition.[415]
[Sidenote: _EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION_]
Not only had the Inquisition, as we have seen, exercised jurisdiction
over sorcery, but as usual it claimed this to be exclusive and warned
off all trespassers. As a matter of form it conceded that non-heretical
sorcery was _mixti fori_--was subject to either the secular or spiritual
court which first commenced action[416]--but non-heretical sorcery had
become non-existent, and the Inquisition was as resolute in maintaining
its exclusive claims in this as in all else. It mattered little that, in
1598, the Córtes petitioned for the total abolition of all kinds of
sorcery, divination, auguries and enchantments, and that Philip II
responded by ordering the revival and enforcement of the ferocious law
of 1414 inflicting severe penalties on secular judges who did not put
sorcerers to death.[417] If this produced any effect, which is doubtful,
it was but temporary. Already, in 1594, we find the Toledo tribunal
compelling the corregidor to surrender Isabel de Soto, after he had
pronounced sentence. Her offences had been the giving of love-powders,
which she asserted were holy and need not be confessed; curing a child
with a parchment inscribed with crosses, and using certain divinations
to bring a man from the Indies--all harmless enough frauds, for which
she was sentenced to abjure _de levi_, to hear mass in the
audience-chamber and to undergo six years of exile. This severity,
however, was mercy itself in comparison with the corregidor's sentence,
which had been scourging and perpetual exile.[418]
This assertion of exclusive cognizance continued. In 1648, Ana Andrés
was undergoing prosecution in both the secular and episcopal courts,
when the Valladolid tribunal claimed her, took her and tried and
sentenced her.[419] In 1659, Pedro Martínez Ruvio, Archbishop of
Palermo, issued an edict in which he proposed to enforce a brief of
Gregory XV, in 1623, directed against sorcerers. The Suprema promptly
presented to Philip IV a consulta, representing that simple
superstitions were justiciable by bishops but, where there was even
light suspicion of heresy, the Inquisition had exclusive cognizance. It
could inhibit him with censures it said, but a royal order prohibiting
him from proceeding with so prejudicial an innovation was preferable as
less demonstrative, and there can be no doubt that Philip signed
whatever letters the Suprema laid before him.[420]
When dealing with the common run of officials, the Inquisition enforced
its claims with its customary peremptory aggressiveness. In 1701, the
Valencia tribunal learned that the _paheres_, or local officials of
Tortosa, were trying for sorcery Jusepa Zorita, Francisca Caset and a
girl. On November 30th they were ordered to cease proceedings under pain
of excommunication and five hundred ducats for each official concerned,
while Pedro Martin Aycart, archdeacon of the cathedral, was
commissioned, in case of disobedience, to post them on the church doors
as excommunicated, and to take possession of the accused in the royal
prison and hold them until further orders. There was some delay and, on
January 4, 1702, the authorities of Tortosa were served with a demand,
under the same penalties, to surrender the prisoners and the papers to
Aycart, with notification that prosecution would follow refusal. This
was effectual; the prisoners were surrendered and were duly tried by the
tribunal.[421]
* * * * *
Perhaps the most emphatic assertion of the authority of the Inquisition
is to be seen in its treatment of astrology. All divination which
pretended to reveal the future had long been regarded as heretical, on
account of its denial of human free-will and its assertion of fate. This
applied especially to astrology, with its array of horoscopes and its
assumption that the destinies of men were ruled by the stars. It was on
this ground that Pietro d'Abano, the greatest physician of his time, was
prosecuted and only escaped condemnation by opportunely dying, in 1316,
in Padua, and Cecco d'Ascoli, the foremost astrologer of the age, was
burnt alive in Florence, in 1327. In spite of these examples, the
profession of astrology continued to flourish unchecked, and astrologers
were indispensable officials in the courts of princes and prelates.
Theologians and canonists persevered in its condemnation. Ciruelo, while
admitting that the study of the influence of the stars on the weather
and on persons is lawful, like the practice of medicine, holds that
foretelling from them what they cannot foreshadow can only be done by
the aid of the demon, and all who practise this should be punished as
half-necromancers.[422] Simancas classes astrology with all other
methods of divination, which he attributes to the operation of the
demon, and those who make everything depend upon the stars are perfected
heretics.[423] These condemnations however were purely academical; the
old prohibitions had become obsolete; belief in the science was almost
universal; it was not only openly practised but openly taught, and there
is significance in the fact that, in the Index of 1559, while there are
general prohibitions of all books on necromancy and divination by lots,
there is none of those on astrology, which must have been numerous, and
only two obscure works on nativities are forbidden.[424] Indeed, one of
the petitions of the Córtes of 1570 represents that in consequence of
physicians not studying astrology many failed in their cures, wherefore
the king was asked to order that in the universities no one should be
graduated as a physician who was not a bachiller in astrology, to which
the royal reply was that the Council would consult the universities and
determine what was fitting.[425]
[Sidenote: _ASTROLOGY_]
It therefore manifests no little determination of purpose that, before
Sixtus V, in his bull of 1585, had ordered the suppression of astrology
by the Inquisition, the Suprema, in 1582, attacked it in its stronghold,
the University of Salamanca, sending thither in March the Valladolid
inquisitor, Juan de Arrese, with an edict condemning all the practices
of the so-called science. In a letter of the 10th, Arrese says that he
had been there for eight days, without having had an opportunity of
publishing the edict, but he expects to do so the next day. Then, on the
20th, he reports that he is obtaining the first results and is
overwhelmed with them; there are many who teach judicial astrology, both
genethliacal, in casting nativities, and in answering all questions put
to them, and they excuse themselves by saying that they only teach what
is in the books that are permitted. Those inculpated under the edict are
so numerous that it would be an infinite affair to punish them, and to
overlook them would be worse, for they expect to be allowed to continue.
Meanwhile he has taken testimony as to some and has suspended others
till he receives orders, to which the reply was to go on taking
testimony and report the results. Then, on March 31st he writes that he
is still gathering evidence against the teachers of astrology, among
whom are some who treat of invocation of demons and necromancy,
especially Diego Pérez de Messa, who had been banished for other
offences by the _maestre escuela_ and is in hiding, but Arrese had
ordered his arrest. Then, on April 24th, Arrese forwards a declaration
drawn up by Maestre Muñoz, professor of astrology, for such action as
the Suprema may please to take. At the same time he says that all those
occupied in making astrological predictions excuse themselves on the
ground that, under the statutes of the university, this is ordered to be
taught; he suggests that the Suprema shall prohibit teaching from such
books, and also judicial astrology, except as regards weather, but there
are also indications of magic, about which he promises further
information.[426] The documents before me fail to state what action the
Suprema took with the professors and teachers, but that this was the
condition in the foremost Spanish seat of learning indicates the
magnitude of the task of eradicating beliefs so widely spread and so
firmly established. That it forthwith suppressed the public teaching of
astrology is indicated by the Prohibitory Index, which appeared the
following year, 1583. This proscribed all books and writings that treat
of the science of predicting the future by the stars, and it forbade
all persons from forming forecasts as to matters dependent on free-will
or fortune. Yet it conceded the influence of the stars by permitting the
astrology which pertained to the weather and the general events of the
world, agriculture, navigation and medicine, and also that which
indicated at birth the inclinations and bodily qualities of the
infant.[427]
This half-hearted condemnation was not calculated to overthrow the
belief of ages, and astrology maintained its hold on popular credulity.
It is said that, on the birth of Philip IV, in 1605, Philip III
consulted the celebrated Argoli, master of astrology in Padua, as to his
son's horoscope, and was told that the stars threatened the child with
so many disasters that he would certainly die in misery if he had not
for his inheritance the wide dominions of Spain--a prophecy which seems
to have been suggested by the event.[428] However this may be, the
Inquisition maintained its position and was active in prosecuting the
practitioners of the science as a means of divination. An experienced
writer, about 1640, states that, since 1612, astrologers had been
rigorously punished. Judicial astrology was permitted only in so far as
it related to commerce, agriculture and medicine. The casting of
horoscopes to predict the future, especially with regard to the death of
individuals--a frequent practice, productive of much evil--was
punishable by appearance in a public auto, abjuration de levi, exile and
fine proportioned to the means of the delinquent, while even further
severity was due to its employment for the detection of thieves and
finding things lost.[429] A clause was introduced, in the Edicts of
Faith, requiring the denunciation of all engaged in such practices, with
a careful accumulation of details that reveals how wide was the sphere
of influence ascribed to the stars.[430]
[Sidenote: _PROCEDURE_]
The severity visited upon astrologers shows the determination of the
Inquisition, and its estimate of the difficulty of the task.
Ecclesiastics, as we have seen, except when relaxed, were spared
appearance in public autos in order to avert scandal, but astrology was
made an exception and the penalties were extreme. Thus, in the Toledo
auto of October 7, 1663, there appeared Don Pedro Zacome Pramosellas,
arch-priest of Brimano (Cremona) sentenced to abjure _de levi_ and
perpetual banishment from Spain, after three years of galley-service,
besides prohibition to practice astrology or to read books on the
subject. So, in the Toledo auto of October 30, 1667, the Licentiate
Pedro López Camarena Montesinos, a beneficed priest of San Lorenzo of
Valencia, for judicial astrology and searching for treasures, was
condemned to abjure _de levi_, to four years in an African presidio,
followed by six years' exile from Madrid and Toledo, suspension from
Orders and deprivation of all ecclesiastical revenues.[431] This
severity, doubtless, did much to aid advancing intelligence in
outgrowing the ancient beliefs but, as late as 1796, we find Fray Miguel
Alberola, a lay-brother of San Pedro de Alcántara, prosecuted in
Valencia for using the "wheel of Beda"--evidently the _Petosiris_, a
device by which the motions of the moon were used in place of the
multitudinous and complex details of the stars and planets.[432]
* * * * *
Procedure in cases of sorcery had little to distinguish it from that in
ordinary heresy, except that, as a rule, torture was not employed. One
authority, indeed, tells that, although in Italy torture was used in
cases of heretical sorcery, it was never used in Spain, but another
assumes that in certain cases it was at the discretion of the
tribunal.[433] That this discretion was used is seen in the Mexican case
of Isabel de Montoya, a wretched old woman, in 1652, who freely
confessed to numerous devices for procuring money--charms and philtres
and conjurations. In addition to this was the evidence of her dupes, as
to her stories of her relations with the demon, which required
elucidation. She was tortured without extracting further confessions and
then was sentenced to a hundred lashes, three years' service in a
hospital and perpetual exile from Puebla.[434]
As pact with the demon was the basis of inquisitorial jurisdiction over
sorcery, it was important to obtain from the accused admission of its
existence. To this end, in 1655, the Suprema issued special instructions
as to examination in all cases dependent on pact--instructions which
reveal implicit belief in the reality of the powers claimed for
sorcery. The accused was to be asked if the prayers, remedies and other
things employed produced the expected results wholly or partially, and
as they had not the natural virtues to effect this, what was the cause
of the result. When, in the prayers or conjurations, certain demons were
invoked, was it to make them appear and speak and in what mode or form.
Whether the invocation was in virtue of a pact, express or tacit, with
the demon and, if so, in what way had it been made. Whether the demon
sometimes appeared in consequence of the prayers or conjurations and, if
so, in what figure or guise, and what he said or did. With what faith or
belief they did these things and framed the remedies, and whether it was
with the intention and hope that the desired effect should be produced,
and with the belief that they would attain it, and whether they held
this for certain--with other similar interrogatories, suited for
particular cases.[435]
[Sidenote: _PUNISHMENT_]
Based on these instructions a curious series of formulas was drawn up,
adapted to all the different classes of offenders. As a sample of these
we may take the one used in the examination of Zahories, who assumed to
have a natural gift to see under the surface of the earth, involving no
heresy, so that they were subject to the Inquisition only through an
arbitrary assumption that their work must necessarily require the aid of
the demon, in which there was no _parvitas materioe_, and that it was
a mortal sin to employ them. The Zahori is to be asked whether it is
true that he can see clearly and distinctly what is hidden under the
earth and to what distance his vision penetrates; whether this power is
confined to buried treasure, or extends to other things; at what age and
on what occasion he first recognized the possession of this power;
whether it is continuous, or stronger at times than at others; whether
he has exerted this power and has found it effective; whether he has
thus obtained treasures and, if so, of what kind or amount; who assisted
him and whether the treasures were divided and what then happened;
whether to reach the treasure, either in preparation or at the time of
raising it, anything else was done, such as masses, prayers,
conjurations, fumigations, invocations of saints or of other unknown
names, or use was made of holy water, blessed palms, lights,
genuflections, reading from a book or paper or other similar means;
whether some treasures are more difficult to obtain than others and, if
so, from what cause, such as enchantment; whether Zahories have any
sign by which this power is recognized, and whether they recognize each
other; in what principally does this power consist; whether money has
been paid to him for pointing out a place where treasure was hidden and,
if so, where he received it and what was the spot designated.[436] We
can readily see how apt would be such an interrogatory, followed up by a
trained examiner, to lead to admissions justifying implied pact,
especially as there was a craze for finding buried treasure, and a
wide-spread belief that stores of it were hidden underground, awaiting
the coming of Antichrist, and guarded by demons, who must be placated or
subdued before the gold could be secured.
In all this it is evident that the inquisitor, if conscientious, must
himself have been firmly convinced of the truth that all the arts of
sorcery, simple as many of them were, were based on demonic aid. Yet the
occasional use of the term _embustero_ shows that it was sometimes
recognized that there was imposture as well as pact. Thus, in the
Córdova auto of December 21, 1627, three women appeared, Ana de Jodar,
sentenced to two hundred lashes in Córdova and one hundred in Villanueva
del Arzobispo, with six years of exile; María de San Leon, to a hundred
lashes and four years of exile and Francisca Méndez to vergüenza and
exile. Now all these were declared to be sorceresses, invokers of demons
with whom they had pacts, and their feats, as detailed in the sentences,
showed them to be adepts and yet they were all stigmatized in addition
as _embusteras_.[437] So, in the Saragossa auto of June 6, 1723,
Sebastian Gómez is described as _supersticioso y embustero_, though his
sentence of two hundred lashes and perpetual service in a hospital with
shackles on his feet shows that his offence was not regarded as mere
imposture.[438]
* * * * *
Severe as may seem some of the sentences alluded to, there is no
question that, in most cases, the delinquents were fortunate in having
the Inquisition as a judge rather than the secular courts, which
everywhere showed themselves merciless where sorcery was concerned. We
have seen the demand, in 1598, for the revival of the savage law of
1414, and this rigor had the support not only of popular opinion but of
the learned. Ciruelo taught that all vain superstitions and sorcery were
inventions of the devil, wherefore those who learned and practised them
were disciples of the devil and enemies of God. There was no distinction
between classes of offenders; all were to be persecuted with unsparing
rigor. Thieves, he argued were properly hanged or beheaded, because
every thief is presumed to be a homicide, and much more should it thus
be with every sorcerer, as his efforts were directed rather against
persons than property.[439] Torreblanca tells us that Huss and Wickliffe
and Luther and almost all heretics contend against the punishment of
sorcerers, but this is heretical, detestable and scandalous, and all
orthodox authorities teach that they should be unsparingly put to death
and be persecuted by both the spiritual and temporal swords.[440] It is
well to bear in mind this consensus of opinion when considering the
practice of the Inquisition. In the tribunals there was nothing to
control the discretion of the judges save the Suprema, and that
discretion showed itself in a leniency difficult to understand, more
often than in undue harshness, and even their harshness was less to be
dreaded than the mercy of the secular law. The systematic writers lay
down the rule that, if the culprit confesses to pact with the demon, he
is presumably an apostate; if he begs mercy he is to be admitted to
reconciliation in an auto, with confiscation and a hundred lashes or
vergüenza; if he is not an apostate, the reconciliation is modified to
abjuration _de levi_ and the scourging to vergüenza.[441] These rules,
however, were not observed; reconciliation was exceedingly rare,
abjuration _de vehementi_ was unusual, abjuration _de levi_ almost
universal, and the tribunals exercised wide discretion in the infliction
of the most diverse penalties.
[Sidenote: _PUNISHMENT_]
A few cases will illustrate how completely the temper of the tribunal
influenced the sentences. In 1604, Valencia seems to have had
exceptionally lenient inquisitors. Alonso Verlango, desiring to
compromise a suit, hired a woman to perform the conjuration of the
_ampolletas_ or vials, placing in them wine, sulphur and other things,
and throwing them into the fire, with the adjuration that as they burnt
so might the hearts of men come to an agreement. There was also the
conjuration of the oranges, cutting nine of them and placing in them
oil, soap, salt and other things, with the formula that, as oil gives
flavor, so might it be with the men; also driving a nail into each and
saying that the nails were driven into their hearts. In both of these
conjurations were invoked Bersabu, Satanas and other demons, the great
and the crippled, along with St. Peter, St. Paul and other saints. There
was also a long conjuration with a virgin child by which one could learn
whatever was desired. Verlango himself, moreover, used conjurations to
discover treasures and possessed the Dream-book of Solomon, "Vaquerio"
and Cardan _de Proprietatibus Rerum_. For all this he escaped with a
reprimand and hearing mass in the audience chamber, abjuration _de levi_
and two years of exile. Another case was that of Fray Miguel Rexaque, a
priest of the Order of Montesa, who denounced himself for going with an
Italian fraile, a virgin girl and some others, to discover treasure.
They dug a hole; the Italian with an olive wand made a circle, in which
was lighted a blessed candle; incense was burnt and the angels were
summoned to drive away the demons guarding the treasure for the coming
of Antichrist, and there was also a response from a demon obtained by
the girl looking into a mirror. When the papers were submitted to the
Suprema it ordered Rexaque to be reprimanded and the case to be
suspended, while the girls who officiated had only a year's exile and
some spiritual penances. More serious was the ease of Francois Difor, a
French priest, and Francisco Juseria, a student, for it involved
sacrilege. They sought the advice of an adept, who told them to baptize
three coins with certain names and the coins when paid out would return
to their purses. Difor solemnly baptized three pesos; Juseria spent them
for fritters and pastry, but they did not come back. Under instructions
of a confessor, they denounced themselves; they were duly tried and
sentenced to abjure _de levi_, to be severely reprimanded and to perform
some slight spiritual penances.[442]
Valladolid furnishes similar examples of leniency. In 1629, Isabel
García, a married woman, under trial confessed that to regain a lover
she had invoked the demon, who appeared in human shape, when she entered
into explicit pact with him and performed various other sorceries, yet
she was sentenced only to abjure _de levi_ and to four years' exile from
Valladolid and Astudilla. The next year Gabriel de Arroya, under
pressure from a confessor, denounced himself and stated that, carried
away by the passion of gambling, he had, during the last seven years,
gone five times into the open fields, and invoked the demon to give him
money for stakes, promising in return to devote his first child to the
demon and offering to sign with his blood a pact to that effect. It is
true that the demon never appeared, nor did he get money that seemed to
come from such a source. In the consulta de fe, some of the members
pronounced him to be vehemently suspect, others lightly, but it was
finally voted to suspend the case without sentence and to reprimand him
in the audience-chamber.[443]
[Sidenote: _PUNISHMENT_]
There is contrast between these and some cases, in 1641, gathered in by
a Valladolid inquisitor during a visitation in Astorga. Eight old men
and women _curanderos_, whose offences consisted in superstitious cures
of the most harmless character, were arrested and brought to Valladolid,
where they were confined for months in the secret prison, to be finally
sentenced to more or less prolonged exile, their simple ministrations
being characterized as implicit pact with the demon. On the other hand,
the Licentiate Pelayo de Ravanal, cura of Anicio, who charged
twenty-three reales for blessing and ineffectually sprinkling with holy
water a herd of sick cattle, and who failed in a superstitious cure of a
husband and wife, was not arrested but was privately summoned and
reprimanded in the apartments of the senior inquisitor. There were also
two cases of _loberos_--practitioners whose speciality consisted in
preserving sheep from wolves. One was Macias Pérez, a shepherd of Medina
del Campo, accused by ten witnesses of having the wolves at his command,
and using them to injure whom he pleased; five testified that he had
threatened them with the wolves and that consequently many of their
sheep had been destroyed. The other, Juan Gutiérrez of Baradilla,
speculated on his neighbors, who gave him grain, kids, sheep etc., to
preserve their flocks. The calificadores held this to be implicit pact
but, although both were arrested, both escaped with reprimands.[444] The
same moderation was exhibited by the tribunal of Toledo, in a curious
case, in 1659. Juan Severino de San Pablo, of Wilna in Lithuania, was
living as a hermit in the Sierra Morena. He had a skull which he had
laboriously inlaid with silver images; this he exhibited and gave
certificates as cures for tertian fevers. After his trial had been
carried to the accusation, it was suspended; he was severely reprimanded
and threatened with a hundred lashes for relapse; the skull was buried
in consecrated ground, but not until the silver had been carefully
removed and given to the receiver in part settlement for the culprit's
maintenance in prison.[445]
There are two colonial cases which illustrate the capricious character
of these judgements. In 1760, at Lima, a Guinea negro slave named Manuel
Galiano, aged 70, was tried as a _curandero_. Several cases were in
evidence in which he had cured swellings that had baffled the faculty,
by making a small incision, inserting a hollow cane and sucking out
blood, which would be accompanied with maggots, scorpions, lizards,
snakes and the like, after which he would apply certain crushed herbs.
It was decided that this inferred pact with the demon; he was arrested
and freely admitted the cures, explaining that he hid the animals in the
cane and blew them forth as though they had been drawn from the
swelling; he had pronounced the patients to be bewitched and received
four or five pesos for the cure; he had also pretended to give a charm
to another slave. The case was simple enough but the trial was prolonged
for three years, during which he lay in prison, to be finally sentenced
to appear in an auto, with the insignia of sorcery and a halter, to
vergüenza and to five years (counted from the time of his arrest) of
service in a hospital.[446]
In wholesome contrast to this was a similar case in Mexico, in 1794.
Juana Martínez was an Indian aged 40, married to a mulatto. She made her
livelihood as a _curandera_, using a decoction of the root of a plant
known as _palo de Texer_ or _Peyote_, which she gathered with invocation
of the Trinity and three signs of the cross--ceremonies which she
repeated when administering the remedy--and she said that her patients
ejected, from mouth and nose, insects, flies etc., which was a sign that
they had been bewitched. She also had an image of the Virgin, which she
kept in a little reliquary and declared that it performed miracles. In
short, she was an accomplished _embustera_, and she richly earned the
designation in the accusation of a simulator of miracles. Mariano de la
Piedra Palacio, cura and ecclesiastical judge of their village,
Temasunchale, arrested the pair and sequestrated their little property.
By active threats of scourging he elicited a confession that she had
invoked the devil who appeared and taught her the art, and that she
operated by his power. It was a clear case of sorcery and he handed
them over to the Inquisition. The long journey to Mexico was performed
handcuffed and they were consigned to the secret prison, July 22. A
little skilful pressure brought Juana to admit that both the miracles of
the Virgin and the insects voided by her patients were impostures. The
fiscal chanced to be somewhat of a rationalist and, on August 4th he
presented a report of a character not usual in the Inquisition.
He pointed out that the consummate ignorance of Cura Mariano had already
caused these poor creatures sufficient suffering in tearing them from
their home, defaming them, arresting them obstreperously and sending
them to the prison of the tribunal without reason or justice. It was he
who was to blame, for their ignorance was attributable to him, whose
duty it was to instruct them. Assuming then that there was no legal
basis for prosecution and that their lies were sufficiently punished by
what they had endured, the fiscal suggested their discharge, with orders
to abstain in future from cures and miracles, under pain of rigorous
punishment, while the cura was to be warned to avoid future meddling
with what pertained to the Inquisition. He should also be told to
restore to them the mare and colt which he had unlawfully embargoed, to
send at his own cost proper persons to conduct the prisoners comfortably
home, and moreover that he and his vicars must see to the proper
instruction of his flock. The tribunal was not prepared to rise to this
height of justice, but it discharged the prisoners and notified Mariano
to return to them the mare and colt and whatever else he had seized,
without charging for their keep, and further to present himself to the
tribunal on his first visit to the capital.[447]
[Sidenote: _PERSISTENT BELIEF_]
Yet, notwithstanding the sanity of the conclusions reached in this case,
there was no surrender of belief in the reality of sorcery and of
demonic influence. Far more effective for the suppression of sorcerers
was the position assumed, in 1774, by the Inquisition of Portugal under
the guidance of Pombal. In its reformed regulations it takes the ground
that malignant spirits cannot, through pacts with sorcerers and
magicians, change the immutable laws of Nature established by God for
the preservation of the world; that the theological argument of cases in
which God permits such spirits to torment men has no application to
legislature or law. Those who believe that there are arts which teach
how, by invocations of demons, or imprecations, or signs, to work the
wonders ascribed to sorcerers, fall into the absurdity of ascribing to
the demon attributes belonging solely to God. Thus the two pacts,
implicit and explicit, are equally incredible and there is no proof of
them in the trials which for two centuries have been conducted by the
Inquisition, save the unsupported confessions of the accused. From this
it is deduced that all sorceries, divinations and witchcraft are
manifest impostures, and the practical instructions, based on these
premises, are that offenders are not to be convicted of heresy but of
imposture, deceit and superstition, all of which is to be pointed out in
the sentence, without giving the details as formerly. The penalties
imposed are severe--scourging, the galleys and presidio, while if any
one defends himself by asserting that these practices are legitimate,
that a pact can be made with the demon, and that his operations are
effective, he is to be confined, without more ado, in the Hospital Real
de Todo os Santos--the insane hospital.[448]
The Spanish Inquisition was too orthodox to accept so rationalistic a
view of sorcery, and continued to prosecute it as a reality. In 1787,
Madrid was excited by an auto in which an impostor named Coxo was
sentenced to two hundred lashes and ten years of presidio. He had
thrived by selling philtres to provoke love, formed indecently of the
bones and skin of a man and a woman, for which he had numerous
customers, including ladies of quality. The affair abounded in
lascivious details, which, when inscribed on the insignia hung in the
church caused no little scandal.[449] In 1800, Diego Garrigo, a boy of
13, was prosecuted by the Seville tribunal for superstitious cures when,
probably on account of his tender years, he escaped with a warning.[450]
In 1807 the trial in Valencia of Rosa Conejos shows how the insatiable
credulity of the vulgar was fed by the inexhaustible ingenuity of the
impostor. She had been giving instructions as to charms by which
supernatural powers could be gained, for the character of which a single
example will suffice. After 11 o'clock at night, place on the fire a
vessel full of oil; when it boils, throw in a living cat and put on the
lid; at the stroke of midnight remove it and inside the skull of the cat
will be found a little bone, which will render the person carrying it
invisible and enable him to do whatever he pleases; the bone will ask
"What do you want?" but if carried across running water it will lose its
virtue.[451]
Under the Restoration, cases become less numerous than of old, but there
is no change in the attitude of the Inquisition. In 1818, for instance,
the Suprema on February 12th, ordered the arrest and imprisonment, by
the Seville tribunal, of Ana Barbero, for superstition, blasphemy and
pact with the demon and, for these offences, she was sentenced, October
15th, to abjuration _de levi_, spiritual exercises, six years of exile
and two hundred lashes--the latter being humanely commuted by the
Suprema to eight years' reclusion in a reformatory for loose women. The
same tribunal ordered, June 17th, Francisca Romero to be thrown in the
secret prison, with embargo of property, as a superstitious _curandera_
and a year later, June 18, 1819, we find her sentenced to the ordinary
penalties of exile and two hundred lashes, the latter of which were
mercifully omitted by the Suprema.[452] Belief in the virtues of the
consecrated wafer was as lively as ever and prosecutions were frequent
for retaining it, as that of Doña Antonia de la Torre, in 1815, by the
Granada tribunal, for taking repeated communions in a day, retaining the
forms and converting them to an evil use.[453] Treasure-seeking was not
forgotten. In 1816 the Santiago tribunal discovered a book of
conjurations for the purpose, which was promptly prohibited by edict,
all copies were to be seized, investigation was ordered into popular
beliefs and Fray Juan Cuntin y Duran was prosecuted for using the
conjurations. This probably led to the discovery, in 1817, at Tudela of
a similar MS. work which the Suprema ordered to be suppressed.[454]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: _PERSISTENT BELIEF_]
It is easy to understand that the prosecution of sorcery constituted a
not inconsiderable portion of the duties of the Inquisition, at least
during the later stages of its career. Cases were comparatively few as
long as only serious matters were held to fall within its jurisdiction
but, with the extended definition of pact, they increased considerably
and, as the business of prosecuting Moriscos and Judaizers declined, its
energies were more largely directed to the wise-women and the sharpers
who found a precarious livelihood in the vulgar superstitions pervading
the community. Thus, in the Toledo record, from 1575 to 1610, out of a
total of 1172 cases, there are only eighteen of sorcery, or a trifle
over one and a half per cent., while, in the same tribunal from 1648 to
1794 there are a hundred out of a total of 1205, or about eight and
one-third per cent.[455] Occasionally they furnish the chief part of the
business of a tribunal. In the Valencia auto of July 1, 1725, fifteen of
the eighteen penitents were sorcerers and, in that of Córdova, December
5, 1745, there were five out of eight.[456] A record of the business of
all the tribunals, from 1780 to the suppression in 1820, furnishes a
total of four hundred and sixty-nine cases of which a hundred and
sixteen may be classed as maleficent and three hundred and fifty-three
as merely superstitious.[457]
Belief in the powers of sorcery had been too strongly inculcated to
disappear with the cessation of persecution. A modern writer assures us
that all the old superstitions flourish as vigorously as
ever--conjurations and formulas to cure or to kill, to foretell the
future, to create love or hatred, to render men impotent and women
barren, to destroy the flocks and herds and harvests, to bring tempests
and hail-storms. The wise-woman is as potent as of yore in her control
of the forces of nature and the passions of man, and the profession is
as well filled and as well paid as in the sixteenth century.[458] We can
readily believe this when Padre Cappa, S. J., in his defence of the
Inquisition, gravely assures us that communications and compacts with
the demon are incontestable and are as frequent as formerly.[459]
* * * * *
We have still to consider a further development of the belief in the
malignant power of the demon working through human instruments, in which
the Inquisition of Spain rendered a service of no little magnitude.