The Basque region spread over the western edge of the Pyrenees Mountains that divide France from Spain overlooking the Bay of Biscay. There are seven Basque provinces, four in Spain and three in France. The Basque people have lived there since that old proverbial time immemorial; they are believed to have occupied a geographical territory longer than any other European ethnic group.
Their origins are mysterious and continue to confound anthropologists. They are apparently unrelated to any other ethnic group. The Basque language is apparently unrelated to any known language. Some suggest it is the original indigenous, Paleolithic European language. The Basque were comparatively late converts to Christianity, and ancestral traditions including ritual dances and offerings to the dead survived conversion.
There were no Basque with-hunts per se, instead French witch-hunters and the Spanish Inquisition took turns entering Basque territory to hunt down and execute witches, and the Basque territory was the scene of extensive witch-hunting in the 16th and 17th century; French witch-hunters targeted Basque witches in the 17th.
The ethnic aspect of these witch-trials cannot be forgotten. Basque women were interrogated by French and Spanish men, most of whom could not speak their language and who thus relied on local translators and paid witch-finders.
Traditional Basque society was very different from that the witch-hunters left behind in Spain and France: Basque women were exceptionally independent for their time. Although men wintered at home, a high percentage of Basque men were fishermen who spent the entire summer fishing in Newfoundland. Adult women were, thus, left "unsupervised".
Spanish and France witch-hunters simultaneously disapproved and were titillated by these women. Witch-hunter Pierre de Lancre, in particular, reveals more about his own sexual fantasies in his memoirs than he does any witchcraft practices.
Spain conducted an intensive witch-hunt in Basque territory beginning in 1507. In 1507, over 30 women were burned as witches in Calahorra. In 1527, a craze began when two little girls, aged 9 and 11, claimed to belong to a coven. They told officials that if they were granted immunity, they would identify other witches for the witch-hunters. They claimed they could recognize witches by gazing into their left eyes: in witches, the sign of a frog's foot appeared above the pupil.
Officials took the girls, guarded by 50 horsemen, to various towns so that they could identify witches. Upon arriving in a village, the guards arrested all the women. Each child was placed in a separate house and women were sent in one by one to have their eyes inspected. If the girls pronounced a woman a witch, she was arrested. Over 150 were imprisoned and charged with witchcraft based on the testimony of these two children.
Rumors of thousands of Basque witches engaged in Satanic activity spread through France and Pierre de Lancre, and especially aggressive witch-hunter, was sent in his capacity as the French King's councilor to lead a ferocious witch-hunt through French Basque territory. De Lancre confirmed these rumors: according to him, La Hendaye Beach in French Basque territory had sabbats attended by no less than 12,000 witches.
De Lancre indicted so many witches that the jails literally couldn't hold them all. He reported executing 600 Basque witches, burned alive at the stake, during four months in 1906.
De Lancre despised and hated Basque people, and especially independent Basque women who were used to acting as heads of their households. De Lancre was particularly aggravated that women acted as sacristans in church.
He suggested that the Basque witches were part of an international conspiracy with other European witches in order to eradicate Roman Catholicism and Christianity. De Lancre went too far when he began executing priests accused of being or supporting witches: for instance Basque priest Pierre Bocal, accused of wearing a goat mask and presiding over both Christian and Pagan rites and subsequently burned alive. The French public lost its taste for the witch-hunts at that point, and d Lancre fell from public favor.
Official records of the French Basque witch trials were destroyed in a fire in 1710. The best surviving source is de Lancre's own rambling memoirs. To this day, de Lancre's text provides major source material for most discussions of Basque witchcraft. De Lancre did not understand the Basque language; all interrogations were done via interpreters. The witches' confessions, offered in Basque, were recorded by de Lancre in French.
*Credit to Judika Illes
Showing posts with label Witch-Craze. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Witch-Craze. Show all posts
Friday, June 10, 2016
Witch-Craze: Bacchanalia
Hysterical witch-hunting is older than Christianity; Roman persecution of the Bacchanalia is somethings called the first "witch hunt".
The Bacchanalia was the Latin name for the Dionysian mystery traditions of the Maenads, or as they were known in Italy, the Bacchanals. Initially held in Etruria, these traditions traveled to Southern Italy and thence to Rome. Rituals were initially restricted to women and conducted secretly three days a year in the Grove of Stimula near the Aventine Hill. Men were eventually admitted to the rites, which increased to five days a month. However the majority of the initiates were female. Initially the Bacchanalia was identified with slaves and immigrant women from Greece, the Balkans, and elsewhere but it eventually attracted respectable Roman matrons who assumed leadership roles.
The Bacchanalia became increasingly controversial; it developed a malevolent, mysterious reputation among conventional society and was accused of fomenting political conspiracies. The Bacchanals were accused of poisoning, ritual murder, sexual deviance, and treason. The Roman senate issued a decree, the Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus in BCE, forbidding the Bacchanalia throughout Italy except where the Senate itself reserved the right to permit the rites.
According to the Roman historian Livy, the Bacchanals were charged with holding secret nocturnal meetings, allegedly featuring dancing, music, feasting, orgies, homosexuality, and ritual murder. But for the absence of Satan, it sounds remarkably like a European witch-hunters' sabbat of over a millennium later.
The charges that detonate these witch-hunts allegedly began with family dispute: a young Roman patrician, Aebutius was asked to leave home by his mother. She later claimed it was because her husband, Aebutius' step father, was strapped for money; Aebutius claimed he was thrown out because he refused to be initiated into the Bacchanalia as his mother desired.
Aebutius said his concubine Hispala, a freed woman, had previously attended the Bacchanalia and warned him that it was depraved. Aebutius went to his late father's sister who advised him to make a formal complaint to the Consul, which he did. Essentially he denounced his mother as a Bacchanal.
Hispala was called in and questioned for details regarding what the Bacchanals were really doing at their secret nighttime revels. She allegedly initially refused to testify but was advised that she herself would be prosecuted unless she provided authorities with information. Hispala first claimed that she only attended the Bacchanalia as a child and so had limited information; after further questioning however she gave more details, describing torch-lit oracular rites by the Tiber River and naming the current leader of the Bacchanalia as Paculla Annia, a High Priestess from Campania.
The Consul held a public assembly where he accused the Bacchanals, now called the Conjurari, of a criminal conspiracy intended to undermine Roman society. The Senate ordered an immediate extraordinary investigation permitting torture and denying defendants' rights of appeal. A zero-tolerance policy was instituted in the form of a massive witch-hunt for members of the secret society, followed by mass executions.
*An edict outlawed initiates of the Mysteries from convening.
*The Senate offered a reward to anyone denouncing participants in the Bacchanalia.
*Officials were ordered to seek out ritual leaders.
*Roman men were ordered to reject participating members of their family.
The Senate simultaneously enacted legislation against diviners and foreign magicians.
Panic swept first Rome, then all of Italy. There were rumored to be over seven thousand Conjurari. Recent initiates were merely imprisoned but thousands were condemned to death. The state allowed men to punish their female relatives in the privacy of their home but if no one was available to execute them privately, it was done publicly. Heads of households thus personally executed wives, daughters, sisters, and slaves or ran the risk of disgracing the family via public executions.
What happened to Paculla, the priestess, is unknown, but her sons were arrested as leaders, tortured to denounce others, and executed. Those they denounced were also tortured until they denounced still others.
Known initiates, both female and male, committed suicide rather than face arrest. Some however escaped, including some who had been denounced but whom the authorities were then unable to locate. These Bacchanals are believed to have escaped into forests and mountains. Many believe these escaped Bacchanals are the prototype for Europe's future witches.
Even after the Bacchanalia-panic receded in Rome, the hunt for surviving Bacchanals continued throughout Apulia and other parts of the Italian countryside through 185-184 BCE. What happened to Aebutius' mother is unknown but the Senate rewarded Aebutius and Hispala out of the public treasury and promoted Hispala to a higher social rank so that the couple could be legally wed.
*Credit to Judika Illes
The Bacchanalia was the Latin name for the Dionysian mystery traditions of the Maenads, or as they were known in Italy, the Bacchanals. Initially held in Etruria, these traditions traveled to Southern Italy and thence to Rome. Rituals were initially restricted to women and conducted secretly three days a year in the Grove of Stimula near the Aventine Hill. Men were eventually admitted to the rites, which increased to five days a month. However the majority of the initiates were female. Initially the Bacchanalia was identified with slaves and immigrant women from Greece, the Balkans, and elsewhere but it eventually attracted respectable Roman matrons who assumed leadership roles.
The Bacchanalia became increasingly controversial; it developed a malevolent, mysterious reputation among conventional society and was accused of fomenting political conspiracies. The Bacchanals were accused of poisoning, ritual murder, sexual deviance, and treason. The Roman senate issued a decree, the Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus in BCE, forbidding the Bacchanalia throughout Italy except where the Senate itself reserved the right to permit the rites.
According to the Roman historian Livy, the Bacchanals were charged with holding secret nocturnal meetings, allegedly featuring dancing, music, feasting, orgies, homosexuality, and ritual murder. But for the absence of Satan, it sounds remarkably like a European witch-hunters' sabbat of over a millennium later.
The charges that detonate these witch-hunts allegedly began with family dispute: a young Roman patrician, Aebutius was asked to leave home by his mother. She later claimed it was because her husband, Aebutius' step father, was strapped for money; Aebutius claimed he was thrown out because he refused to be initiated into the Bacchanalia as his mother desired.
Aebutius said his concubine Hispala, a freed woman, had previously attended the Bacchanalia and warned him that it was depraved. Aebutius went to his late father's sister who advised him to make a formal complaint to the Consul, which he did. Essentially he denounced his mother as a Bacchanal.
Hispala was called in and questioned for details regarding what the Bacchanals were really doing at their secret nighttime revels. She allegedly initially refused to testify but was advised that she herself would be prosecuted unless she provided authorities with information. Hispala first claimed that she only attended the Bacchanalia as a child and so had limited information; after further questioning however she gave more details, describing torch-lit oracular rites by the Tiber River and naming the current leader of the Bacchanalia as Paculla Annia, a High Priestess from Campania.
The Consul held a public assembly where he accused the Bacchanals, now called the Conjurari, of a criminal conspiracy intended to undermine Roman society. The Senate ordered an immediate extraordinary investigation permitting torture and denying defendants' rights of appeal. A zero-tolerance policy was instituted in the form of a massive witch-hunt for members of the secret society, followed by mass executions.
*An edict outlawed initiates of the Mysteries from convening.
*The Senate offered a reward to anyone denouncing participants in the Bacchanalia.
*Officials were ordered to seek out ritual leaders.
*Roman men were ordered to reject participating members of their family.
The Senate simultaneously enacted legislation against diviners and foreign magicians.
Panic swept first Rome, then all of Italy. There were rumored to be over seven thousand Conjurari. Recent initiates were merely imprisoned but thousands were condemned to death. The state allowed men to punish their female relatives in the privacy of their home but if no one was available to execute them privately, it was done publicly. Heads of households thus personally executed wives, daughters, sisters, and slaves or ran the risk of disgracing the family via public executions.
What happened to Paculla, the priestess, is unknown, but her sons were arrested as leaders, tortured to denounce others, and executed. Those they denounced were also tortured until they denounced still others.
Known initiates, both female and male, committed suicide rather than face arrest. Some however escaped, including some who had been denounced but whom the authorities were then unable to locate. These Bacchanals are believed to have escaped into forests and mountains. Many believe these escaped Bacchanals are the prototype for Europe's future witches.
Even after the Bacchanalia-panic receded in Rome, the hunt for surviving Bacchanals continued throughout Apulia and other parts of the Italian countryside through 185-184 BCE. What happened to Aebutius' mother is unknown but the Senate rewarded Aebutius and Hispala out of the public treasury and promoted Hispala to a higher social rank so that the couple could be legally wed.
*Credit to Judika Illes
Witch-Craze: Africa
Prior to colonial rule, in general, individuals were accused of being magickal malefactors and dealt with on an individual basis. European-style witch-hunts began during colonial rule and still continue. Whether this change of attitude derives from enforced colonialism and/or exposure to Christianity is subject to debate.
Although hysterical witch-hunts and trials are now considered an aberration elsewhere, a relic of history, they are on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa. Witches are accused of transforming into bats and night birds, transforming people into sombis or committing murder via lightning or poison. Witchcraft is also blamed for Aids.
*In 1992, over 300 people in Kenya were lynched as witches.
*From April 1994 to February 1995, 97 women and 46 men accused of witchcraft in South Africa were killed by mob violence.
*Between January and June 1998, South Africa's Northern Province reported 386 crimes against suspected witches including assault, property damage, and murder.
*Thousands of children throughout sub-Saharan Africa have been the targets of witchcraft hysteria. Children have been tortured, abandoned, and killed. Many have suffered brutal exorcisms of the demons they are assumed to house.
The Ministry of Safety of South Africa's Northern Transvaal Province established a Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft, Violence and Ritual Killings. A report published in May 1996 stated that thousands accused of witchcraft had been driven from their homes, losing all their property.
*Credit to Judika Illes
Although hysterical witch-hunts and trials are now considered an aberration elsewhere, a relic of history, they are on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa. Witches are accused of transforming into bats and night birds, transforming people into sombis or committing murder via lightning or poison. Witchcraft is also blamed for Aids.
*In 1992, over 300 people in Kenya were lynched as witches.
*From April 1994 to February 1995, 97 women and 46 men accused of witchcraft in South Africa were killed by mob violence.
*Between January and June 1998, South Africa's Northern Province reported 386 crimes against suspected witches including assault, property damage, and murder.
*Thousands of children throughout sub-Saharan Africa have been the targets of witchcraft hysteria. Children have been tortured, abandoned, and killed. Many have suffered brutal exorcisms of the demons they are assumed to house.
The Ministry of Safety of South Africa's Northern Transvaal Province established a Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft, Violence and Ritual Killings. A report published in May 1996 stated that thousands accused of witchcraft had been driven from their homes, losing all their property.
*Credit to Judika Illes
Witch-craze!
If an individual has the capacity to bless others with good fortune, for instance, then that individual also possess the capacity to withhold that blessing...or worse.
This is true not only of witches, however, but of any specialist. Although it's a rare occurrence, every once in a while one does hear of a physician who has forsaken the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm but instead emerges as a secret, malevolent Angel of Death. However, those rare occurrences have not caused prejudice against physicians among the general public, nor have they caused "physician hysteria": the panic-stricken fear that every physician is secretly committed to causing only harm.
Likewise, in many traditional societies, it's recognized that although the occasional witch or shaman may become corrupt, the majority are responsible, ethical professionals. Most traditional societies have ago-old legal mechanisms in place for magickal practitioners perceived as malefactors, but this does not reflect negatively on the greater community of magickal practitioners, or does this constitute a "witch panic".
A witch panic is characterized by an absolutely hysterical, irrational, fear of witchcraft and witches. A witch doesn't have to cause harm for others to fear and persecute her. In fact, they may not have to be a witch at all.: the key word in "witch hysteria" or "witch panic" is not the first but the second. Witch panics are characterized by a crazed terror that there is a secret conspiracy of witches, a fifth column that seeks to undermine society and cause harm to individuals. No need to wait for the witches to prove they mean no harm; in a witch-craze, authorities search out any possible link to witchcraft and attempt to terminate it mercilessly.
Although witch panics existed earlier and still exist today, in some parts of Earth, the term "Witch-Craze" historically refers to a specific era of European history, also called the "Burning Times".
Although the European Witch-Craze lasted hundreds of years, covering most of the continent as well as colonies in the Western Hemisphere and claimed as victims, at a minimum, thousand of people, until recently it was a relatively obscure historical subject; it is still generally treated as a footnote or aberration of history.
Many studies of the Witch-Craze have, however, been published in the last two decades; in general, their focus is on perpetrators rather than on victims. All sorts of rationales are offered as to why "normal" people went so witch-crazy. Various books posit all kinds of different solutions for that dilemma, from physical causes to cultural, and all points in between.
However, to paraphrase author and physician M. Scott Peck, nothing of significance has but one root cause. There is a tendency to study the vast, sprawling topic of the European witch hunts as an isolated subject, rather than in historical context. It is not really possible to fully understand them without also considering other concurrent historical events:
*The persecution of landless minorities in Europe: Jews, Romany, and Salamis.
*Continued efforts to eradicate all vestiges of Pagan tradition.
*Unresolved issues stemming from, often forced, conversion to Christianity.
*The emotional and psychological impact of the Black Death and other deadly plagues.
*The imposition of feudalism in some parts of Europe and the development of a professional class in others.
*The denigration and demonization of an entire gender.
How many people died in the Witch-Craze? Figures offered range from as low as the tens of thousands to as many as nine million.
Those victims who died during the interrogation process may or may not be counted alongside those who perished during documented executions. Not all executions were documented. Sometimes records of convictions of witchcraft exist with no further information regarding eventual punishment.
Witch panics possessed regional characteristics:
*In Russia, there was no "witch hunt" per se; however those attending at court were frequently accused of using witchcraft for political purposes or to harm the royal family.
*In Transylvania, wives and female relatives of political competitors were targeted.
*In Hungary, practitioners of shamanism were targeted.
*In German lands, wealthy people were particularly vulnerable to charges of witchcraft as if convicted land and assets were confiscated by witch hunters.
*In France, a series of highly publicized cases involved demonic possession of nuns within convents, usually with a priest charged as perpetrator.
*Credit to Judika Illes
This is true not only of witches, however, but of any specialist. Although it's a rare occurrence, every once in a while one does hear of a physician who has forsaken the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm but instead emerges as a secret, malevolent Angel of Death. However, those rare occurrences have not caused prejudice against physicians among the general public, nor have they caused "physician hysteria": the panic-stricken fear that every physician is secretly committed to causing only harm.
Likewise, in many traditional societies, it's recognized that although the occasional witch or shaman may become corrupt, the majority are responsible, ethical professionals. Most traditional societies have ago-old legal mechanisms in place for magickal practitioners perceived as malefactors, but this does not reflect negatively on the greater community of magickal practitioners, or does this constitute a "witch panic".
A witch panic is characterized by an absolutely hysterical, irrational, fear of witchcraft and witches. A witch doesn't have to cause harm for others to fear and persecute her. In fact, they may not have to be a witch at all.: the key word in "witch hysteria" or "witch panic" is not the first but the second. Witch panics are characterized by a crazed terror that there is a secret conspiracy of witches, a fifth column that seeks to undermine society and cause harm to individuals. No need to wait for the witches to prove they mean no harm; in a witch-craze, authorities search out any possible link to witchcraft and attempt to terminate it mercilessly.
Although witch panics existed earlier and still exist today, in some parts of Earth, the term "Witch-Craze" historically refers to a specific era of European history, also called the "Burning Times".
Although the European Witch-Craze lasted hundreds of years, covering most of the continent as well as colonies in the Western Hemisphere and claimed as victims, at a minimum, thousand of people, until recently it was a relatively obscure historical subject; it is still generally treated as a footnote or aberration of history.
Many studies of the Witch-Craze have, however, been published in the last two decades; in general, their focus is on perpetrators rather than on victims. All sorts of rationales are offered as to why "normal" people went so witch-crazy. Various books posit all kinds of different solutions for that dilemma, from physical causes to cultural, and all points in between.
However, to paraphrase author and physician M. Scott Peck, nothing of significance has but one root cause. There is a tendency to study the vast, sprawling topic of the European witch hunts as an isolated subject, rather than in historical context. It is not really possible to fully understand them without also considering other concurrent historical events:
*The persecution of landless minorities in Europe: Jews, Romany, and Salamis.
*Continued efforts to eradicate all vestiges of Pagan tradition.
*Unresolved issues stemming from, often forced, conversion to Christianity.
*The emotional and psychological impact of the Black Death and other deadly plagues.
*The imposition of feudalism in some parts of Europe and the development of a professional class in others.
*The denigration and demonization of an entire gender.
How many people died in the Witch-Craze? Figures offered range from as low as the tens of thousands to as many as nine million.
Those victims who died during the interrogation process may or may not be counted alongside those who perished during documented executions. Not all executions were documented. Sometimes records of convictions of witchcraft exist with no further information regarding eventual punishment.
Witch panics possessed regional characteristics:
*In Russia, there was no "witch hunt" per se; however those attending at court were frequently accused of using witchcraft for political purposes or to harm the royal family.
*In Transylvania, wives and female relatives of political competitors were targeted.
*In Hungary, practitioners of shamanism were targeted.
*In German lands, wealthy people were particularly vulnerable to charges of witchcraft as if convicted land and assets were confiscated by witch hunters.
*In France, a series of highly publicized cases involved demonic possession of nuns within convents, usually with a priest charged as perpetrator.
*Credit to Judika Illes
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