Village Infernos and Witches’ Advocates: Witch-Hunting in Navarre, 1608–1614 (Iberian Encounter and Exchange, 475–1755)

254 Pages·2022·95.006 MB·English

by  Lu Ann Homza

V I L L A G E I N F E R N O S A N D
W I T C H E S ' A D V O C A T E S
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Las Cinco Villas
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Bera
Lesaka
Etxalar
Zabaldika.
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Arantza
•
Vito ria
Valle de Baztan
Elizondo
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Key witch-hunting sites, 1608-14
IBERIAN ENCOUNTER
I
AND EXCHANGE
475-1755 I Vol. 5
SERIES EDITORS ADVISORY BOARD
Erin Kathleen Rowe Paul H. Freedman
Michael A. Ryan Richard Kagan
The Pennsylvania State University Marie Kelleher
Press Ricardo Padron
Teo.filo F. Ruiz
Marta V. Vicente
The Iberian Peninsula has
historically been an area of the
world that fostered encounters and
OTHER TITLES IN THIS SERIES
exchanges among peoples from Thomas W. Barton, Contested
different societies. For centuries, Treasure: jews and Authority in the
Iberia acted as a nexus for the Crown ofA ragon
circulation of ideas, people, objects,
Mercedes Garcia-Arenal and Gerard
and technology around the pre
Wiegers, eds., Polemical Encounters:
modern western Mediterranean,
Christians, jews, and Muslims in
Atlantic, and eventually, the Pacific.
Iberia and Beyond
Iberian Encounter and Exchange,
475-I755, combines a broad Nicholas R. Jones, Staging Habla de
thematic scope with the territorial negros: Radical Performances oft he
limits of the Iberian Peninsula and African Diaspora in Early Modern
its global contacts. In doing so, Spain
works in this series will juxtapose
Freddy Cristobal Dominguez,
previously disparate areas of study
Radicals in Exile: English Catholic
and challenge scholars to rethink
Books During the Reign of Phillip I I
the role of encounter and exchange
in the formation of the modern
world.
'
1608-1614
WITCH-HUNTING IN NAVARRE,
LU ANN HOMZA
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Homza, Lu Ann, 1958- author.
Title: Village infernos and witches' advocates : witch-hunting in Navarre, 1608-1614 j
Lu Ann Homza.
Other titles : Iberian encounter and exchange, 475-1755 ; vol. 5·
I
Description: University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, [2022]
I
Series: Iberian encounter and exchange, 475-1755 ; vol. 5 Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Summary: revisionist account of the Spanish witch-hunt that took place in northern
''A
Navarre from 16o8 to 1614. Combines new readings of the Inquisitional evidence with
archival finds from non-Inquisitional sources, including local secular and religious courts,
and from notarial and census records" Provided by publisher.
I
Identifiers: LCCN 2021047879 ISBN 9780271091815 (cloth)
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Subjects: LCSH: Witch hunting Spain Navarre History 17th century. Inquisition
I
Spain Navarre History 17th century. Witchcraft Spain Navarre History-
17th century.
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Classification: LCC BF1584.S7 H66 2022 DDC 203/·32094652 dc23
LC record available at https :jjlccn.loc.govj2o21047879
Copyright © 2022 Lu Ann Homza
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 168o2-1003
The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of University Presses.
It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications
on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for
Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ANSI Z39-48-1992.
Contents
• •
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Vll
Introduction r
I Trauma 19
2
Spiritual and Social Combat 51
3
Legal Decisions, Legal Errors 87
4
Collaboration, Obedience, Resistance 123
5
Transgressions and Solutions 153
r85
Epilogue
191
NOTES
225
BIBLIOGRAPHY
235
INDEX

Acknowledgments
This project has taken a startlingly long time to complete because the sources
wouldn't stop coming. Like my predecessors who studied this witch hunt,
I too began with materials from the Spanish Inquisition and focused on
Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frias. My original ambition was to understand
Salazar as a Catholic lawyer and inquisitor in seventeenth-century Spain:
whereas earlier scholars had highlighted his possible links to modernity, my
initial aim was to restore him to his early modern environment. Everyone
knew that the inquisition's trial records of the witch-defendants in this per
secution had been lost when Napoleon's forces burned down the relevant
inquisition tribunal in r8o8. We all believed that the most important pri
mary sources were contained in an enormous dossier of inquisition materi
als in Madrid's Archivo Hist6rico Nacional, which famed researcher Gustav
Henningsen had discovered in r967. Thanks to James Amelang, Maria Jose
del Rio, Erin K. Rowe, Alison P. Weber, and Richard L. Kagan, I was able
to present some initial findings at Madrid's U niversidad Aut6noma, the
University of Virginia, and Johns Hopkins University. I was heartened by
the encouragement I received in those settings.
Then, I took a train to Pamplona, and the archives there changed the
scope of this study. In that wonderful city, I found innumerable records tied
to this witch hunt in two legal jurisdictions beyond the Spanish Inquisition:
namely, the royal, secular court system, as well as the episcopal court over
seen by Pamplona's bishop. Notarial documents also held fascinating texts
that reflected the witch hunt's progress and effects. Extraordinary experts
direct the two main archives in Pamplona. They are invested in the high
est scholarly goals, happy to welcome researchers, and generous by default.
It is such a pleasure to thank them here for their support; I treasure them
as colleagues. In the Archivo Diocesano de Pamplona (ADP), I am beyond
grateful for the insights and friendship of archivists Don Jose Luis Sales Ti
rapu and Teresa Alzugaray. In the Archivo Real y General de Navarra (AGN),
archivist Peio J. Monteano Sorbet has been a constant resource for demog
raphy, Basque phrases, community norms, and basically everything relating
to early modern Navarre. Peio read this manuscript from start to finish to
help me manage the gap between early modern orthography and modern
Basque spellings that readers today would recognize. Felix Segura Urra,
Miriam Etxeberria, and Berta Elcano of the AG N have consistently encour
aged my work. Professor Jesus M. Usunariz Garayoa kindly facilitated my
introduction to the Universidad de Navarra. Pamplona friends Pilar Lopez
de Goicoechea and Mary Zacher have enthusiastically supported this project
from the beginning.
Much of the research for this book occurred while I was the dean for
educational policy at William & Mary, and I<ate Conley, then Dean of Arts
and Sciences, supported the project in every conceivable way. Karin Wulf
has expressed faith in my work for years; Teresa Longo has been a long
term ally. Ron Schechter applauded archival finds. Tuska Benes read an early
version of the introduction, with helpful suggestions. Nicholas Popper read
the entire study and told me with only a hint of irony that I had to say what
the evidence meant. Thanks to Elizabeth Wright, Benjamin Ehlers, Daniel
Wasserman-Soler, and Daniel Bornstein, I shared later research results at
the University of Georgia, Alma College, and Washington University in St.
Louis. Audiences there reinforced the sense that I was on a good track, which
helped counterbalance the experience of having work rejected by three jour
nals in a row. Jan Machielsen has generously shared his research on Pierre
de Lancre and has looked over mine; he is a comrade, as is everyone else
named in these acknowledgments.
Kimberly Lynn laughed with me over my inquisitors' idiosyncrasies and
helped me locate crucial legal theory about revocations of confessions before
Spanish inquisitors. Celeste I. McNamara postponed her own book revisions
to read drafted sections of this study: she offered forceful commentary and
pushed me to deepen my arguments. Amanda L. Scott provided constant
precious feedback, frequently at a moment's notice, and urged me on. These
women set research standards that I have tried hard to follow.
• • •
Vlll ACKNOWLEDGMENTS