I think, now that it’s halloween, that it is important to remember the real witches: the herbalists and healers that got turned into evil creatures by christianism, and the people that suffered and got murdered after being accused of witchcraft.
In 1609 Henry IV of France commissioned judge Pierre de Lancre to put an end to the “witch plague” in the french side of the Basque Country.
Since he didn’t understand basque,after interrogating locals, he reached the conclusion that there was over 3000 witches in the area.
The panic of the accusations spread and reached the spanish side of the basque country, and a new hotspot for witchcraft was supposedly in the little village of Zugarramurdi, where hundreds of women, men and children were accused of being witches. Many people were tortured and jail for years, some without even knowing why.
In the Auto-da-fé of 1610 carried on by the Spanish Inquisition, 6 women were burned alive, 5 were burned in effigy because they died during the tortures, and 18 got spared after confessing.
Basque “sorginak” weren’t treated as witches until the arrival of christianism to the basque country. The first clear documentation of basque “witches” is from 1415, where two women were were accused as “sorginas erboleras et faytilleras” (herbalist and witch sorginak).
The sterotype of “witch” was however set after the publication of Malleus Malleficarum in 1484, after which they were accused of having done pacts with the devil,being able to fly, and having evil powers. The Inquisition decided they were dangerous and should be eliminated.
“…if during the torture the accused died or was wounded, or if blood was shed or he was mutilated, it is his fault, and not ours, for not wanting to tell the truth”
