The Witches Flying and The Spanish Inquisitors, or How To Explain Away The Impossible

The Witches' Flying and the Spanish Inquisitors, or How to Explain (Away) the Impossible
[1]
Author(s): Gustav Henningsen
Source: Folklore, Vol. 120, No. 1 (April 2009), pp. 57-74
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.
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Folklore 120 (April 2009): 57-74
RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Witches' Flying and the Spanish

Inquisitors, or How to Explain (Away)
the Impossible [1]
Gustav Henningsen
Abstract
The first part of this paper presents four old Spanish explanations of the witches'
flying: (1) that (with the Devil's help) they actually did fly; (2) that the experience
of flying was the result of narcotic stimulation; (3) that their flying was pure
imagination - methodologically demonstrated in the investigations of the Spanish
inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frias; and (4) that they fly by means of the soul. The
latter, although strongly rejected by the Church, remained the most popular
opinion. The second part discusses the flying of the Sicilian donni difori ["women
from outside"] of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These were cunning
women who served as mediators between the local community and the fairy
world. On their nightly excursions "in spirit" they would enter the houses with
the fairies, who bestowed their blessing on the homes. Or they would join the
fairies in a sort of "white sabbath" where everything was reflective of beauty and
delight. In the last part, the author describes his encounter with a contemporary
Sicilian "night-goer" who claimed to be able to travel "in spirit." In the concluding
discussion, the author asserts that none of the rationalistic approaches used so far
leads to a full understanding of the phenomenon. In his reconstruction of the
Sicilian fairy cult, the author leaves open the possibility of out-of-the-body
experiences and collective dreaming (rêve a deux) being potential explanations for
the phenomenon.
Four Old Theories
Witchcraft has always been controversial to the western mind because it involves
human individuals engaged in impossible activities, such as flying, shape-
shifting, and making oneself invisible. The mediaeval Church condemned belief in
witchcraft, considering it to be pagan superstition. "Who is there," asks the Canon
Episcopi, "that is not led out of himself in dreams and nocturnal visions, and sees
much when sleeping, which he has never seen when awake?" The famous code
continues with the question: "Who is so stupid and foolish as to think that all these
things which are only done in spirit, happen in the body" (quoted in Kors and
Peters 1972, 29-31). [2]
For reasons that are still not very clear, the Church changed its mind and came
to accept witchcraft as a diabolic reality. The change occurred in the decades
around 1400 and paved the way for the prosecution in the courts of people
regarded as witches. This was the beginning of the European witch persecution,
ISSN 0015-587X print; 1469-8315 online/09/010057-18; Routledge Journals; Taylor & Francis
© 2009 The Folklore Society
DOI: 10.1080/00155870802647833
58 Gustav Henningsen
which, in some regions, w

There were, however, sect
towards the existence of wit
In Spain, especially, there
witchcraft that dated back t
bishop of Cuenca in 1469. Fr
he also rejected the idea of t
Any man must consider what be
many places at the same time, an
Do they leave their bodies behind o
they leave their bodies, for the t
soul to leave the body when it wi
them either. For all bodies have t
to pass through spaces which hav
house through crannies or small
and enter the houses to suck childr
In other words, what the bi

train of Diana, but rather ev
fifteenth century, were alr
ation of the Castillans - to b
In 1526, the Council of the
cases of alleged witchcraft
during the remainder of the
of witchcraft, except in a few
control (Henningsen 1980, 22f
of the epoch-making instruc
experiment with a flying w
from that same year. The re
Navarre, who described in
being carried out with a w
Pyrenean village. 'One Friday
was/7 he reports, and goes on
soldiers and local men who w
. . . put her into an inner ch
. . . and she anointed herself in h
window which was in a high place
in pieces. And then she called upo
carried her nearly to the ground
corporal with one of his soldiers
men, terrified to see such a thing,
this the Devil disappeared, and so
that place I found her, and seven
lay very deep around (Caro Baro
This source document, of w

Nacional (MSS 883 and 1012
the Inquisition until recen
(Caro Baroja 1933, 92-102) an
The Witches' Flying and the Spanish Inquisitors 59
brujas [The World of the Witches] (1961, 214-20). However, the aut
report must be regarded as being doubtful, as my examination of
the Spanish Inquisition has shown that there was no inquisitor in
name of Avellaneda (Henningsen 1980, 464, note 37; 1992, 175f; co
1990, 262, note 17).
Another experiment with regard to the phenomenon of the flyi
carried out by the Spanish doctor, Andres Laguna, who, in 1545, w
service of the Duke of Lorraine. While there, he got hold of a gre
evil-smelling ointment that had been discovered in the hut of two
who were on trial. Dr Laguna decided to try out the ointment on one o
the wife of the city executioner, who suffered from insomnia. As
rubbed it all over her body, she fell into a deep sleep during which
thousand extraordinary things. As Laguna later wrote in the ann
translation of Dioscorides's Matéria Medica, this brought him to th
witches do not really move, but only fly and attend their meetings
(Suárez de Ribera 1733, vol. 1, 68-70). [3] Dr Laguna's experime
become a commonplace in the witchcraft discussions of the Spani
In 1610, however, during the famous trial against the witches of
the Inquisition Council deviated from its normal practice by confi
sentences of six witches found guilty of the crime of witchcraft.
inquisitors of Logrono, which in the meantime had become t
Inquisition for Navarra and the Basque-speaking provinces, had
be influenced by the French judges who were involved in a large-s
on the other side of the Pyrenees. The Spanish inquisitors had even
from the French judge, Pierre de Lancre, who did not for a mom
reality of witchcraft (Lancre 1613, 143f; compare Henningsen 1980
Not long afterwards, however, the Council realised that the bur
had been a serious mistake, and returned to its old policy mention
the sad affair of Logrono, therefore, no witch was burned b
Inquisition, in Spain, or in the Spanish dependencies in Italy and
This did not mean, however, that a stop had been put to witchcr
trials; on the contrary, their numbers had increased although th
had been abandoned. Thus, during the ninety years from 1610 to 1
that the Spanish Inquisition held more than five thousand witch
That Spain did not join the general European trend and start to
number of people found guilty of being witches was due, to a gre
youngest of the inquisitors in Logrono - Alonso de Salazar Frias,
Canon Law at the Universities of Salamanca and Sigüenza. Af
sentences in 1610, the Council entrusted him with the task of
thorough investigation in order to provide firm evidence of the
witch sect in the Basque country. After nine months in the field, duri
he personally interrogated hundreds of supposed witches, Sala
findings to the General Inquisitor, and his conclusions were quite
those times. These were in his own wording: (1) "I have not foun
even the slightest indication, from which to infer that an act of
actually taken place," and (2) "I have observed that there were
nor bewitched in a village until they were talked and written abo
2004, 340 and 342).
In Salazar 's report there i

witches set out for, are pre
2004, 270-81 = Salazar Docum
is a statistical analysis of th
formulated by the inquisitio
people claimed that "it was a
they departed for the sabbat
awake and before they had
according to Salazar, consiste
groups answered that they
journey, while present at th
awake" (SD 12.1). The repor
being witches claimed that
although on a few occasion
wont to go in the form of a h
of a raven" (SD 12.2). In a
bedchamber, most of the s
through some chink or hole,
out through the door and do
same manner (SD 12.3).
One hundred and eight wit
not they met with or spoke
that they had never come ac
not heard human or animal s
had not observed any lights.
was snowing or raining at t
Indeed it is remarkable that in a vi
they have never come across the
chamber from which they depart,
who has seen what takes place. It
accomplices leaving the same bed
Salazar 's conclusion to the

sabbath is that:
The Devil only deludes those . . . who think that they have been absent, without this ever
happening, in order that the deceived should speak in good faith, and ... be believed when
they say they have seen at their sabbath other people, whom they subsequently denounce
(SD 12.9).
Salazar also tried to investigate the so-called witches' ointment. No fewer than
twenty-two jars containing ointment came to light, but these were proved to contain
nothing but "false, faked and fraudulent" materials. On closer examination, the
alleged witches who had come forward with the jars admitted to having prepared
the substances themselves using various worthless ingredients, in order to satisfy
their persecutors (SD 12.50, compare Henningsen 1980, 297-300).
We have now met with four theories about the witches' flying: (1) that (with the
Devil's help) they actually did fly; (2) that the flying was imaginary and the result
of narcotic stimulation; (3) that the imaginary flying was subsequently confused
with reality; and (4) that they actually do fly by means of the soul, th
body behind as an empty shell. The latter theory, as we have seen
on theological grounds, by the bishop of Cuenca, Lope de B
notwithstanding this it remained the most popular opinion as
were said to fly. We have also seen examples of how Spanish intel
the problem, and how the Spanish Inquisition had already ta
attitude to the existence of witchcraft in the early sixteenth cen
discuss below a special case that gave the Spanish inquisitors p
about, and which indeed continues to be enigmatic to the pr
referring to the Sicilian "women from outside/' le donne difuori (in Si
fort), or donas defuera, as they were called by the Spanish inquis
where their tribunal was being held (cf. Figure 1).
Figure 1. Auto defe on 6 April 1724 at the Cathedral Square of Palermo. Under the canop
important officials and ecclesiastics of the town, and in the middle, four steps up, the th
opposite stand, the accused heretics are awaiting their turn to be taken down to the floo
sentence read aloud from the rostrum, with all its embarrassing details. Engraving in a pr
published the same year by Antonino Mongitore (Mongitore 1724).
The Sicilian Fairy Cult

One reason for the sceptical
might be the fact that the p
Iberian peninsula. It was t
explained in terms of sorcer
did not fly to nightly gath
houses of their neighbours to
sorcery to exercise the mag
(Henningsen 1993, 72-4). A
witchcraft and sorcery wer
only was mentioned for the
with regard to the southern
and in Sicily, there were ma
were thought to be able to
power of flying, curing, an
deal from the so-called ev
For these magical agents wer
Italy because they were tho
world and that of the fairie
skilled in the curing of illne
known as a "woman from o
meanings: (1) fairy and (2) f
The existence of Sicilian fair
where it occurs in a verna
Vasallo (dated 1450-70). He
"whether they believe in th
women walk by night (e k
century later, however, befo
In November 1587, the inqui
Inquisition in order to inf
fisherman's wife, who was
and she had been arrested
Holy Office to cure sick peop
to its superiors in Madrid
Ludovico a Paramo, [5] wer
hearings: "If what this woman
witches has come into being
lib. 879, fol. 117r-v).
The conclusion reached by t
trial summary of the wom
sabbath without devils, with
usually associated with suc
told of beauty and delight.
"ensign" at its head, rode on b
palmos - that is, half a metr
a country called Benevento which
was a great plain there on which st
young man and on the other a beautiful woman who was said to be the Queen
King. The first time she went there ... [6] the ensign and the other women of
that she must kneel and worship this king and queen, and do everything they
to do, because they could help her and give her wealth, beauty and young m
make love. And they told her that she must not worship God or Our Lady. Th
swear on a book with big letters that she would worship the other two . . . th
the Queen as Our Lady, and promise them her body and soul . . . And after sh
them like this, they set out tables, ate and drank and danced, and after that the
women and with her and made love to them many times over a short period
196f; author's translation).
The fisherman's wife explained to the inquisitors that all of this

be taking place in a dream, for when she awoke she always foun
She went on to say that she did not know in the beginning that
devilment, until her confessor explained to her that it was the D
cause of these things, and forbade her to attend the event she spo
this admonition, however, she went on doing it until her arrest
that she went out joyfully because of the carnal pleasure [el goz
and also because they (the King and Queen) gave her remedies for
so that she could earn a little, for she had always been poor. She a
had taken her little daughter to the sabbath a couple of times, bu
not like it she stopped taking her with her (AHN, Inq., lib. 898, 43
auto, 24.8.1588, no. 22).
Unfortunately, we cannot find out how the inquisitors questio
and the other fairy doctors who, over the next century, we
Palermo. All of the original trial records were burned in 1782 (Hen
and our only sources now are the trial summaries and the corre
the Council's archives in Madrid. As for the confession of the fish
may, however, notice two things: (1) that it was rather atypical for t
doctors to attend the sabbath at Benevento, so this might indicat
the inquisitors' questioning; and (2) that, even so, the woman's r
the general impression of a positive and pleasurable exp
characterises most of the reports of the other fairy doctors.
The typical sabbath in Sicily, according to the accounts, w
company of fairies and human beings touring a town at nig
entering houses "like a breath of air." If there was a party in prog
eat and drink without being seen. In the houses of rich people,
the clothes-chests and dress themselves in garments they found
were small children in the house, they would take them out of
with them, and then put them back again with their blessing. (We
the witches, the fairies and their human associates were fond of children and
never harmed them in any way.)
Sometimes, a member of the company who was a fairy doctor would take them
to the house of a patient, where a special table with delicacies for fairies had been
prepared, in order to make them cure the patient by taking away their curse. When
they came into a house singing their songs, playing their music, and dressed in
fine clothes, their greeting would be "With God's blessing, let the dance grow."
And when they left to go somewhere else, their departure salutation was "Stop the
dance, and let prosperity grow." The fairy doctors would have advised their
clients in advance to have th

they might not bestow thei
town, they would ride throu
doctors conducted their noc
avoided Friday, the day Our
travelled on Tuesdays, Thur
In the course of confessi
accused were obliged to ad
demonolatry, and a few of
descriptions of black sabbat
these "witches," they had
declared, just as the fisher
known there was anything w
inquisitors had explained it
their fairies from serious
demons, afraid of the Cro
mediators with the fair
The inquisitors were outrag
that people continued to v
were serving their sentence
Their clients obviously still
in prison (AHN, Inq., lib. 90
As I have already discusse
context in previous public
1991/2, 293-304; 2008, 35-7)
that are rather unique in my
extent, as the accused usually
such behaviour under tortur
stories in these cases reflected
just accounts they told their f
a reputation as mediators wi
One of the famous Sicilia
Calandrino of Alcamo, a lay s
was denounced to the Inquis
of her patients died (AHN, Inq
I shall not go into details here
the stories with which she entertained her clients. She would state:
When I go with the women from outside to visit far away countries and towns, they dress me
up with a gold cloth and put some slippers on me, and we do not enter by the doors but through
the corners of the houses. And these women have a God whom they worship, and he [sic]
stands with his breast outside and they go and suck at the breasts (ibid., fol. 518v).
(The hermaphroditic god of the witches is unparalleled in my material, and maybe

due to a slip of the clerk's pen.)
She also stated that on a certain occasion she had lost two of her teeth because the
place to which they were travelling was so cold {ibid., fol. 519r), but this may best
be classified as a tall tale. Some of the witnesses testified that Catarina had
invited them to come with her: "I shall show you as many countr
she assured them, and when they asked how she was going t
answered: "I shall put you on a billy-goat, and once you are m
tight, and follow the company, and do not be afraid" (ibid., fol. 52
Catarina also described an ointment she had obtained from the fairies and with
which she cured people, especially small children. She stated that a certain fairy
king, el rey Cuco, gave them money, which they passed on to the women who
nursed the children (ibid., fol. 519v).
When examined by the inquisitors, soror Catarina continued to tell them about
her wonderful experiences. She explained to them that she had been introduced
into the Company by a certain woman named Vicencia (who was arrested and to
whom we shall return later). Vicencia had taken her along so that she could see the
Company of the Romans, and the Company had carried her, dressed in Franciscan
damask [damasco francisquino ] (that is, damask woven by the Franciscan nuns) and
with a towel on her head, suspended in the air, to some gardens. And when they
brought her back to her house, they took off the fine dress and returned her
ordinary one to her. On their nightly excursions, the mistress of Vicencia, whom
they called dona Inguanta, went in front of them with a torch that lighted the way
for them, but this light was invisible to other people (ibid., fols. 519r-21v).
During one of the hearings, the nun went on to tell about a certain occasion,
when the aforesaid Vicencia came and told her that the Company of the Romans
had arrived in a galley with other people from Malta, and had disembarked in a
place near Alcamo, where she and Vicencia should go to see them. When they
arrived at a plain they saw a group of men and women in beautiful clothes,
dancing hand in hand in a long chain, to the sound of music and songs, which
Catarina spoke about to the inquisitors (but, unfortunately, the summary of the
lost trial-record contains no details of these songs). On their arrival, Catarina and
Vicencia were also dressed up in fine clothes and, together with the others, they
entered into a grand palace with a beautiful garden, all of which, they were told,
belonged to the Grand Master of Malta. Before they had lunch, the members of the
Company sat down and read from a little prayer book, and those who could not
read were asked to recite the Ave, Paternoster, Creed, and Salve Regina.
The superior of the group, who was called dona Zabela (Isabela), sat at the top of
the table, while the other members, who numbered about twenty-six or twenty-
seven people, sat at both sides of it. After the meal, they started singing and
dancing, and when the evening came they washed each other, the men and the
women being in different places. During the washing, Catarina, out of curiosity,
touched the bodies of some of the women and felt that their flesh was soft. She also
noted that they all had small tails, and that dona Zabela's tail was longer than the
others (ibid., fol. 519v).
Catarina continued to tell how she was given a certain woman as a bedmate.
They swore to each other on a book with pictures of Santa Marta and Maria
Magdalena that they would be sisters in Christ. And when they slept together they
kissed and said love words to each other. Octaviana, as the woman was called, had
a small tail like a pig's, and when Catarina asked her how she got it, she explained
that she was born with it. She also told her that the midwife had wanted to cut off
the tail at birth, but an aunt of Octaviana's had stopped her, explaining to the
midwife that if she cut off the tail that she would kill the baby. Octaviana also tried
to persuade the nun to put

refused, because her mistres
would be compelled to walk
Up to that point, the inquisit
confessions of Catarina. But
than three years - they ended
all the beautiful fairy experi
had abjured her Christian f
turned out to be a demon, w
intercourse with her. The in
nun's beautiful fairy fantas
Octaviana was a demon and h
story describing how the fa
breakfast in bed and made gr
in her honour. Finally, on 13
(cf. Figure 2) where her cas
and perpetual confinement i
At the same time as Catarin
the trials of two of her so-
was Vicencia, her mistress, a
everything, and who was c
without confessing. The o
She explained to the inquisit
woman telling a tale about a
woman named Draga - and
This tale she had also told her
it. Neither of the two cases
since it finally, in July 1627
(AHN, Inq., lib., 900, 391r-96
Fifteen years later, in 1638,
with a new complex of ca
"night-goers'7 as not all of
Terranova in western Sicily
monastery of Carmen (AH
9.9.1640, nos. 47-9, 53 and 56
already obtained a confessio
prostitute named Gracia. On
during which he had been te
why he looked so abused, a
"Wish to God that it be so an
se va dicendo ]," she answere
A fortnight later he again m
tell him something in secret
him that the truth about th
molested by the witches. Th
her, but she insisted that su
said about these matters was
woman had invited her to
Figure 2. "Una striga [a witch] in Palermo," is the caption of this sketch by Anthony van
small auto defe on 19 May 1624, in the church of Saint Dominic. The "witch" can be identifie
Felipa la Calabria of Palermo. She was to appear at the auto defe with the symbols of a so
cornet-shaped cap. This is probably the only entirely authentic picture of a "witch" conv
persecution. From the painter's Italian sketch-book (British Museum).
being assured that there was n

agreed to go with her. The w
under her dress, as these w
The following night when
touching her arm and, be
there?" - "It's me, you fool,
that name again." The girl a
but the woman lied and said
got dressed, and when they
standing there waiting for th
said, "Let's go to the conven
they found themselves in hi
persuaded them to stop. Wh
and off they went to anothe
"Hurry up, devil!" and "Ho
afraid, but the mistress kep
name that she had spoken be
the Lord Mayor and, leaving
locked doors, and they foun
embrace. Just at the moment
a deep sigh, and one of the c
husband. Another one of the t
Lord Mayor and his wife, an
and placed it on the floor. T
and placed her on the pillow
on her secret parts, while en
put her back into the bed. Fro
the house of a woman of the
they gave her many caresses
recommending her to the oth
was a virgin. Finally, they lef
road the goats disappeared an
rest of the way on foot and r
81v-3r, compare 89r-90r an
This, more or less, was the
Gracia revoked her confessi
that declaration to the local
that the prior had tried to
whereupon he had promise
witness, a priest, had taken he
a new mistress, she had gon
116r-v). Her mistress and ac
denied all the accusations, ev
that she actually worked as
her to three years in prison
year-old woman named Vice
herself by accusing the prior
sex with another priest, wh
abandoned her. The inquisitors apparently took the accusations s

they examined a long list of witnesses about the reputation of t
they were found to be completely innocent of the charges. On th
examinations produced new evidence against Vicencia, who w
boasting of going out with the witches. She was finally tortured,
it without confessing, and was banished for a period of two years (ib
Young Gracia, on the other hand, could not withstand the torture
her original confession was true, and explained that she had tried
falsely accusing the prior of the various matters. She was sentenc
banishment (ibid., fol. 117r).
The fascinating description of the three women's night-flying
suggestive that it evokes speculation about collective dreaming, th
deux, but there is a natural explanation. In her first interrogation
inquisitors about a mental illness which she had suffered shortly
She had been espiritada ["possessed"], and during that period she
scandalous things that she now had forgotten. She continued to de
worried about being taken to the Holy Office because of wh
circulating about her and the occurrences in his cell during the ni
imagination and foolishness on his part, for he was a raving lunatic (i
How to Explain the Sicilian Case

When considering these, and many other cases, it is tempting t
women's gossip and superstitious fantasies. This was probably w
inquisitors did with most of them, although, in their view, supers
of heresy and had to be punished in an exemplary fashion. When
through ethnographic lenses, however, it becomes evident that
reports of an old belief system, which apparently functioned qui
end of the seventeenth century, and, therefore, require to be tak
system cannot be explained in terms of shamanism, as no t
whatsoever is discernible in the material. We also hear that the Sic
and night-goers were said to travel together in groups - three n
something quite unheard of in shamanistic belief systems. In add
situation of just having dreams in the normal sense of the word
nevertheless, arises as to how it was possible for fairy doctors an
have these dreams on command, so to speak. Another aspect
addressed is how they were able to meet with the other members
and have dream visions in the fairy world, which they later, whe
human world, seem to have discussed almost endlessly? Some of t
admitted during the hearing that their journeys into the fairy w
hearted inventions told to impress their clients. There are, of cou
of fake-shamans in shamanistic cultures, who tell stories th
experienced themselves, because they are not able to "travel" by
spirit. But just as a shamanistic system cannot exist without peop
of making authentic soul-journeys, it is hard to imagine how a f
Sicilian one, could have maintained itself unless some of the media
least in their own imagination, to go out with the fairies three
come back and tell about their wonderful experiences. The few
this paper bear witness to the

in the folklore of Early Mod
new personal experiences,
mentality. The fairy cult p
individuals, with archaic wo
into a trance sleep, in which
It is perhaps only in this w
many accounts by fairy doc
place in an otherworld, inclu
to penetrate buildings thr
mentality as the psychologic
a better understanding of t
and outside Europe. The w
impossibility and therefore t
and manipulations of data, co
cultural dreams. If we imagine
sabbath and the delights of
Europe, we could well reach
persecutions and the transfo
Interviewing a Sicilian "Nig

To develop my hypothesis in
exclusively on historical m
research on living traditions
conduct experiments. In thi
Figure 3. Marzia (with dark glasses)

interpreter during the interview
in Europe where fieldwork of this type can be carried out, pa

Balkan area and in Southern Italy (compare Pocs 1989 and 1999).
Thus, even in present-day Sicily, traces of an archaic men
discernible. During a visit there in 1985, when I was assiste
Elsa Guggino of the University of Palermo, I had the opportunity
an extraordinary woman (see Figure 3). She was a fifty-year-old
in a mountain village south of Palermo, where she had a gift sh
was called, [10] claimed to have travelled all over the wo
(compare Guggino 1978, 125-7). "During the flight, the bod
usual place, for it is the spirit that flies [dó ehe vola è lo spirito ]," sh
and then she continued telling us about a big feast "they" gav
every autumn in India. On her way to India, when she was passing
of Greece, she used to see another woman also flying in spirit.
She also explained that her family could hear her snore when s
home," for normally she did not do so. They would take care no
because if they did the spirit could not then find its way b
conversation, she was from time to time molested by some burp
explained, was the work of the spirit who disliked her telling us a
In spite of her "spirit," however, she continued the interview
thought of the "spirit" as a foreign being in her body, a kind of poss
have been interesting to question her about the relationship betwe
spirit, but I was not on confident enough terms with her for such
What she did tell us was the following childhood memory, whic
having eidetic ability: When she was going to bed she always looke
movies that presented themselves on the ceiling of the bedchamb
Among the experiences she told us about was the following
remarkable by beginning in the human world and continuing in t
Once she quarrelled with a young man in the neighbourhood wh
"practiced black magic," and the man said to her: "If I meet y
crossroads I will tear you into pieces!" One night (some time late
out in spirit) she met the same man, together with his mother-in
spirit. As the man prepared to attack her, his mother-in-law stop
"Don't you see, that we must be three to go out, but she is able
(that is, that she was much stronger than them).
This living magical healer does not believe in the fairi
notwithstanding, a night-goer, and might, therefore, help in
understand the flying attributed to the historical witches. It is still n
me, however, how this controversial phenomenon can be explain
academic practice in such cases is to ignore, or explain away, what
our present scientific knowledge. Another way of managing t
consider everything as folk narratives, for in the realm of fanta
possible. A third way is to regard the accounts of night flying a
visions of mentally ill persons, something that was actually conf
situation in one of the individual cases discussed above. Still, n
other rationalistic approaches like them, leads us to an understand
complex of rituals and beliefs.
In my reconstruction of the Sicilian fairy cult I have endea
the widest possible explanation of the tradition, despite knowing
out-of-the-body experiences
cation [rêve a deux], are
impossibilities, and theref
flying. But perhaps some da
part of a psychological reali
Abbreviations
AHN, Inq. = Archivo histórico Nacional, Inquisición.

SD = The Salazar Documents (Henningsen 2004)
Notes
[1] This article is a revised version of a German paper in Bauer and Behringer 1997 (Henningsen
1997, 168-88).
[2] Canon Episcopi, a ruling (canon) beginning with the word Episcopi, was first attested in 906 by
Regino of Prüm and probably written by himself; see entry by Edward Peters in the
Encyclopedia of Witchcraft (Peters 2006, vol. 1, 164f).
[3] In 1555 Andres Laguna published an annotated translation of Matéria Medica of the ancient
Greek physician, botanist, and pharmacologist, Pedanius Dioscorides. It was re-edited in 1733
by Francisco Suárez de Ribera (Suárez de Ribera 1733). I have opted for quoting the latter
edition, since it is available online (http://books.google.es)
[4] From the period 1615-1700 the Spanish Inquisition was involved in 2520 witch trials (compare
Contreras and Henningsen 1986, 119, Table 4); however, I have now doubled that figure (to five
thousand), as we probably know only about one-half of the trials that took place (compare
Henningsen 1993, 82f, tables Ι-Π).
[5] Luis de Páramo (1545-1608). Born in Borox (Toledo), he made a theological career in Spain.
He became Doctor in Theology, archdeacon and canon at the Cathedral of Leon; 1576 inquisitor
at Seville; and from 1586, at the tribunal at Palermo, where he served until his death.
A competent jurist and historian, he was the author of the first history of the Inquisition
(Páramo 1598). See Rivero Rodriguez 2009 (courtesy of Professor Vincenzo Lavenia).
[6] I have omitted "when she was eight years old," found in the confession, since it is probably an
insertion provoked by the inquisitors, because earlier in the hearings she had explained that
she had gone with the witches since she was eight.
[7] See also Elsa Guggino's introduction to the Italian translation of my paper "The Ladies from
Outside," with a survey of fairies and related supernatural beings in the contemporary folklore
of Sicily (Guggino 1998; compare Guggino 1993). Recently, the donne difuori have been dealt
with briefly in a monograph on magical trials at the Inquisition of Sicily (Messana 2007, 550-73).
[8] In the present analysis I have concentrated on the eighteen-year-old prostitute, Gracia Giarraffa
(no. 56); the farm labourer's wife, Alfia Zafara, aged sixty (no. 49), who was a renowned healer
and night-goer; and Vicencia Cuchinella, aged twenty-six years (no. 53), who also, according to
some witnesses, practised as a wise woman [por fama pública era perfectísima mágara].
[9] Old Alfia (no. 49) was arrested in February, Vicencia (no. 53) in May, and young Gracia in
October 1638. The case against the latter was obviously initiated because of a revocation she
had made before the inquisitorial commissioner at Terranova on 7 September. In this she
declared her previous testimony against herself and the two others to be false. She had made
her declaration under pressure from the prior, who actually wrote the deposition himself
(AHN, Inq., lib. 902, 116r-v). The prior's testimony, we are informed, was substantially
identical with Gracia's deposition (ibid., fol. 116v), and from the trial summaries it appears that
it was used indiscriminately in the accusations of all three "witches." Thus

when the scribe is required to summarise the prior's deposition for the se
up, exclaiming that: "to refer to all this would be a never ending story,
windedness (prolijidad) of the deposition which is of four double folios [16
{ibid., fol. 90r).
[10] In earlier articles I have called her "Marta" as I did not know whether sh
her real name published. She has now given permission for this.
References Cited
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(1540-1700)." In The Inquisition in Early Modern Europe, ed. Gustav Henningsen and John Tedeschi.
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Guggino, Elsa. // corpo èfatto di sillabe. Figure di maghi in Sicilia. Palermo: Sellerio, 1993.
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und Armut im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert auf Sizilien." In Die Mitte der Welt: Aufsätze zu Mircea Eliade,
ed. Hans Peter Duerr. 164-82. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 1984.
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DeKalb, 111.: Northern Illinois University Press, 1986.
Henningsen, Gustav. "'The Ladies from Outside': An Archaic Pattern of the Witches' Sabbath."
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revisited." In Vorträge zur Justizforschung. Geschichte und Theorie, ed. Heinz Mohnhaupt and Dieter
Simon, vol. 2. 43-85. Frankfurt a. M.: Vittorio Klostermann, 1993.
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Unerklärliche (weg)erklärt." In Fl
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Città del Vaticano, 29-31 ottó
Apostólica Vaticana, 2003.
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Witch Persecution. Leiden and B
Henningsen, Gustav. "Round-Tab

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Kors, Alan C, and Edward Peter
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Biographical Note
Gustav Henningsen is a Danish folklorist specialising in historical research in the archives
of the Spanish Inquisition. From 1963 to 2002 he was a research fellow at the Danish
Folklore Archives in Copenhagen. He now lives in retirement in a village of the province of
Malaga, Spain.

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The Witches' Flying and the Spanish Inquisitors, or How to Explain (Away) the Impossible

The Witches' Flying and the Spanish

Four Old Theories

which, in some regions, w

In other words, what the bi

This source document, of w

In Salazar 's report there i

Salazar 's conclusion to the

The Sicilian Fairy Cult

The fisherman's wife explained to the inquisitors that all of this

clients in advance to have th

(The hermaphroditic god of the witches is unparalleled in my material, and maybe

to persuade the nun to put

being assured that there was n

abandoned her. The inquisitors apparently took the accusations s

How to Explain the Sicilian Case

this paper bear witness to the

Interviewing a Sicilian "Nig

Figure 3. Marzia (with dark glasses)

in Europe where fieldwork of this type can be carried out, pa

AHN, Inq. = Archivo histórico Nacional, Inquisición.

it was used indiscriminately in the accusations of all three "witches." Thus

Guggino, Elsa. La magia en Sicília. Palermo: Sellerio, 1978.

Henningsen, Gustav. "Der Hex

Henningsen, Gustav. "Round-Tab

Mongitore, Antonino. L'atto pubbli

Pócs, Eva. Fairies and Witches at t

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