The Role of Language in Accusations of in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Spain

Eva Mendieta1a

Abstract

ARTICLE HISTORY: Linguistic factors played a significant role in the origin and spread of accusations of witchcraft in Early Modern Spain. Received June 2017 The preoccupation with witches’ words is at its root a Received in revised form August 2017 preoccupation about the power of speech and, to a great Accepted September 2017 Available online September 2017 extent, of female speech. Studies in some Early European countries have connected aggressive female speech styles with accusations of witchcraft, and this article offers evidence to this effect for Early Modern Spain. The speech of women with ‘ungoverned tongues’ is stigmatized as masculine, and the power it conveys is regarded with suspicion. Rumor, gossip, and reputation also played a key KEYWORDS: role in accusations of witchcraft in these oral societies. Once the accusation is launched, public reputation was often Early Modern Spain adduced as ‘proof’ of culpability. Rooted in the specific Basque studies Witchcraft reality of the northern provinces of Early Modern Spain, this Women and language study shows how assumptions about women’s ‘linguistic Gossip place’, along with certain forms of linguistic performance played a significant role in transforming a woman into a .

© 2017 IJSCL. All rights reserved.

1 Professor, Email: [email protected] Tel: +1-219-9806692 a Indiana University Northwest, USA

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1. Introduction language and different types of linguistic performance played an important role in the he conflict that witches present in Early developments that would lead to and follow Modern societies, from a linguistic accusations of witchcraft in Early Modern T perspective, stems from the power that Spain. The study starts by addressing words confer to women. The connections between women, language, and preoccupation with witches’ words is at its witchcraft, an association that crosses European root a preoccupation about the power of borders, and that unearths underlying speech and, to a great extent, of female speech. assumptions about women’s ‘linguistic place’ Women, through unnatural or supernatural in the societies of this period. From the means (witchcraft), summon up a capacity for definition of bruja (witch) in Early Modern agency that they lack otherwise, and it is for Spanish Dictionaries, to the comments on this reason that witches’ words are sometimes female speech found in witch-hunt manuals deemed ‘masculine’. To exemplify the magical and Spanish moral treatises, a clear uses of language associated with Spanish identification can be traced between women, witches in this period, this study considers witchcraft, and a series of typically female formulas used to cast spells and curses, and linguistic ‘defects’. Women’s ‘ungovernable also pays attention to what could and could not tongue’, in manifestations such as yelling, be said in the context of the witches’ Sabbath, scolding, harsh words, or confrontational as recorded in the northern provinces of Spain. speech, seems to be at the heart of accusations Most of the documents and testimonies of witchcraft. This connection, which has been presented come from the Basque region and studied mostly for Early Modern England and from the province of , both scenarios of Scotland (Barry, Hester, & Roberts, 1996; the furthest reaching witch-hunts in the history Dye, 2016; Kamensky, 1997; Rowlands, 2001; of Spain. () became the Stavreva, 2015; Stewart & Strathern, 2004; epicenter of the witch-hunt craze, and this Williams, 2011), can also be traced in the study looks into how such cataclysmic events Spanish tradition, and this article offers affected communication among neighbors in evidence to this effect. Rooted in the specific that community. Decades after the trials ended, reality of the northern provinces of Early strained social relationships are evidenced by Modern Spain, certain forms of linguistic the way people talk, and not talk, to one performance (from a particular manner of another. In pre-democratic oral societies speech, to rumor and gossip and the use of communicative politeness was highly incantations) appear to play a significant role regulated, and flouting norms by verbal or in both the origin and the propagation of non-verbal means (absence of a greeting, witchcraft accusations or, in other words, in certain gestures, etc.) gave way to gossip, transforming a woman into a witch in the eyes rumors, and threatened the communal peace. of the community. This leads to a crucial juncture, which is the role rumor, gossip, and reputation played in 2. Theoretical Framework accusations of witchcraft. 2.1. Women, Language, and Witchcraft In societies where living conditions forced a largely public existence, rumor became both Witchcraft is not an exclusively feminine source and proof of any accusations. Testimonies enterprise, but its intrinsic association with show how people’s lives were largely public women is reflected in the European courts, as and every event seemed to be, willingly or much as in all the treatises on witchcraft and unwillingly, witnessed by somebody. People the folk tales and narratives that collectively talk and the rumor starts. By the time the gave form to a female witch archetype. While gossip has spread to conform public opinion, there were important regional differences, the the tinted reputation will be proof of guilt in vast majority of witchcraft accusations fell on itself. One of the social factors that singled out women, “women appear to have constituted certain women as best candidates for approximately 80% of the accused and witchcraft was their aggressive linguistic approximately 85% of the executed for behavior. In this respect, the purpose of this witchcraft during the period of the major article is to explore how beliefs about European witch-hunts” (Clark & Richardson,

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1996, pp. 119-120). In the county of Essex, This vice of casting spells, although it is England, out of 270 suspected witches, 247 common practice to men and women, it were women. In Scotland, between 1560 and is more regularly found among women, 1762, there were 1,491 women and 242 men because the devil finds them an easier accused, the women representing 86% of the target, or because they are by nature total (Stewart & Strathern, 2004). treacherously vindictive and envious of one another”). (Echevarría, 2006, p. The same is true in Spain, where the 2191) consideration of witchcraft as a female ‘trade’ is betrayed even in documents that make an In these definitions, the female qualities of effort to include both sexes as possible ‘flippancy’ and ‘fragility’ put women at risk of trespassers. Some statutes from the province of falling into the evil practice, while their Aragon start by including both bruxas y characteristic inclination to lust, revenge, and bruxos in their exhortations, to end up using envy, are presented as their motivations. A only the feminine as the text continues. In contemporary definition of bruja, in Gonzalo accusations from this province, the masculine Correas’ Vocabulary of Sayings and epithet brujo was reserved for cases of very Proverbial Phrases (1627) will introduce an serious abuse and, even then, it appears only in important linguistic component in the diminutive forms (brujón, brujote), in an effort discussion. Now the witch is defined by the to downplay the expressive force of the word power of her lying and intoxicating speech, since, in an absolute tense, only women could which confuse her victims with false hopes be brujas (Tausiet, 2004). and flattery: “Adivina, vedera, hechicera y bruja todo es uno, y como consultora del The definition of bruxa/bruja, as it appears in padre de la mentira, engañarte ha con vanas Spanish sixteenth and seventeenth century esperanzas y embelecos” (“Fortune-teller, dictionaries and vocabularies, provides a first seer, sorceress, and witch, all are one and the glimpse at who and what is associated with the same, and as consultant of the father of lies, practice of witchcraft. The entry for bruxa in she will deceive you with empty hopes and the first dictionary of the Spanish language, deceit”) (Correa, 1906, p. 432). Female deceit Covarrubia’s 1611 Tesoro de la Lengua and treachery are personified in the old witch, Castellana o Española (Treasury of Castilian sorceress, and enabler, whose Spanish or Spanish Language), states the higher paradigm is Fernando de Rojas’ Celestina frequency of this “vice and evil” among (Caro Baroja, 1993; Echevarría, 2006). women than man, “por la ligereza y fragilidad, por la lujuria, y por el espíritu vengativo que The fundamental connection between female en ellas suele reinar, y es más ordinario tratar speech and witchcraft had already been esta materia debajo del nombre de bruja, que established one and a half centuries earlier in de brujo” (“because of the flippancy and what would become the most influential fragility, the lust and vengeful spirit that rules treatise of witchcraft in Europe, the Malleus in them, it is customary to address this matter Maleficarum (1486). According to the Malleus, under the name of bruja and not brujo”) women “have slippery tongues, and are unable (Covarrubias, 1611, p. 154). In the same to conceal from their fellow-women those fashion, the entry for hechizar (bewitch) things which by evil arts they know; and, since reiterates the prevalence of these arts among they are weak, they find an easy and secret women, now explained because they are an manner of vindicating themselves by easier target for the devil, and because of their withcraft” (Sprenger & Institoris, 1928, Part I, vengeful and envious nature: Question VI, p. 1). Witchcraft is at a very elemental level a linguistic performance, Este vicio de hazer hechizos, aunque es speech turned into action, and the action común a hombres y mugeres, más de associated with it is seen as motivated by ordinario se halla entre mugeres, porque ‘revenge’, ‘lust’, or in general terms, whatever el demonio las halla más fáciles, o it is that women want to ‘vindicate’ for porque ellas de su naturaleza son themselves. Witches are described as women insidiosamente vengativas y también who use their ‘slippery tongues’ to play by envidiosas unas de otras. their own set of rules. Through their magical

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speech, and by sharing their knowledge with 2.2. Ruling over Women’s Tongues other women, witches can obtain an ‘unnatural’ or ‘anti-natural’ advantage in Witches’ words are also women’s words; so, reaching their goals. In other words, they can in order to fully understand how they are alter reality according to their wishes and have received and judged, we need to consider them an influence in the life of the community that in the context of the great mistrust and is not available to women ‘naturally’; this negative stereotyping that characterized makes witches frighteningly powerful and women’s speech in the Spanish Early Modern socially dangerous. Women’s words quickly Era. Women’s idiosyncratic linguistic ability become dangerous when they are perceived as and sensitivity proved to be a critical tool for defiant or as a threat to the laws, customs, and their advancement, but it also brought forth no traditions characteristic of the established shortage of conflicts. One doesn’t have to look social order. In this context, witchcraft can be far in Spanish popular sayings and proverbs or seen as another linguistic performance that in the literature of this period, to get a full helps to understand the complex role language account of the long litany of vices and defects played in the construction of a female identity associated with female speech (García Mouton, in this period. This new female role resembles 1999; Horozco, 1986; Martínez Kleiser, 1989; the social role traditionally played by men and, Mendieta, 2016; Miktova, 2007). This negative in this sense, it is symptomatic that witches’ portrayal of her speech is combined with an words are at times associated with masculinity, increased zealousness in the political and as will be illustrated in the following religious effort for its regulation, as is examples. articulated in a number of moral treatises and manuals that give full account of women’s In her study of speech in Early New England, shortcomings, as well as advice regarding Kamensky (1997) mentions that witches’ optimal conduct. voices are sometimes deemed “masculine” by the accusers, not so much for the way they Luis Vives (1936), for example, warns married sound, but for what the accused women “did” women against the female inclination to rage with their voices. When the witch is and impulsiveness, which result in angry “demanding, complaining, and blaming”, she words, sour recriminations and yelling, much “spoke as if she were entitled to the kind of to the disgust of their husbands. There is verbal authority that, in her world, accrued nothing that alienates more the disposition and only to men” (Kamensky, 1997, p. 157), and good will of a husband towards his wife than this makes her sound “masculine” to her “las voces y riñas y acedías de la mujer ..... y detractors. In the Spanish northern region of las más de las veces sin razón o causa, Asturias, there was the case of Ana García, La encendiendo a los ánimos de sus maridos con Lobera (The Wolfhunter), a rural witch tried fuego que echan de aquella boca” (“women’s by the Inquisition in 1648 because of her yelling, scolding, and sour words …. and most command of techniques to invoke of the time without rhyme or reason, (Mantecón & Torres, 2011). Demons not only provoking their husband’s anger with the fire came to her ritual convocations, but they also they spit from their mouths”) (Vives, 1936, p. acted according to her wishes, evidencing, 112). Vives (1936) remarks that all women are according to the depositions, a “sofisticación ‘desgovernadas de la lengua’ (have ungoverned en su discurso”. What this “sophistication in tongues) and are easy prey to rage. Even with her discourse” implies is that she had such women, who are otherwise, sane, honest, and verbal proficiency as a witch, that her words good, the same lack of moderation and carried great power. It turned out that this temperance is found, what makes this vice a young woman had been raised in a very general trait of female speech. The same masculine social milieu, in the midst of failure to ‘govern the tongue’ seems to have nomadic shepherds. In her appeal to been at the root of many accusations of knowledge of invocations, she found a witchcraft. tool that brought about the respect of the men in the male dominated environment of her Studies show that not all women considered community. witches ended up accused or put on trial. Factors such as their perceived public behavior

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and their social status proved to be decisive in beggars (Stewart & Strathern, 2004, pp. 89- the outcome. Stewart and Strathern (2004, p. 90). 158) find that in Early Modern England and Scotland the perceived “egregious behavior of Turning to Spanish sources, an example of a some women made them vulnerable to similar association between witchcraft and accusation”, particularly, when the lack of aggressive speech can be found in restraint concerned their speech. Witches are Covarrubias’ Tesoro (Treasury). Echevarría described as “women with hot tempers” who (2006) studies the representation of the insult, threat, and quarrel: “The witch had the feminine voice in this sixteenth-century Scottish quality of smeddum: spirit, a refusal dictionary and finds multiple words and to be put down, quarrelsomeness. No cursing; expressions that portray women as loud- no malefice; no witch” (Stewart & Strathern, mouthed, fierce, and characteristically 2004, p. 158). When a woman uses language involved in verbal fights, insults, and threats. in this fashion, she is ‘trespassing’ the safer In this text, combative forms of language territory of normative social behavior and firmly connect verbal aggression with social making herself more vulnerable to attacks and disturbance and with marginal female accusations, particularly if she already has a characters such as witches, prostitutes, and conflictive relationship with her neighbors, Jewish women. Collectively all these linguistic and if she is poor, a widow, or not married. To performances serve to transform the defiant, be accused of witchcraft in this society is akin loud, and brazen woman into a good candidate to be pointing to some source on internal for witchcraft. This is also the message of Luis tension at play, centered around the accused: de León (1980) in the chapter of La perfecta “Ser brujo … es referirse a personas que casada (The perfect wife) devoted to modeling levantan animadversión, personas a las que se and criticizing married women’s linguistic imputa ojeriza o malquerencia, mala behavior. From all virtues, women should pay vecindad” (“To be a witch …. is to refer to special attention to being people who breed hostility, people who are accused of enmity or animosity, of being a … apacible y dulce en su hablar… troublesome neighbor”) (Azurmendi, 2013, p. Porque una mujer necia y parlera, como 25). The reasons for the animosity against the lo son de continuo las necias, por más accused are varied and could range from bienes otros que tenga, es intolerable suspected theft or inheritance disputes, to a negocio. Y, ni más ni menos, la que es reputation for arrogance and pride. Kamensky brava y de dura y áspera conversación, (1997, p. 156) finds that “the connection ni se puede ver, ni sufrir. between being accused of witchcraft and having a reputation for verbal agression … gentle and sweet in their speech… appears strong …. In New England accused Because a foolish and talkative wife, as witches far exceeded the general population the foolish ones normally are, cannot be …. in rates of ‘assultive’ speech, lying, and endured, no matter what other good railing against authority”. The transition from qualities she may have. And, for certain, being a “particularly heinous variety of scold” the one who is fierce and of harsh and to being a witch is travelled in part through the rough conversation, cannot be borne or intensity of the linguistic “violence” exhibited suffered. (p. 122) (Kamensky, 1997, p. 151). We can conclude that the acts of the reputed witches were There is nothing as monstrous as a ‘rough and “inseparable from their sinister words” in the fierce’ woman. Such ‘roughness’ is the trait of accusers’ minds (Kamensky, 1997, p. 156). lions, tigers, and men; but if a woman Also crucial in determining what presumptive becomes a lioness, what is left of her witches will end up accused and tried, is their womanhood? Nothing, Luis de León responds. place in the social ladder. It seems universal What remains in her place is ‘el trasgo y la that prejudice centered on women who were estantigua’, in other words, a malefic spirit and socially weak and studies of witch hunts find a ghost, both of which belong to the that witches were women “predominantly supernatural realm of the witch. poor, middle-aged, or elderly”, often the wives or widows of tenant farmers, wage laborers, or

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An extreme case of women’s verbal disruptive They used special incantations to grant all behavior is found in the Barking Women, a sorts of wishes; for example, to change a group of witches who were accused of barking husband’s bad disposition towards his wife, and making other women bark. Barking the following formula is recorded: “con dos te women were attested in the valleys of Aragon miro, con tres te ato, la sangre te bebo y el and on both sides of the between corazón te parto” (“with two I see you, with 1498 and 1596. These witches are charged three I tie you, I drink up your blood and break with provoking mal de ladrar (barking your heart”) (Coronas 2000, p. 246). On the illness), and the sight of people barking is other hand, the typical bruja who attends considered “un claro síntoma de posesión akelarres (Basque word for witches’ Sabbath) diabólica provocada por embrujamiento” (“a is mainly found in the rural north, particularly clear symptom of diabolical possession caused in the provinces of Navarre, Aragon, and the by witchcraft”) (Tausiet, 2004, p. 200). Basque region. One representative example is Metaphorically the word ladrar refers to a the trial that took place in 1616 in the Bizcaian violent or vengeful use of language “vale coastal town of Bermeo, where witches were también murmurar, o hablar con rabia o enojo accused of being responsible for the contra alguno” (“means also to gossip, to destruction of the crops “aber echo muchos speak with rage or angrily against somebody”) daños, perdiendo trigo, uba, mançana, (Real Academia Española, 1726-1739), and in castaña, y todo genero de fruta y this aception these inarticulated sounds could mantenimientos, con polbos que el diablo les also be related to the verbal agressiveness daba” (“have done much damage, spoiling associated with the women turned witches. wheat, grapes, apples, chestnuts, and all kind of fruit and food, with the powder that the 3. The Transformative Power of Words devil gave them.”) (Zabala, 2000, p. 89). Wanting to divert the authorities’ attention 3.1. Magic Formulas and Devil Worship from the trials against them, these witches ask the Devil for help, so that they can inflict “un A traditional and magical use of speech by daño notable en este Señorio de Vizcaya” women is related to the curses, incantations, (“considerable damage in this Lordship of and spells, through which they were believed ”) (Zabala, 2000, p. 89). The Devil to transform reality, often uttered in the complies and gives them a powder that they context of a wider act of witchcraft that are to throw into the rivers while they recite included the preparation of magical the following magic formula, which the Devil substances. Words could be used to secure or tells them in Basque: “deziéndoles estas ruin a love interest, to spoil the crops, cure palabras en lengua bascongada: echo estos sicknesses, and a long list of situations for polvos en nonbre y con la virtud de quien me which blame or help needed to be enlisted. los ha dado” (“telling them these words in the While all the women related to this ‘trade’ : I throw this powder in the were encompassed by the general term bruja, name and with the virtue of the one who gave a basic distinction has been made between two it to me”) (Zabala, 2000, p. 89). After this, a different types of activities that set apart the deluge ensured in Biscay that ruined “cassas y traditional bruja from the hechicera heredades, molinos, ferrerias, puente, caminos (sorceress), and the differences relate to the y otros hedifiçios que estaban en partes muy nature of their actions, as much as to the seguras y aogaron jente y ganado y solo en regions where each was normally found. The esa dicha villa causaron de daño mas de diez hechicera is mostly associated with urban mil ducados” (“homes and estates, mills, culture, is more individual and characteristic forges, bridges, pathways, and other buildings of the region of Castilla and the south of Spain that were in very safe parts, and people and (Caro Baroja, 1993; Lara Alberola, 2017 cattled drown and just in that town they caused Tausiet, 2004). The hechicera, while may be damage of more than ten thousand ducats”) assisted by the power of the devil in the (Zabala, 2000, p. 89). Also in 1616, in a achievement of her goals, does not commit similar edict in the Biscayan town of Gernika, apostasy nor does she become a Devil’s some witches were told by the Devil to say the subject, and because of that their persecution following words while throwing the powder he did not fall under the scope of the Inquisition. had given to them: “al trigo mucha poya y

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paja y poco grano” (“may the wheat have and then comands, that the newly inducted much chaff and little grain”) (Zabala, 2000, p. speaks repudiating “God our Lord and Holy 94). These formulas are perhaps the most Mary his mother, and all the sacraments of the obvious linguistic performance directly Church and saints in heaven and her parents associated with an act of witchcraft, and be it and godparents” and take the Devil for God to heal or hurt, they epitomize the and Lord (Reguera, 2012, p. 255). This transformative power of magical speech. amounted to a ceremony of renouncement. In these events, the power of words in the The use or absence of words is also significant transformation comes to play, either by in the testimonies centered around Devil’s preventing the uttering of words that would worship. In their confessions, Basque women entrust the person to the Christian God, or by accused of witchcraft speak about their saying words with which the witch entrusts the maestra, the woman who initiated them and neofite’s soul to the Devil. introduced them to the akelarre; this female teacher with her acts and words transforms the 3.2. Language in the Aftermath of the regular person into a witness and participant in Witch-Hunts: The Case of Zugarramurdi supernatural events. Several elements reoccur in this process: the neofite is first given The relationship between witchcraft and something to eat or drink (chestnuts, apples, language can yet be further explored when we millet bread, or cider), and at night the consider the intersections between witchcraft maestra spreads an unguent in different parts and literature. Witchcraft narratives circulated of his or her body (face, neck, palms, chest, in the community as oral stories, just as other back, or belly) before they can both fly gossip and rumors did, but in this case the towards the akelarre, where all sorts of origin of the stories can often be traced back to sacrilegous acts take place. In her deposition, traditional literary motifs. In all these trials, the thirty-six year old Basque woman María de the person accused of witchcraft becomes a Ulibarri identified María de Ondraita as her “story teller”, producing a testimony that maestra and explained her process of initiation incorporates some of the traditional motifs and (Reguera, 2012): also adds new elements of their own invention or invented following the hints provided by the […] sacó una calabaza de donde sacó very questions of the inquisitors (Lara unos polvos y untos con los cuales le Alberola, 2017, p. 267). untó a esta confesante pechos, vientre y espaldas, diciéndole que no mentase Azurmendi’s (2013, p. 57) account of the el nombre de Jesús ni se encomendase Zugarramurdi witch trials recounts how, as the a Dios ni a sus santos, y con esto events escalated, priests, and friars “tronaban salieron por las puertas de la casa de desde el púlpito contra el cabrón del Diablo y la dicha María de Ondraita, contra sus brujos que lo adoraban y besaban dejándolas abiertas, y por el aire. en el culo” (“thundered from the pulpit against the Devil and against the witches who adored […] she took out a gourd from where him and kissed him in the ass”), filling the she took out some powder and minds of all the faithful with the gory details ointments which she spread in this of devil worship, and giving form to the stories deponent’s breasts, belly, and back, that will later be recounted by the presumptive telling her not to mention Jesus’ name witches. When, at the end of the conflict, the nor to entrust herself to God and his Inquisition tries to amend the damage done, an saints, and with this they left through Edict of Silence is promulgated, as they are the doors of the house of said María de now convinced that “no hubo brujas ni Ondraita, leaving them open and by embrujados en el lugar hasta que se comenzó the air. (p. 252) a tratar y escribir sobre ellos” (“there were no witches or bewitched in the place until people Once the witch and her company arrive at the started talking and writing about them”) meeting place, the maestra presents her new (Azurmendi, 2013, p. 157). Once completed, “gift” to the Devil: “Lord, look at the present I the renditions of the trials are written down in have brought for you”, the Devil thanks her pamphlets that fed people’s appetite for the

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morbid and the macabre. Witchcraft thus can meaning, and the way people relate also be approached as a literary product, and linguistically to one another can fundamentally judging by the popularity of these pamphlets, challenge the peace in the community it is clear that readers found these ‘witch tales’ (Azurmendi, 2013): terribly compelling (Gibson, 1999; Rowland, 1999; Willumsen, 2011). decir es un hacer mediante palabras, ‘mal-decir’ equivale a hacer mal … no Azurmendi (2013, pp. 167-168) ends his domesticar la lengua y los ojos revision of the Zugarramurdi witch-hunts with implican enemistad, belicosidad, pues a reference to Gero, the first book of prose la paz está condicionada a la written in the Basque language, authored by distensión coloquial, al diálogo the priest Pedro Daguerre Azpilcueta, known fluido,…. Dar-que-decir, cotillear, as Axular. Axular writes this sinner’s guide in estar pendiente del qué dirán, todo eso 1643, many years after the imprisonments and lleva a la irascibilidad y, por tanto, al burnings of Zugarramurdi have passed. In its odio y al deseo de venganza pages, however, there is ample evidence that what remained in the aftermath of the horror, to speak is to do through words, to was a broken community consumed by the curse equals to do wrong …. not to hate and the resentment of neighbors who had domesticate the tongue and eyes reported on each other in a desperate effort to implies enmity, bellicosity, because save themselves. Taking into account that peace is built on colloquial ease, on Gero is a sinner’s guide, Azurmendi (2013) finds surprising the large portion of the book fluid dialogue … To give people (about 20%) devoted to admonitions against something to talk about, to gossip, to poor neighborly relations, characterized as worry about what people say, all that “murmuraciones, odios mutuos y enemistades leads to irascibility and therefore, to entre vecinos” (“rumors, mutual hate and hate and thirst for revenge. (p. 175) feuds among neighbors.”) (Azurmendi, 2013, p. 172). And what is the prescribed way to Axular repeats the question that he has been fight such irascibility among neighbors, such asked over and over again by the townsfolk: Is rage and hatred? According to Axular, it’s all it a sin not to talk, no to greet a neighbor, not about language: to chat, even if you don’t have ill will? The question speaks volumes as to how the En poder de la lengua están la muerte dramatic events had torn apart the social fabric y la vida, la guerra y la paz. Si tú of the town. In his response, Axular gives two quieres, puedes convertir al enemigo main patterns of behavior that will have to be en amigo pero también volverlo más followed: greet your fellow townsfolk when enemigo. Echale agua, háblale suave y you meet them in the way, and don’t act in dulcemente, el fuego se apagará, el such a fashion (by avoiding the person, not odio se calmará. talking, etc.) that would create a rumor of a feud and give people reason to gossip. In the power of speech are death and However, in order to be a saint, a mere life, war and peace. If you want, you greeting is not enough, it’s not enough just not can make your enemy a friend, but you to entertain ill-will and not to create a scandal, can also turn him into a worse enemy. “sino que es preciso ser con todos lo mismo, Throw water to him, speak to him con todos es preciso ser conversador cariñoso gently and sweetly, and the fire will die y ” (“but you need to be the same with off, the hate will calm down. everybody, with everybody you need to have a (Azurmendi, 2013, p. 175) warm and pleasant conversation.”) (Azurmendi, 2013, p. 177). The reality seems to be quite far The antidote against hate is as easy as talk from such communicative ease, as going among neighbors; friendly words will sweeten beyond the mere greeting and having a the strained relationships. In traditional pre- pleasant conversation with the neighbors is democratic societies what is said and not said labelled ‘saintly’ behavior. The truth was that among neighbors carry a great deal of social

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neighbors did not greet each other and enmity accused women, except the knowledge of the and bad relations were rampant and apparent. rumors that circulated about them. In a Axular warned against the dangerous sixteenth century trial against María López, consequences of not following the minimum one of the witnesses states that “siempre ha accepted standards of neighborly communication: oydo y entendido assi en el lugar de Sinues people will talk and once rumor is set in como por toda la val de Aysa, de muchas y motion, the consequences are unpredictable. fidedignas personas cuyo nombre no se The emergence and spread of accusations of acuerda, ser y que era bruxa, malefica, witchcraft had followed a similar path, as will hechizera” (“she has always heard and be discussed below. understood, in Sinues as well as in the whole valley of Aysa, from many and trustworthy 4. Gossip, Rumor, and Public Reputation people whose names she doesn’t remember, that she was a witch, a conjurer, and a In these fundamentally oral societies, the sorceress”) (Tausiet, 2004, p. 220). The reputation of a person was, to a very big veracity attributed to the rumor and gossip had extent, based on what people said about him or a lot to do with the living conditions that her in the community. In such a context, characterized the sixteenth and seventeenth “rumor and gossip become important tools in centuries. Documents repeatedly evidence a gathering information against people and the constant and very close cohabitation with development of a consensus about who is family and neighbors. Nothing can really responsible for deaths, illnesses, misfortunes, happen in the community outside the sight and thefts, ‘unnatural’ weather, and the like” ear of people living in very close quarters. In (Stewart & Strathern, 2004, p. 195. See also Aragonese witch trials there is a constant Hindle, 1994; Norton, 1987; Ong’au- reference to events that we would nowadays Mong’are & Agwuele, 2017; Paine, 1967; deem private and what filters in the Wilson, 1974). Once this ‘consensus’ has been depositions is a general absence of privacy. In built and it has spread around, the accusations one occasion, a testimony states that one of witchcraft start. Rumors that preceded Catalina García could not have possibly met accusations of witchcraft, affected women to a with her presumed accomplices, because if she much larger extent than men, in part due to did, the rest of the town would have known women’s legal status. Norton (1996, p. 249) about it (Tausiet, 2004): points out that while there were many ways to express anger towards a man, “a man could be Jamas ha visto ni oido que dicha hounded with nuisance lawsuits, he could be Catalina Garcia haya hecho deprived of whatever offices he held, his ajuntamiento de mujeres para hacer fences and other property could be vandalized exarmos, santiguaciones o bruxerias or his pigs and cows stolen or injured”, it was … ni entiende ni crehe se pudiesen a lot more difficult to successfully attack a juntar que no se hubiese sentimiento woman. Married women didn’t own property, por el pueblo y, habiendose held no public office, and in case of a lawsuit, sentimiento por el pueblo de tal cosa, not she but her husband would have to appear pretiende la deposante lo sabria, in court, “of necessity, then, neighbors’ attacks porque cosas semejantes, en on mature women often took verbal form. And publicandose por el pueblo, lo saben the most damaging charges that could be todos los del pueblo. leveled against women were those that accused them of capital offenses, chiefly She has never seen or heard that the witchcraft, infanticide, or… adultery” (Norton, mentioned Catalina Garcia had met 1996, pp. 249-250). with other women to cause destruction, and to do magic and Once the accusation is launched, public witchcraft … and she doesn’t reputation was often adduced as ‘proof’ of understand or believe that they could culpability. The formula ‘ha oído y entendido’ have gotten together and this not be (has heard and understood) appears known in the town, and once the town continuously in the depositions of witnesses had knowledge about it, the deponent who personally had nothing against the insists she would know about it,

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because once a thing like that is made populi. In the accusations of witchcraft, the public through the town, everybody in main support for any argumentation was, the town knows about it. (p. 370) without a doubt, public opinion. The accounts of the witnesses really served to prove what The close living quarters that characterized life was already decided in the court of public in the same town, neighborhood, or even opinion, and were only used to ‘prove’ what house, “convertía a cada uno en testigo everybody already ‘knew’. More than what is presencial más o menos involuntario de las sin or virtue, truth or lie, what really mattered vidas ajenas” (“turned every person into a was the personal reputation in front of the more or less involuntary witness of other neighbors. In Tausiet’s (2004, p. 392) words, it people’s lives”) (Tausiet, 2004, pp. 371-372). is “the triumph of appearances”. This triumph In the accusations of witchcraft studied in the of appearances explains the great importance Aragonese corpus, conversations outdoors and given to good manners, gestures, greetings, in the presence of witnesses are much more and farewells, and every other aspect of public common than their private counterparts. Most communicative exchanges. What was said of the time, it is the women through the earlier regarding the aggressive linguistic style sociability of their daily life who act as agents of women accused of witchcraft, can now be of diffusion of these accusations. Female revisited, from this perspective. As Tausiet sociability is dense and repetitive, and as (2004, p. 393) remarks, “En un mundo donde women find each over the daily scenarios of los usos de la civilidad tenían tanta their multiple chores, they talk and spread the trascendencia, se entiende mejor que ciertas news. Public places of female work, such as mujeres aisladas y descorteses, o incluso the communal oven (el horno), frame many of irascibles y reñidoras, fueran acusadas de ser the “sucesos de brujería” (witchcraft event) las causantes de cuantos males afectaban a that will later be described by witnesses in quienes las conocían” (“In a world where front of a judge. To say something out loud at good manners had such transcendence, we can el horno is as good as to publish it to the understand better that isolated and rude whole town. For example, in 1594 a woman women, or even those short-tempered and denounces to the episcopal judge that another quarrelsome, were accused of being the source woman, whom she called a witch, had spoken of any other malady that affected whoever publicly against her, “Lo qual dixo en they knew”). Now the verbal and non-verbal presencia de dichas mugeres del orno” (“and impoliteness of certain women is presented as she said it in front of the women at the oven.”) proof of witchcraft. A greeting withdrawn is (Tausiet, 2004, p. 375). Disputes and interpreted as a curse, and any gesture can be recriminations recorded at these public places seen as a magic attempt to harm. Isabel Garay will be recounted much later by not only the was accused of witchcraft because, according women present, but also their husbands, and to a witness, she turned away her face when relatives, as they become common knowledge. they run into each other. Another witness Other public female place of gathering is el presents as proof that he had seen the accused lavadero, where women went to wash clothes arguing many times with different people and where sometimes the tensions among (Tausiet, 2004): them played out. Caro Baroja cites a case in the Basque town of Fuenterrabia (Guipuzcoa), con muchas personas vecinas de where a woman making an accusation of Cosuenda, y en particular con un witchcraft tells how she was washing some molinero y una molinera que hay en sheets at the fountain when she met the dicho lugar ... y vio que, estando con woman who later coopted her to attend the ellos, se ponía el dedo en la nariz a akelarre (Caro Baroja, 1985). These living manera de que les amenazaba, y conditions, characterized by close physical luego, despues de dichas rifias vio este proximity and multiple public meeting places, deposante estuvieron dichos molineros frame an existence where privacy hardly muy enfermos. existed. with many people from Cosuenda, and It is not hard to imagine how far and wide a particularly a miller and his wife that piece of news travelled once it became vox live there … and he saw that, while

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she was with them, she touched her Le dixieron que dixese cómo Diego de nose with her finger as if she was Guinea e Ochoa de Guesala a threatening them, and later, after those esta testigo la abían hecho bruxa, e quarrels, this deponent saw that the que los Hereinoca, que todos heran millers were very sick. (p. 393) bruxos, e todo lo demás que antes esta testigo tenia dicho las susodichas le Every external sign could affect the fame of a dixieron que dixiese así, amenazándole person, and the fame would direct the high e teniéndola en el suelo tendida para regard or scorn of the neighbors. Slander darle cozes, e que por ello lo dixo. appears in these centuries as one of the most common crimes brought to the courts. No They ordered her to tell how Diego de proof of truthfulness was needed beyond the Guinea and Mari Ochoa de Guesala good name of the plaintiff and the testimony had made her a witch, and that the of other accusers “gente cuerda y virtuosa y Hereinoca’s were all witches, and the sin sospecha” (“sane and virtuous people, rest of what she had said those women trustworthy”) (Tausiet, 2004, p. 395). The ordered her to say, threatening her and importance of the personal fame and having her pinned to the ground to reputation was reflected in the writings of the kick her, and that is why she said it. bishops. Next to usury, the sin they most (Zabala, 2000, p. 57) strongly denounced was that of spreading rumors and gossip. To threaten the social Catalina will later retract herself and confirm standing of a person was to question his or her the initial witchcraft accusations; then, she is own existence; it is extremely easy to do, but asked by the court why she had previoulsy the consequences can be fatal. claimed that it was a forced statement, to which she responds, Two witch trials from Biscay will clearly show how rumor served to perpetuate existing Repondio y dixo que dicha Mari animosities between hostile groups, a fact that Ochoa de Guezala, su tía, la aconsejó was at the heart of many accusations of e dixo que así lo dixiese y hechase la witchcraft. The source of most accusations can fama que las dichas moças se lo abian be traced to preexisting conflict, rivalries, and mandado y hecho dezir, que si así no bad relationships among neighbors or family lo hiciese, que la mataría, e que por members, often caused by power struggles, ello lo dixo envy or revenge, suspicion of theft, or just hostility towards somebody who behaved in a She answered and said that the way that elicited distrust. An example of such mentioned Mari Ochoa de Guezala, conflict can be found in the civil trial against her aunt, advised and asked her to say the witches of the Bizcayan rural town of that, and to proclaim that those women Ceberio (1555-1558): “este proceso nos pone had forced her to say it, and that if she ante un grupo de aldeanos enemigos de otro didn’t do it, she would kill her, and grupo, al cual denuncian por delitos de that is why she said it. (Zabala, 2000, Brujería o, mejor dicho, instigan a unas niñas p. 60) a que hagan la denuncia” (“in this trial we face a group of townsfolk who are enemies of Having been intimidated by one faction or the another group, to whom they accuse of other, her testimony shows that what really witchcraft, or more accurately, they incite lies behind are two enemy groups who spread some young girls into making that claim”) rumors and accusations of withcraft as a tool (Caro Baroja, 1993, p. 198). Eight year old of confrontation. In this same trial, a Catalina de Guesala, after having confessed to clergyman presents what is taken for truth in withcraft and accused a number of neighbors public opinion as evidence of witcraft, “y que and family groups, retracts herself and públicamente se nonbran de cómo heran explains how she was coherced into making bruxos y bruxas … y que el testigo los ha those accusations: tenido y tiene por bruxos e bruxas” (“and that publicly they are known to be witches … and

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that the witness believed and believes them to Additionally, they help to understand the be witches”) (Zabala, 2000, p. 64). negotiation of identity in societies where personal value is anchored in public Zeanuri, another enclave in rural Bizkaia, is reputation, which consists entirely of other the site of similar conflicts in 1572. In this people’s words. In this respect, accusations of particular case, a woman is accused of using witchcraft can be seen as a locus where Early witchcraft to cause impotence to a man who Modern gender, social, and existential tensions she had wanted her daughter to marry. When, converge. after many years, the young man is cured, he is told that the spell was given by someone who References had wanted him to marry her daughter. In his deposition, the father of the victim states that, Azurmendi, M. (2013). Las brujas de although there were other candidates, he only Zugarramurdi. La historia del aquellarre suspects of this particular woman, obviously y la inquisición [The witches of because there was already a bad relation Zugarramurdi. A history of the among them, “y aunque también otros Aquelarre and the Inquisition]. Córdoba: casamientos se ofrecieron para su hijo, sólo Almuzara. sospecha de Mayora” (“and although there Barry, J., Hester, M., & Roberts, G. (Eds.). were other proposals of marriage for his son, (1996). Witchcraft in early modern he only suspects Mayora”) (Zabala, 2000, p. Europe. Studies in culture and belief. 75). When bad news strike and witchcraft Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. seems to provide a viable explanation, the Caro Baroja, J. (1985). Brujería vasca [Basque victims look for guilty parties or witches witchcraft] (4th ed.). San Sebastián- within the social structures of their rural Donostia: Txertoa. communities. In this process, rumor and Caro Baroja, J. (1993). Las brujas y su mundo gossip help to perpetuate the existing [Witches and their world]. Madrid: animoisty between opposing groups. Alianza Editorial. Clark, E., & Richardson, H. (1996). Women 4. Concluding Remarks and religion: A feminist sourcebook of Christian thought. San Francisco: Harper From a purely linguistic perspective, speech Collins. acts of witchcraft point to a high level of Coronas Tejada, L. (2000). Brujos y agency in women’s language, metaphorically hechiceros: Dos actitudes. In M. showing that women can do with words things Martínez San Pedro (Ed.), Los that are powerful and very difficult to control. marginados en el mundo medieval y A variety of Spanish Early Modern texts and moderno: Almería, 5 a 7 de noviembre documents stigmatize female aggressive de 1998 [The marginalized in the speech styles, and show a strong connection medieval and early modern world: between having a reputation for insult, threat Almeria, November 5-7, 1998] (pp. and quarrel and being accused of witchcraft. In 239-248). Almería: Instituto de Estudios this respect, additional research needs to be Almerienses. conducted for Early Modern Spain comparing Correas, G. (1906). Vocabulario de refranes y the rate of ‘assaultive speech’ in accused frases proverbiales y otras formulas witches and the general population. While I comunes de la lengua castellana en que have concentrated on the Basque and van todos los impresos antes y otra gran Aragonese regions, it would be important to copia [Vocabulary of sayings and see how the trends outlined in the territory of proverbial phrases]. Madrid: Jaime the traditional bruja present themselves in Ratés. southern Spain, where hechiceras prevailed in Covarrubias Horozco, S. (1611). Tesoro de la a very different demographic and cultural lengua castellana o española [Treasury setting. The testimonies evidence an of Castilian or Spanish language]. interconnection between rumor, reputation, Madrid: Luis Sánchez. and witchcraft that show how prejudice played Dye, S. (2016). 'Devilische wordis': Speech as out existing hostilities among neighbors and evidence in Scotland’s witch trials, prayed on women who were socially weak. 1563-1736 (Doctoral dissertation).

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