W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 5-2020 In the Cathedral of the Devil: Young Witches of Navarre, 1608-1614 Olivia Louise Vande Woude College of William & Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the Basque Studies Commons, European History Commons, Legal Commons, Modern Languages Commons, and the Social History Commons Recommended Citation Vande Woude, Olivia Louise, "In the Cathedral of the Devil: Young Witches of Navarre, 1608-1614" (2020). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 1529. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1529 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. In the Cathedral of the Devil: Young Witches of Navarre, 1608-1614 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the Department of History from The College of William and Mary by Olivia Louise Vande Woude Accepted for Highest Honors (Honors, High Honors, Highest Honors) Lu Ann Homza Professor Lu Ann Homza, Director Giulia Pacini Professor Giulia Pacini Professor Gérard Chouin Williamsburg, VA May 1, 2020 Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. iii AcknoWledgements ........................................................................................................................ iv Maps ................................................................................................................................................ v Chapter 1: Backgrounds .................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2: How Testimony Was Formed ...................................................................................... 24 Chapter 3: Emotional Displays and Social Pressure in the Revocations of Young Witches ........ 60 Epilogue ......................................................................................................................................... 90 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 96 ii List of Figures Figure 1 ............................................................................................................................................ v Figure 2 ............................................................................................................................................ v Figure 3 ............................................................................................................................................ 1 Figure 4 .......................................................................................................................................... 24 Figure 5 .......................................................................................................................................... 60 iii Acknowledgements This honors thesis came to fruition thanks to numerous individuals. First and foremost, I am grateful to Professor Lu Ann Homza and her boundless encouragement, instruction, and readiness to help at every turn of this project. Since my time as a freshman in Professor Homza’s class, The Social & Legal History of Spain, I have come to know her as an exceptional thesis director, major advisor, and faculty member of the History Department. I know that my thesis and my intellectually rigorous undergraduate career at the College of William & Mary Would not have been possible without her. Professor Homza truly represents the very best of the William & Mary community. I Would also like to express my utmost gratitude to my tWo other committee members. Professor Giulia Pacini and Professor Gérard Chouin have not only been seminal advisers to me during my four years as an undergraduate, but they have also made this honors thesis defense possible. I am grateful for their enthusiasm and support of this endeavor. In addition, I am very thankful to the Roy R. Charles Center. The Charles Center enabled me to travel to Pamplona, Spain With Professor Homza in March of 2017, and to have my first magical encounter with seventeenth-century legal manuscripts in the General and Royal Archives of Navarre (AGN). The Charles Center also provided me with the Honors Thesis Fellowship grant that enabled me to return to Pamplona in May of 2019, when I completed the necessary research for this project. Without their financial assistance, this honors thesis and those of countless other students Would not have been realized. Furthermore, I am extremely appreciative of the 26 donors who contributed to my GiveCampus campaign for this honors thesis. It was because of these donations that I Was able to return to Pamplona in 2019, work in the archives there, and immerse myself in the very region that the young witches I studied lived nearly four centuries ago. My remarkable time in the archives and Pamplona, however, Would not have been possible Without the staff members Who make the AGN such an amazing place. I am especially thankful to Peio Joseba Monteano Sorbet and his wonderful wife Mary Pat for Welcoming me to Pamplona and for their friendship these past feW years. Moreover, I am grateful to the folks I have come to know through the AGN—including Amanda Scott and Alex Wingate—and for their help With everything from translating the legal manuscripts studied in this honors thesis to recommending secondary sources for this project. I must of course also thank my netWork of mentors and friends. I am grateful for the William & Mary instructors who have provided a source of unwavering support during my undergraduate career, including Professor Ronald Schechter, Professor Deborah Morse, Professor Amy Limoncelli, Professor Nicole Dressler, Professor Magali Compan, Professor Julie AgneW, Professor Carl Tack, Mr. MattheW Siano, Mr. Sean Schofield, Ms. Kathryn Snyder, Ms. Katherine CartWright, and many, many others. I am likeWise grateful to the friends Who have cheered me on from the start of this project to its completion, especially Mr. Thomas Pascal, Mrs. Mary Medici, Mrs. Ioana Razi, my best friend Haajar Alaoui, my roommate Roberta Paulinetti Franco Neves, and my cohort of Honors Fellows. Above all, I am indebted to my family, and particularly my parents, Who made my William & Mary education possible in the first place. Their love and unceasing encouragement inspired me to undertake this endeavor and to broaden my academic horizons—and for this I am most thankful. iv Maps Figure 1: Map of Spain, featuring the locations of confessions (in green) and revocations (in red) during the Zugarramurdi witch-hunt. Map is my own. Figure 2: Map of Navarre, Spain, featuring the locations of confessions (in green) and revocations (in red) during the Zugarramurdi witch-hunt. Map is my own. v 1 Chapter 1: Backgrounds Figure 3: AHN, Inqu., Leg. 1679, Image 767. BetWeen 1608 and 1614, one of the largest witch-hunts in the history of the Spanish Inquisition and early modern Europe cast a spell over Navarre, prompting adults and, most interestingly, young people to confess to joining the Devil’s sect. Historians call this large-scale event the Zugarramurdi witch-hunt. Originating near the border of France and Spain in the village of Zugarramurdi, the witch persecution was so large that it involved 2,000 formally accused Witches (1,384 of whom were children under fourteen) and 5,000 accomplices said to have attended the coven.1 It was supposedly in the village of Zugarramurdi that seventeenth- century Navarrese men, women, and young people began to participate in Witch gatherings, 1 H.C. Erik Midelfort, “Review of The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609– 1614), by Gustav Henningsen,” The American Historical Review 88, no. 3 (June 1983): 692-93. 2 either in fields or in gaping caves, Where they celebrated the Devil and practiced harmful magic or maleficia.2 Among the first alleged young witches of the Zugarramurdi persecution Was tWelve-year- old Juana Fernandez de Arbica from the village of Yanci. Like other young witches, Arbica immersed Spanish inquisitors in the strange tale of her beWitchment in February of 1610. Arbica captivated inquisitors With her confession by explaining how in July of 1608, a witch teacher or maestra named Magdalena de Argarate enticed her to visit the coven With tWo hazelnuts and then immediately brought her there. She shocked inquisitors further by describing her third visit to the coven, where Argarate brought her before the Devil, Who purportedly had three horns in his head and forced her to deny God, the Virgin Mary, the sacraments, her parents, and godparents. Arbica likely appalled inquisitors yet again when she added that Argarate made her kiss the Devil below his tail, dance, and celebrate him at the gathering. Arbica’s confession Went on for six pages total, Which she suffused With other shocking details about the coven: young and old female witches had sex with the Devil, some Witches flayed toads with their teeth, and others made mysterious sauces and soups at the assembly. At the very end, she concluded her strange tale with a list of over