Witch trials in Catalonia
- View a machine-translated version of the Spanish article.
- Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
- Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 916 articles in the main category, and specifying
|topic=
will aid in categorization. - Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
- You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is
Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at [[:es:Caza de brujas en Cataluña]]; see its history for attribution.
- You may also add the template
{{Translated|es|Caza de brujas en Cataluña}}
to the talk page. - For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
Witch trials took place in the Principality of Catalonia in Spain between the 14th-century and 1767. Witch trials were comparably uncommon in Spain, and most of them took place in Catalonia and Navarre. While witch trials were uncommon in the rest of Spain, the witch trials in Catalonia had similarities with the witch trials in the rest of Western Europe, and are therefore a separate chapter in the context of witch trials in Spain. Around 400 women were prosecuted for witchcraft in Catalonia.
Background
The first witch trials in Catalonia are noted to have taken place as early as the 14th-century. They normally resulted in mild sentences, such as fasting and pilgrimages. In 1427, an important case took place in Amer in Girona, were a woman by the name Margarita was accused for having caused the earthquake by having sacrificed children to Satan. She was acquitted by the Inquisition, but the case are believed to have influenced the strong belief in witchraft among the population in Catalonia.
Witch hunt
The witch trials in Catalonia became more common in the early 17th-century. Between 1615 and 1627, a mass witch hunt took place in Catalonia, which resulted in a number of witch trials in several locations.
Among the witch trials were the Terrassa witch trial (1615–1619) and the Viladrau witch trials (1618–1622), with six and fourteen executions respectively.[1] In parallel, there were six witchcraft-related executions in Lluçanès, four in Taradell, four in Seva and four in El Bruc, three in Rupit and one in Vilalleons.
In the Vallès region, twenty people were executed: eight in Granollers (two of whom were men), six in Terrasa, three in Castellar del Vallès and one in Palau de Plegamans in Sant Miquel de Toudell, Sentmenat and La Garriga. Three were executed in the Bages region: one in Santpedor, one in Manresa, and one (Jerònima Muntanyola) in Sallent.
In Sant Feliu de Pallerols, Pere Torrent "Cufí" was executed for being a wizard. In 1622, the Royal Audience and the Spanish Inquisition took control over the witch hunt, which resulted in less executions until the witch hunt ended in 1627.
A second witch hunt took place in 1643, when 32 women were put on trial for sorcery in Capcir. They were however eventually released by the Bishop of Alet. After this, the witch trials in Catalonia became fewer. On 8 January 1767, María Pujol was executed for witchcraft in Catalonia.[2] This was the last witchcraft execution in Catalonia and likely in Spain.
Legal process
In Catalonia, the witch trials were normally conducted by local secular courts, not by the Spanish Inquisition, who generally prioritised heresy rather than witchcraft persecutions, and often suppressed witch trials when they occurred. The secular courts issued investigations of witchcraft, used torture towards suspects, and conducted executions by hanging rather than by burning at the stake. The witch hunt in Catalonia centered around primarily women, who were accused of having attended the witches' sabbath, making a pact with Satan, and having caused natural disasters and causing bad weather, infertility, miscarriages, and illness among humans and animals. The witch hunts often occurred during periods of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, storms or other natural disasters which negatively affected the crops, or during times of epidemics.
Aftermath
In January 2022, the Parliament of Catalonia passed a resolution to formally pardon more than 1,000 people, mostly women, who were executed for witchcraft between the 15th and 18th centuries.[3] The resolution came after an investigation by Catalan magazine Sàpiens which published a census of witch trials that took place in Catalonia.[4]
References
- ^ Palau, La Torre del. "La caça de bruixes a Terrassa | La Torre del Palau". www.naciodigital.cat (in Catalan). Retrieved 2022-10-02.
- ^ Sparks, Tori (2021-11-30). "They Were Not Witches, They Were Women". (barcelona-metropolitan.com). Retrieved 2022-09-01.
- ^ "Catalonia to pardon up to 1,000 people accused of witchcraft". The Guardian. 26 January 2022.
- ^ "Catalonia pardons women accused of witchcraft 400 years ago". The World. 14 February 2022.
Bibliography
- Alcoberro, Agustí: Biblioteca bàsica d'Història de Catalunya "El segle de les bruixes", Ed. BARCANOVA.
- Perez Molina, Isabel: Duoda, Centre d'Investigació de Dones, Universitat de Barcelona.
- v
- t
- e
- Witchcraft in early modern Britain
- Channel Islands Witch Trials
- Witch trials in England
- Witchcraft in Orkney
- Witch trials in early modern Scotland
- Witchcraft in early modern Wales
- Windsor Witches (1579)
- St Osyth Witches (1582)
- Witches of Warboys (1589–1593)
- North Berwick witch trials (1590)
- Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1597
- Pendle witches (1612)
- Northamptonshire witch trials (1612)
- Samlesbury witches (1612)
- Witches of Belvoir (1619)
- Bury St Edmunds witch trials (1645, 1662, 1655, 1694)
- Great Scottish witch hunt of 1649–50
- Alloa witch trials (1658)
- Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–62
- Bute witches (1662)
- Bideford witch trial (1682)
- Paisley witches (1696)
- Pittenweem witches (1704)
- Islandmagee witch trial (1711)
- Witch trials in Hungary
- Witch trials in Poland
- Kasina Wielka witch trial (1634)
- Northern Moravia witch trials (1678)
- Szeged witch trials (1728–29)
- Doruchowo witch trial (1783)
- Witch trials in France
- Labourd witch-hunt of 1609
- Aix-en-Provence possessions (1611)
- Loudun possessions (1633–34)
- Louviers possessions (1647)
- Normandy witch trials (1669–70)
- Affair of the Poisons (1679–1682)
- Trial of the Wizards of Lyon (1742–1745)
- Witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire
- Rottweil Witch Trials
- Derenburg witch trials (1555)
- Wiesensteig witch trial (1562–1563)
- Rottenburg witch trials (1578–1613)
- Trier witch trials (1581–1593)
- Pappenheimer family witch trial (1600)
- Fulda witch trials (1603–1606)
- Ellwangen witch trial (1611–1618)
- Eichstätt witch trials (1617–1630)
- Würzburg witch trials (1626–1631)
- Bamberg witch trials (1626–1631)
- Baden-Baden witch trials (1627–1631)
- Mergentheim witch trials (1628–1631)
- Esslingen witch trials (1662–1666)
- Witch trial of Fuersteneck (1703)
- Witch trials in Denmark
- Witch trials in Estonia and Latvia
- Witch trials in Finland
- Witch trials in Iceland
- Witch trials in Norway
- Witch trials in Sweden
- Põlula witch trials (1542)
- Copenhagen witch trials (1590)
- Gyldenstierne-sagen (1596)
- Køge Huskors (1608–1615)
- Finspång witch trial (1617)
- Vardø witch trials (1621)
- Akershus witch trials (1624)
- Ramsele witch trial (1634)
- Rosborg witch trials (1639–1642)
- Vardø witch trials (1651–1653)
- Kirkjuból witch trial (1656)
- Vardø witch trials (1662–63)
- Kastelholm witch trials (1665–1668)
- Mora witch trial (1669)
- Torsåker witch trials (1675)
- Katarina witch trials (1676)
- Rugård witch trials (1685–86)
- Thisted witch trial (1696–1698)
- Witch trials in Italy
- Witch trials in Catalonia
- Witch trials in Portugal
- Witch trials in Sicily
- Witch trials in Spain
- Val Camonica witch trials (1505, 1518)
- Mirandola witch trials (1522–1525)
- Navarre witch trials (1525–26)
- Lisbon witch trial (1559–60)
- Benandanti (1575–1650)
- Witches of Laspaúles (1593)
- Basque witch trials (1609)
- Terrassa witch trials (1615–1619)
- Witch trial of Nogaredo (1646–47)
in Europe
- Witch trials in the Netherlands
- Witch trials in the Spanish Netherlands
- Stedelen witch trial (1397–1407)
- Valais witch trials (1428–1447)
- Geneva witch trials (1571)
- Amersfoort and Utrecht witch trials (1591–1595)
- Bredevoort witch trials (1610)
- Roermond witch trial (1613)
- Spa witch trial (1616)
- Lukh witch trials (1656–1660)
- Salzburg witch trials (1675–1681)
- Liechtenstein witch trials (1679–1682)
- Witch trials in Virginia (1626–1730)
- Connecticut Witch Trials (1647–1663)
- Maryland Witch Trials (1654–1712)
- Witch trials in New York (1642–1790)
- Salem witch trials (1692–1693)
- Witchcraft and divination in the Old Testament (8th–2nd centuries BC)
- Directorium Inquisitorum (1376)
- De maleficis mulieribus (1440)
- Formicarius (1475)
- Summis desiderantes affectibus (1484)
- Malleus Maleficarum (1487)
- De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus (1489)
- Laienspiegel (1509)
- De praestigiis daemonum (1563)
- The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584)
- Newes from Scotland (1591)
- A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts (1593)
- Daemonolatreiae libri tres (1595)
- Daemonologie (1597)
- Magical Investigations (1599)
- Compendium Maleficarum (1608)
- A Guide to Grand-Jury Men (1627)
- The Discovery of Witches (1647)
- Treatises on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants (1751)