Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Dark Arts in Brescia: Sanudo Diaries: August 20, 1518

In the summer of 1518, stories of witches in nearby Brescia became the talk of Venice. Marin Sanudo made sure to include it, as also, the Editors did. Case in point, our editors tell us, a full trial record of a case involving some of these accused was included in Sanudo's record, as well, but that had occurred earlier, in June. Here, they say is a separate entry, by another author. A plea, using methods of an emotional appeal, sent and signed by one Joseph Servitor. The editors almost warn us here as introduction,
"...[i]t appears somewhat learned and literary, but it is also based more on prejudice and hearsay than on experience. The writer begins with an apology for not writing more frequently and then announces that he has something novel to relate, something the like of which has not been heard since the time of the sorceress Medea.... He tells the story dramatically...." [p. 402-3]

Editor's footnote: "Goiter, resulting from a lack of iodine, which is found principally in seafood, was a common problem among mountain people." [p. 403]

Sanudo Diaries August 20, 1518 (25:602-04); "There is a valley located in the northern part of Brescian territory whose official name is Val Camonica. It is near the border with the Germans, where our butchers go every year to provision our city with lamb. This place, however, is more mountain than valley, more sterile than fertile, and its inhabitants for the most part are more ignorant than anything else, people afflicted with goiter, almost all of them with the grossest deformations and completely lacking in the forms of civilization. Their customs are most frequently rustic and wild; rare are those who are familiar with, let alone observe, the commandments of the Lord. One can say that in a sense there is as much difference between these valley folk and the other inhabitants of the Brescian territory as there is between the Portuguese and the people of Colocut. As rumor has it, for a number of years warlocks and witches have [practiced] there, such as used to exist in the time of Medea in Thessaly, of whom the ancients write.
It seems that in the intervening centuries the art of witchcraft was transmitted from Albania to the Val Comonica. This accursed activity has multiplied to such an extent there over the years that if the proper measures were not to be taken against it immediately, the sickness of the plague would spread so far and so fast that the inhabitants of the entire valley on the heights and on the plains, those poor priests and lay people, would lose their faith in God's divine majesty.  More of them would be baptized than unbaptized, and therefore they would turn to the devil's works and learn the techniques of casting spells on men and bewitching little children. Wherefore, whether by the actions of some good Christian and public official of the valley who saw that it was rapidly moving toward perdition if someone did not root out such enormities and ward off such a curse or even by divine providence, the inquisitor of San Domenico finally went there several days ago with priests representing our bishops to look into this matter. In making their inquiries throughout the valley and its regions in order to cure it, they learned that there are an incredible number of warlocks and more followers of the devil than Christians. This is so because certain priests, whose duty should be the care of souls, were not truly baptizing infants at the baptismal font but only pretending to, with the result, it is said, that more than two thousand may be found there.... Some... were not consecrating the Host; and they have lived this way for some time. Thse priests were themselves the chief warlocks, [feeding on the people] as wolves do sheep, secretly serving the devil and not the true God. They committed all manner of evil, having, as the poet says, "a thousand harmful arts from Satan."

Editor's footnote: "Aeneid, 7:338 ("mille nocendi artes"). Virgil's reference is to Alecto, one of the Furies."
nedits: Not exactly Satan.

Sanudo Diaries August 20, 1518 (25:603-4); "There is great talk about how these kind of people become rebels against their living and true God and how they become, body and soul, possessions of the devil, and how they have proliferated faster than weeds. Some ... because they were not truly baptized... some, being poor, were promised great riches so that they could triumph without having to work hard for their livelihood; some lascivious old men were promised pleasure, which they could not get in any other way; some women with the goiter, whom no one but the devil would want, [went along] to get themselves well and truly laid, and [in a way] contrary to the way men should be with women.... The most common and popular explanation is that some, especially the head warlocks, ... seeing a person in despair would seemingly console him with sweet and artful words, pretending to be a friend or to have been moved to compassion. They would promise the desperate person that they could obtain for him the greatest good and the paradise of delights and happiness if he would do whatever they told him, for his own good. Undoubtedly those in despair, seeing that they were promised good things, wealth and lots of pleasures, agreed to do everything.
Thus each senior or master warlock, having converted the ignorant or desperate person to evil, took him into the forest to some remote spot or secret dwelling to ... initiate one.... Thse rituals having been completed, in order to turn the promises into effective reality, the initiate is made to have sexual relations, a male initiate with a woman and a female initiate with a man, of a beauty greater than Paris or Helen, at once represented to them as their lover. Apelles, the greatest painter of antiquity, could not have painted more beautiful figures than those presented to the initiates at this moment."

This letter does go on, (25:604-8), the editors tell us, but they turn to a different letter about the fallout from a week before. In it, it was reported that 64 people were burned for 'devilry', the same number sent to prison. Later that number was ammended to 66. The author of this letter says he witnessed eight witches burned who he thought were contrite believers. The Father in charge would not let him or others speak to the condemned before their sentence was carried out.

Sanudo Diaries August 12, 1518 (25:586-88); "... at the time that their sentences were read I saw that these women, in my opinion, were truly repentant, because they wree saying many prayers and commending themselves to God and the Blessed Virgin, crying out continuously, "Oh God, have mercy." And among other things, one of them in my presence said to Father Bernardino, the vicar, "Do you not know that you are doing me a great wrong, because I did not want to speak as you wanted me to? You called me a 'filty cow' and other insults; and you even promised to let me go if I spoke as you wished. You hold my soul up as one does a piece of cloth, and you are worse than I am. God knows this, and He is up in heaven." And almost all of them were told by him that he promised to release them if they would confess...." [p. 406]

There is more, of course. And some of these remained completely uncontrite, and even, obscenely defiant. But the author of this letter seems to have been much shaken about the whole proceeding, cautioning that only experts, that are God-fearing and with good conscience should do these things, "since it is a question of life and death." [p. 407]

After this long detailed section in latin, the letter returns to Italian.
"I realize that these are grave matters to relate, and I am amazed and beside myself. I believe them, but yet I do not believe them. May God who sees and knows all things, uproot this evil seed from the land of the living. I have given a written account of these things to your magnificence, and if I have included anything that might be offensive to your ears, please forgive me, ... I wrote my report in obedience to your wishes and I phrased things in as veiled a way ... as I could ...." [p. 407]

Our editors say there is much more to this story, old senate decrees, more testimonials, priest confessions, complaints by the inquisitors of interference from the papacy, etc.,  and continues into September, 1518 and book 26 .
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All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008


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