Posthumous pardons for witches
It is common to have in our collective imagination associated the period of the early Modern Era, between the 16th and 17th centuries, as that of the Inquisition. From the Late Middle Ages until that time of transition, a series of crises, both spiritual and material, occurred.
Various famines and epidemics such as the Black Death led to a vitalism channeled through intellectual secularization as an overcoming of feudalism, and with it, moral panic. The solution from the old social strata took inquisitorial forms, accusing those who were on the margins of the ecclesiastical frameworks as scapegoats.
The main manifesto that promoted these persecutions was the Malleus Maleficarum, a guide written by German inquisitors that served as a model for condemning alleged witches. In this treatise, in addition to distortions about magical events demonizing those who practiced it, techniques of interrogation and torture were detailed in great detail, and which had its antecedent in the demonology of Jean Bodin.
Faced with these practices, the Jesuit priest Friedrich Spee wrote the Cautio Criminalis anonymously, referring to himself as Incerto Theologo Romano. This work details certain doubts (dubiorum) of an ethical-legal nature, explaining how more and more judicial rulings were produced in draconian processes, since torture led innocent people to testify with false accusations against third parties in an attempt to survive.
The image we have of the Inquisition is associated with the obscurantism of the Catholic Counter-Reformation in the face of the rise of Protestantism, as well as its Spanish application in the form of overcompensation for the Andalusian heritage of other Semitic influences. However, there are those who see Friedrich Spee's treatise as an open criticism of how Protestant influence exercised its power even more coercively than the Catholic Church itself.
The reality is that, regardless of the theological perspective from which it was applied, the witch hunt systematically focused on women. Certain authors such as Silvia Federici or Margaret Atwood expose the relevance in our contemporary times of the witch hunt as an extension of misogyny, and the need for pardon.
The pardon of witches is a symbolic way of recognizing the historical injustice committed against people convicted and executed for witchcraft during the witch hunts. To obtain a pardon, it is necessary for a government or judicial authority to recognize the injustice and suffering of the victims, and this may require a public campaign and social pressure.
The best-known case of witch hunts occurred in Salem (Massachusetts, USA) where 5 women were executed as witches in 1693. One of them named Elizabeth Johnson Jr. was never executed, although she did not receive acquittal for the charges of she. During 2022, a legislative initiative carried out as part of an institute's school project tried to find a solution and she was symbolically exonerated from her charges, after three centuries.
In Spain, in addition to the well-known case of the Zugarramurdi Witches, we find legislative initiatives in Catalonia in favor of historical reparation for these women. The feminist social movement remembers that the oldest law in Europe "against the crime of witchcraft" comes from Vall d'Àneu, region of Lleida, dating back to the year 1424.
In other countries such as Germany, Katharina Henot, an influential woman of her time who was considered a threat to the local establishments of the German city of Cologne, accused of witchcraft, was acquitted. Katharina ended her days being condemned to the stake, in a trial that was clearly fraudulent for the jurisprudence of the time.
It was in Scotland where, after being reticent about these processes, a law was passed in parliament in April 2022 in favor of pardon. This campaign led by Louise Yeoman, which began in 2008, led to the creation of a witchcraft task force in 2018 which led to historical reparation for the Pendle witches in the Lancashire region of Great Britain.
It is important to note that the pardon of witches in Scotland does not mean that the original convictions have been quashed or overturned, but rather that a symbolic pardon has been issued in recognition of historical injustice. The pardon is based on a law passed in 2018 that allows witchcraft convictions to be declared null and void, but this has not yet happened in Scotland.
It is important to note that the pardon of witches in Scotland does not mean that the original convictions have been quashed or overturned, but rather that a symbolic pardon has been issued in recognition of historical injustice. The pardon is based on a law passed in 2018 that allows witchcraft convictions to be declared null and void, but this has not yet happened in Scotland.
The Scottish case could be considered in legal terms as de jure due to the lack of an official absolution for women persecuted for witchcraft in Scotland, despite the Scottish Parliament passing the 2004 resolution calling for a formal apology and the removal of the convictions of women accused of witchcraft. Official absolution would be a recognized and legal measure, as opposed to a de facto situation in which women persecuted and convicted of witchcraft did not have formal or legal recognition of their innocence or absolution.
The violence exercised against women accused of witchcraft cannot be erased from history although it can be recognized and repaired. Only social mobilization can bring justice and reparation to those who were victims of an evil that continues to affect us today, against ignorance.
We leave you here another reflection about the relevance of symbolic forgiveness: https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/87454-pardoning-witches-middle-ages-symbol-our-times.html
and also Louise Yeoman's profile so you can have access to her work on witchcraft in Scotland: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=iYoSq-wAAAAJ&hl=en
Nuria Acquaviva - nacquavivaps@gmail.com
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> Modern Age and pagan cults: witchcraft in Western Europe
