Zugarramurdi (Navarra) (EFE).- The philologist and doctor in Medieval Literature Elvira Roca Barea, winner of the 2023 Spring Prize, recounts in the work “The witches and the inquisitor” the clash between reason and magical beliefs during the process for witchcraft in the Navarrese village of Zugarramurdi occurred in 1609.
In “The Witches and the Inquisitor” (Espasa), Roca narrates how what seemed like a one-off, unimportant episode is acquiring unusual virulence. Given these circumstances, the Inquisitor General Bernardo de Sandoval sent Alonso de Salazar y Frías to Logroño, headquarters of the Holy Office.
In his first novel, Roca reveals the historical figure of Alonso de Salazar, as forgotten as it is relevant, and leads the reader on a journey through the ins and outs of witchcraft in the 17th century, when religious wars, political conflicts and other circumstances triggered a massive witch hunt in Europe.
The writer from Malaga, in a press conference held at the Zugarramurdi Witch Museum, has assured that there is a paradox that this is “one of the great cases of witchcraft in the history of the world”, but “it is not really”.
For Roca, there are many factors to take into account to understand this case, such as collective hysteria, religious conflict and even the rivalry between France and Spain for control of Navarre.
Salazar, an extraordinary man
The novel recreates a historical episode in the enigmatic sphere of the Spanish Inquisition and rescues the figure of Alonso de Salazar. At a time of persecution throughout Europe, this Spanish priest and inquisitor questioned the veracity of witchcraft theories.
Salazar, Roca has highlighted, was “a very attractive character, with a fine sense of humor”, who during the trial carried out in Logroño against the Zugarramurdi witches saw at one point that everything was a “mountain of words” or accusations without any proof.
The Burgos priest, he stressed, “does not have any glamour” because “reason is always very boring” compared to “the fascination of magic”. But he was “an extraordinary man” who in that difficult time that he had to live in “did not falter at any time”, since he was convinced that these facts denounced by the witnesses “are not possible.”
The inquisitor remained firm in his ideas in this regard when “it would have been much easier to compromise” in the opinion of the majority, stressed Roca, who considered that “the miracle was that he did not end up accused of witchcraft.”
Salazar’s ideas ended up causing a “Copernican turn” in the Inquisition’s criteria on witchcraft from that moment on, commented Roca, who wondered “how many people did (Salazar) save the lives of his own fanaticism”.
The real role of the Spanish inquisition
In a certain sense, Roca defends the role of the Spanish Inquisition in the novel, which “understood the importance of silencing everyone” and “preventing people from continuing to feed this bonfire by telling each other things.”
In this regard, he recalled the “unbelievable journey” of eight months through towns and villages in Navarra that Salazar made “preaching silence” and urging the inhabitants to “stop counting atrocities about their neighbors.”
The writer, who after the press conference visited the famous Zugarramurdi Caves, has analyzed the reasons why this witch hunt broke out in Europe in the 17th century and has alluded to facts such as a “universal fund of superstition”, to which was added the impact of the Latin translation of the Greek hermetic texts.
Other factors that were added were the influence of alchemy and necromancy, the wars of religion and the spread of the printing press, which meant that there were engravings “reproduced hundreds or thousands of times”, creating “the imagery that we Westerners have about the witchcraft” and its topics. “Everything Halloween comes from there,” she said.
Witchcraft, he continued, had that response “because people fanatically believe it to be true” and, in fact, there are cases of lynching when a complaint of witchcraft was not attended to. “People took the law into their own hands,” he said.
End the stereotypes
Roca has indicated that it is time to put an end to some stereotypes and has affirmed that “when you investigate reality, reality has a different aspect”, although he has recognized that it is a very complicated task, because these topics “are very popular and cause great emotional relief.”
In this sense, he has shown little optimism with the possibility that this book will serve to eliminate stereotypes about Zugarramurdi, because “the archetypes that play against it are of formidable power.”
“Reason in front of Halloween is worthless”, has declared the novelist, who has declared that in the human being there is “a fantastic tendency to believe in everything that smacks of magic”.