The “cultural war” on witchcraft unleashed in the 17th century in Catalonia after the trial of a rich young woman

Caterina Freixa was a young woman from a wealthy background who lived in the parish of Santa Maria d’Horta, in the municipality of Artés (now in the municipality of Avinyó, in Bages). She was married to a wealthy rural landowner when she was accused of witchcraft.

A neighbour accused her of having removed part of a child’s liver using diabolical arts, without leaving a scar. We are in Catalonia at the beginning of the 17th century and the case, which ended up in court, unleashed a real “cultural war” between supporters and detractors of these magical arts.

Uncatalogued volumes

Josep Capdeferro, professor of History of Law at UPF, found an unpublished document in the Episcopal Archive of Vic, a collection with more than 180 uncatalogued volumes of legal documents from the 16th to the 19th century, which explained the case. It was a legal statement signed by up to fourteen prestigious Catalan lawyers in defence of Freixa, who was accused of witchcraft.

The document, according to the investigator in a statement, is complemented by another obscurantist document that is already known but has not been analyzed until now. This text was written by Felip Vinyes, the prosecutor who accused Caterina Freixa, and which represents the incriminating reply.

“I had never thought that among legal documents like these, which were usually submitted to first-rate courts, one day I would find a document on witchcraft,” explains Capdeferro. A fact that is not minor, since it marked “the beginning of the end” of the witch hunt in Catalonia.

Capdeferro came across a document entitled Answer of law for Catherina Frexer and de Prat, termini Artes, parish of Santa Maria de Horta, diocese of Vicenza, wife of James Frexera defense statement signed by fourteen of the most prestigious jurists of Modern Catalonia, including Pere Antoni Jofreu, Jaume Càncer and Pere Fontanella.

Catalonia, pioneer in laws on witchcraft

Catalonia was a pioneer in creating specific legislation against witchcraft crimes and trials, as demonstrated by the recent celebration of the sixth centenary of the Ordinacions d’Àneu (1424), the first legal instrument in Europe that thoroughly regulated this area.

Two centuries later, already in the middle of the modern age, the intellectual atmosphere in the principality was changing, but not unanimously. Around the year 1620, a debate arose between supporters and detractors of the accusations of alleged crimes of witchcraft.

“This argument in favour of Freixa is technical, well-founded legally and at the same time ironic against the superstitious,” says Capdeferro. The writing complements another manuscript that no one had paid much attention to until now and which with this discovery takes on its full meaning.

This is the response made by Felip Vinyes, lawyer and accusing prosecutor, focused on the testimony of fourteen women, allegedly confessed witches. All of them had testified and incriminated the accused, “probably with statements obtained under torture”, with the aim of completing the trial against Caterina Freixa and leading to a death sentence.

Wide catalogue of crimes

In cases like this, the list of crimes could be expanded with accusations such as causing hail that devastated fields or killed animals, renouncing the Christian faith, worshipping and making a pact with the devil, heresy…

The replica, titled The answer of the law for the Fiscal Manager of the Baronies of the Episcopal Table of Vicen, brought against Catherine Frexa for the crime of lamiatus, or strigatusis “technically much poorer, obscurantist, at times it seems like a treatise on demonology and has an incorporated opinion, where the famous doctor of medicine Joan Francesc Rossell states that part of a person’s organ could be cut out and they would continue to live for a few hours or days,” explains Josep Capdeferro.

In the second decade of the 17th century, it was common for the lawyer who was directly involved in a case to seek the support of colleagues in order to put more pressure on the judge or public opinion in major legal or political debates. This must have been the case of the fourteen jurists who defended Caterina Freixa, who were linked to the Generalitat and possibly influenced by the Society of Jesus.

On January 10, 1619, the Jesuit Pere Gil had delivered a document to the viceroy Duke of Alburquerque against the witch hunt. The arrest of Caterina Freixa on November 8 of that same year, with the risk of being condemned after a trial full of arbitrary actions and confessions under torture, made the lawyer Jofreu and company step forward and say “Enough!”

“Cultural Wars” between 1619 and 1622

For the UPF researcher, the debate that took place between 1619 and 1622 would be what we currently call “cultural wars”. “Either you saw one thing very clearly, or the other,” he points out. At the beginning of 1620, to give an example, in Catalonia there were four bishops who were openly against the persecution of witches and two who were clearly in favour, including the bishop of Vic.

Capdeferro has not yet been able to find any document that explains how this case ended. All that is known is that in 1622 Caterina Freixa was transferred from Artés to Barcelona. But the researcher hopes to find new results soon.