They sent maladies to animals and destroyed the fruits of the earth by their enchantments. An inquisitor having attempted to arrest and bring them to punishment, the ecclesiastical and secular judges opposed him, which led Julius II. to declare that these crimes were within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, as well as all other heresies. In consequence Adrian VI. reminded the different Inquisitions of their duty in this respect.
This bull was not necessary in Spain, as the Inquisition of Aragon had taken cognizance of magic and sorcery, since the pontificate of John XXII.
It appears that the Inquisition of Calahorra, burnt more than thirty women as sorceresses and magicians in the year 1507. In 1527, a great number of women who practised magic were discovered in Navarre.
These crimes increased so much in the province of Biscay, that Charles V. found it necessary to notice it. Persuaded that the ignorance in which the people were left by the priests was the cause of these superstitions, he wrote in December, 1527, to the Bishop of Calahorra, and to the provincials of the Dominicans and Franciscans, to select a number of able preachers from their communities, to teach the doctrine of the Christian religion on this point. But these ministers of the gospel, even those who had acquired a reputation for learning, believed as well as the enchanters in these illusions.
Nevertheless, Father Martin de Castañaga, a Franciscan monk, composed in that time, a book in Spanish, entitled, A Treatise on Superstitions and Enchantments. I have read this work, and I acknowledge (with the exception of a few articles, in which the author appears too credulous,) that it would be difficult even in the present time to write with more moderation or discernment. The Bishop of Calahorra, Don Alphonso de Castilla, having read this treatise, had it printed in quarto, and sent it to the priests in his diocese, with a pastoral letter, in 1529.
The Inquisition of Saragossa condemned several sorceresses who had formed part of the association in Navarre, or had been sent into Aragon to gain disciples. The inquisitors, the ordinary, and the consulters, were not of the same opinion; the greatest number voted for the execution of the sorceresses, the others for reconciliation and perpetual imprisonment. The minority gave up their opinion in deference to the greater number, and thus relaxation was pronounced unanimously, without any of the formalities prescribed, and the unfortunate women perished in the flames. The Supreme Council which was informed of this event by one of its members, who had learnt it from an inquisitor of Saragossa, addressed a circular on the 23rd of March, 1536, to all the tribunals, stating the Inquisition of Saragossa had failed in its duty, in not having consulted the council, after having found that the opinions of its members were different.
The inquisitor-general Manrique, being informed that the sect of sorcerers made great progress in different parts of the Peninsula, added several articles to the edict of denunciation: the substance of them was, that all Christians were obliged to declare to the Inquisition:
First, If they had heard that any person had familiar spirits, and that he invoked demons in circles, questioning them and expecting their answer, as a magician, or in virtue of an express or tacit compact; that he had mingled holy things with profane objects, and worshipped in the creature that which belongs only to the Creator.
Secondly, If he had studied judicial astrology to discover the future, by observing the conjunction of the stars at the birth of persons.
Thirdly, If any person in order to discover the future, had employed geomancy, hydromancy, aëromancy, piromancy, onomancy, necromancy, or sorceries by beans, dice, or wheat.