"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."


Cervantes wrote in a time of religious strife and upheaval, a time when many died and with suspicious justification. The first decade of the seventeenth century in Spain was one of great fear of heresy and sorcery, and one of strict religious control by the Catholic Church enforced by the Spanish Inquisition. In 1605, Cervantes published Part One of Don Quixote, a volume of work that, aside from defining the modern novel genre, incorporated social commentary on the workings of the Catholic Church and the Inquisition. In Don Quixote, Cervantes writes a scene of a curate who searches the private library of Don Quixote, as Don Quixote has been acting strangely after reading the books in his library. In 1613, Cervantes publishes his Exemplary Novels, one of which is the "Dialogue of the Dogs." This is a picaresque dialogue between, as the title suggests, two talking dogs, one of which, Berganza, relates his life story to the other. In this dialogue Berganza relates of an encounter with a witch who opens a new realm of thinking to Berganza. This encounter is a strange commentary upon Cervantes' time and society's opinion of and reaction to witches. Cervantes was obviously influenced by the religious events of his time, and his ideas upon them are written into his prose. This paper will explore how Cervantes reacted to the events occurring around him and to what extent critiques of these events, and the institutions controlling them, were integrated into his writings.

In 1517, Martin Luther wrote the infamous 95 Theses and started the Reformation, a splintering of the Christian faith into the Roman Catholics and those who felt the Catholics were overly corrupt, the Protestants. This document sparked years of religious turmoil in the western world that finally erupted into the Thirty Years' War in 1610, pitting nation against nation because of religious beliefs. Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church began to understand that Martin Luther wasn't just another heretic that could easily be suppressed, but a revolutionary who influenced tens of thousands of people and gained support across Europe. The Catholic Church realized that it needed to shape itself into something that the people could have more faith in, and they began to reform, and thus the Counter-Reformation began.

One of the most important institutions that was brought into existence was the Inquisition, an office with the main purpose of eradicating heresy from the Christian world. This was the second yet more formal incarnation of the Inquisition, the former incarnations in Spain and in Rome created in the middle ages when the fear of the unknown abounded. The Inquisition of Spain gained much infamy in years to come, for their particularly harsh torture and condemnation of "heretics" with little justification. The Spanish Inquisition gained autonomy from Rome, answering to the Suprema, the office that made final decisions on questions normal inquisitors could not answer themselves. By the end of the sixteenth century the Catholic Church, through the enforcement of the Spanish Inquisition, was in control of the majority of Spain. The secular courts still acted as they had before, but the power they wielded paled in comparison to that of the Church, because the threat of the Church was more devastating to the people than the threat of the secular arm of Spain, the people of Spain more interested in the salvation of their souls.

The other important child of the Counter-Reformation was the Index Librium Prohibitorum, or the Index of Prohibited Books, which was first officially sanctioned by the Council of Trent in 1559, drafted by Pope Paul IV. This Index was an incredible vehicle for weeding out heretics, as it forbade works by "about 550 authors...as well as many more individual titles" and didn't limit itself to heretical works either, but expanded to those that were "judged to be anticlerical, immoral, lascivious, or obscene." The Index also banned printers who were believed to be heretical and was the list of books that no good Catholic should read, print, or sell. The job of enforcing the Index fell to the Inquisition, and the Spanish Inquisition took a strong interest in nipping heresy in the bud using this method.

Along with this fear of Lutheran heresy came the fear of the supernatural powers of witches that surfaced with the witch craze of the early 1600s. At the time, "in a world there are few assured techniques for dealing with everyday crises, notably sickness, a belief in witches, or the equivalent of one, is not only not foolish, it is indispensable." The persecution of witches did not become so important until the Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church began, and initially as condemnation of those who were "too primitive to deserve doctrinal refutation" or rather, who were under the influence of pagan and superstitious beliefs. As Henry Lea writes, "This witch madness was essentially a disease of the imagination, created and stimulated by the persecution of witchcraft." Mostly the cause of persecution, once the craze had begun, was as simple as a quarrel between two people, one of them usually female, and some misfortune happening to the other participant of the quarrel, and everyone in the village "who had met with ill-luck hurried forward with his suspicions and accusations." This is the atmosphere in which Cervantes wrote.

Don Quixote was published in 1605, and in chapters four and five Cervantes writes an episode of censorship based on the activities of the Inquisition of the time. The curate, a good friend of Don Quixote, arrives at his doorstep, presumably because someone, perhaps his housekeeper, has complained of heretical books. The books in Don Quixote's library are mostly tales of chivalry, which would, under normal circumstances, be free of suspect, but because after reading them Don Quixote hallucinates about slaying giants, these books fall under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church. The curate states, "[The books] should be condemned to the fire to prevent them from tempting those who read them to do what my poor master must have done." The curate enters the library whilst Don Quixote is sleeping, and proceeds to sort through the books, picking out what is heretical, based on his own opinion. He condemns books for reasons such as "his dry and unsympathetic style deserves no other fate", "All I can say is that [the author] must go into the yard for a braggart and a nincompoop" and "Let it be spared, for the author is a friend of mine and should be respected for other more heroic and elevated works he has written."

This episode satirizes the extreme measures that the Spanish Inquisition took to make sure that no one in Spain was reading these forbidden books. The curate seems to represent more than merely a curate, rather an inquisitor, because he is referred to by the barber and the housekeeper as "your reverence." The fate of the heretical books is destruction, burnt in the courtyard by the housekeeper, who, being the zealot she is, throws the rest of the books into the fire as well. Cervantes parodies the Inquisition by writing the curate as a fanciful creature, one who is so relaxed about which books go to their doom, when in reality the Spanish Inquisition was very strict and thorough in their weeding of the garden of religious society.

To many modern citizens, the restrictions and steps taken to prohibit banned books by the Spanish Inquisition are frightening, as the Catholic Church had total control over most trade in and out of Spain for a period of time in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. After the Index was issued, it was ...followed by a vigorous search through all the book-shops and libraries of Spain. Examiners or revisors were appointed everywhere, with instructions to scrutinize all collections of books, whether in shops, monasteries, universities and private libraries, to detect not only those named in the Index but all others containing suspicious matter. Any books that looked suspicious and that were not on the list were sent to the Suprema for a ruling, and the names of the owners of these books were sent as well, to take under consideration.

Next for the Spanish Inquisition was the censorship of the source, the printers and book-sellers themselves. International trade in Spain was controlled by and inspected thoroughly by the Spanish Inquisition for nearly one hundred years, for fear that heretical books were being smuggled into the country. "Every package of merchandise, moreover--box, bale or barrel--was opened in the presence of the commissioner in search of concealed books." The inspection of books almost became a disease, and "Books in fact were regarded with almost an insane fear, as the most dangerous of all articles of commerce..." This censorship became so extreme that "there was little,...to which the Inquisition could not extend the jurisdiction of its censorship."

Cervantes, being in the midst of this, and at the same time writing in this situation, must have feared that his own writing would be seized and he would be accused as being a heretic. Luckily, though, the Inquisitor-General from 1608-1618, Bernardo de Sandoval y Rojas, became Cervantes protector after the author became a member of the secular Confraternity of the Most Holy Sacrament, "among whom he must have sought someone to shelter his graying locks." Don Bernardo de Sandoval was a patron of Cervantes because he felt that Cervantes was bringing an end, or a transformation and new beginning, to the romantic nonsense of the knight-errant tradition of literature. The Inquisitor-General may have been under slight delusions as to the essence of the first part of Don Quixote, but was nevertheless impressed by the critiques he had read of the novel, and became Cervantes' protector, often providing him with monetary assistance. That this may have influenced Cervantes' thoughts about the Catholic Church and the Spanish Inquisition is understandable, as he was protected from much of the critique and from the Spanish Inquisition as well.

The second work to be discussed is the short story "The Dialogue of the Dogs" from Cervantes' work Four Exemplary Novels. In this story, there is a scene in which one of the talking dogs, Berganza, encounters a witch, who explains to him her philosophies. The episode is based on the tales of two famous witches in Montilla, La Camacha and La Cañizares, that Cervantes had himself heard, and upon hearing these tales he went and saw the latter, who was still alive. Cervantes had heard that La Camacha had transformed a boy into a horse, and that the Inquisition had imprisoned the boy for allowing himself to be a part of the transformation. When Cervantes went to see La Cañizares, he saw the creature he describes in "Dialogue of the Dogs" and "Next to this disagreeable vision Cervantes saw a black dog jumping and twisting in devilish contortions, possessed of human speech and spirit, or perhaps the devil's." This dog became Berganza, and the scene that Cervantes writes is one that must be examined further.

Witchcraft in the early seventeenth century was a frightening concept to good Catholics and Protestants alike, for it was based on powers that they could not understand, powers that were much older than these institutional religions. Witches were seen as monsters, capable of thousands of evil acts against their neighbors, and the local people, as well as the Inquisition, were eager to be rid of them. In the case of around twenty-five witches in small villages in the Pyrenees, the "most common indictment in the roster of crimes for which the witches were tried was infanticide by vampirism." The confessions of these witches showed that they worshipped the Devil as their lord, and he came to them at assemblies called aquellares. These assemblies were held at night and prior to leaving for them, the witches would smear themselves "with a very evil-smelling fluid of a greenish-black color." It is unclear whether the witches, when they traveled to these aquellares, also known as the Sabbat, traveled only in spirit or if they left their bodies behind. In several cases, while the witches were carried to the Sabbat, others claimed that they remained where they were. A mother of a girl who traveled to aquellares "maintained a close watch on her and kept a hand on her but was unaware of her absence." The witches were also able to transform themselves into the bodies of animals, such as cats, dogs, pigs, and horses.

The problem of all of these feats of witchcraft performed by the witches of Zugarramurdi as confessed to the Inquisition in 1609 is just that--that they were confessed under threat of torture. This is true about all witch trials and normal heretical trials in the history of the Inquisition. If those under interrogation were threatened by torture or actually tortured, the actual truths uttered by the heretics and witches under investigation cannot be trusted as such, but must be taken with a salt lick. This became apparent to the Spanish Inquisition and they eventually concluded, after many so-called witches had been burned at the stake or otherwise executed, that "witchcraft was virtually a delusion, or that incriminating testimony was perjured....witchcraft was still a crime to be published when proved but,...proof was becoming impossible and confessions were regarded as illusions."

The question of what Cervantes thought of witches and witchcraft is an interesting one, because Don Quixote says to Sancho of witchcraft, "though I know well that there are no sorceries that can affect and force the will, as some simple people imagine. Our will is free and no herb nor charm can compel it." Yet Cervantes writes this scene in the "Dialogue of the Dogs" in which the practices of La Cañizares cannot be denied, but perhaps Cervantes is not condoning or condemning witchcraft, but merely pointing it out to the reader. The witch episode is one that affects Berganza deeply, and he refers to it often before he relates it, and it seems to have opened his eyes to another world in which he is in actuality a man, and not a dog. La Cañizares claimed that when his mother bore Berganza/Montiel, he and his twin brother, presumably Cipión, were changed into puppies because of a grudge held against their mother. The witch also tells Berganza that he can possibly regain his human form, something that obviously affects him quite deeply.

The episode of the witch comes in the center of the "Dialogue of the Dogs," indicating its importance. The witch's philosophy is so different from Berganza's that he is transfixed by it, as it opens a world of new possibilities to him, and "it is through her that questions regarding the deeper mysteries of life are introduced to Berganza." The witch tells her own story in the first person, instead of the point of view of Berganza himself, and she "converts the story from an idle animal fable to one of deep moral dimensions." Through the character of the witch Cervantes perhaps tries to draw the reader into the possibilities of opinions that may be frightening, and shows that even though actions may seem to be spawned of the devil, that those who are condemned of these acts can be human in their behaviors and dreams. The witch is torn because while she tries to redeem herself by working in the hospital, she knows it is not possible, as she has had little choice than to give herself to evil. The witch talks of how although her pleasures may not be real, but imagined during the trances she undergoes, and though they may be inspired by the devil, "still to us they seem pleasures" and by this she shows Berganza that for some, this is the only way to experience such pleasures.

The witch, as if to prove herself to Berganza, anoints herself with the special ointment and lays down, where she is, as the reader understands it, transported to the Sabbat. Berganza drags her out into the open, partially because he is frightened, and partially to remove himself from guilt if people were to discover him locked up in the room with her. The villagers see her in this trance, and some wonder whether it is religious ecstasy, while others wonder see it as witchcraft. This calls attention to the notion that those who were tried and burned as witches may have at another time been revered as saintly and canonized. When she awakened and realized that she was in the courtyard with so many watching her, she became very angry with Berganza, the black dog, and attacked him. In her deluded state, it is possible that she may have thought that Berganza was the devil himself, as he appeared to Dr. Faustus, and her attack upon him was to revenge herself upon the devil for the trials she had been put through by him and for him. The onlookers also condemned him, crying that he must be exorcised, and many began to beat him, yelling, "it's the devil in the shape of a dog!" At this heartbreaking denunciation, Berganza fled.

The message from Cervantes in this passage seems to be mixed. In it is satire of the witch craze, which expands easily and readily to anyone near who looks remotely suspicious. There is also a call to try to understand the beliefs of others before ritually and ecstatically condemning them. In a time of severe control of religious beliefs, Cervantes, whilst still a Christian, tells the reader to be more tolerant in an age when the reality of actions of the "forces of good" are more horrific than the purported actions of the heretics and witches. This episode from the "Dialogue of the Dogs" as well as the book-burning scene from part one of Don Quixote, gives the reader the impression that Cervantes was aware of the travesties that the Spanish Inquisition, at the prompting of the Catholic Church, were performing on a daily basis. Many of these acts of thought-control must have frightened and angered him, being an intelligent and educated member of society in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. To speak openly against these monolithic institutions like the Catholic Church and the Spanish Inquisition would mean condemnation as a heretic, so Cervantes took his own route, and, while under the protection of the Inquisitor-General, gently chided the prominent Catholic Church for its actions. This he did through satirical scenes in Don Quixote and the "Dialogue of the Dogs."