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The Basque witch trials of the 17th century represent the most ambitious attempt at rooting out witchcraft ever undertaken by the Spanish Inquisition. The trial of the Basque witches at Logroño, near Navarre, in northern Spain, which began in January 1609, against the background of similar persecutions conducted in Labourd by Pierre de Lancre, was almost certainly the biggest single event of its kind in history. By the end some 7,000 cases had been examined by the Inquisition. == Process == Although Logroño is not a Basque city, it was the setting for an Inquisition tribunal responsible for the Kingdom of Navarre, Alava, Gipuzkoa, Biscay, La Rioja and the North of Burgos and Soria.〔''(Inquisición )'' at the Auñamendi Encyclopedia.〕 Among the accused were not only women (although they predominated), but also children and men, including priests guilty of healing with ''nóminas'',〔 amulets with names of saints.〔''(Nómina ) at the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española.〕 The first phase ended in 1610, with a declaration of auto-da-fé against thirty-one of the accused, twelve or eleven of whom were burned to death (five of them symbolically, as they had died before ''auto-da-fé''). Thereafter proceedings were suspended until the inquisitors had a chance to gather further evidence, on what they believed to be a widespread witch cult in the Basque region. Alonso Salazar Frias, the junior inquisitor and a lawyer by training, was delegated to examine the matter at length. Armed with an Edict of Grace, promising pardon to all those who voluntarily reported themselves and denounced their accomplices, he traveled across the countryside during the year 1611, mainly in the vicinity of Zugarramurdi, next to the then non-existent French-Spanish border, where a cave and a water stream (Olabidea or ''Infernuko erreka'', "Hell's stream") were said to be the meeting place of the witches. As was usual in cases of this kind, denunciations flowed in. Frías finally returned to Logroño with "confessions" from close on 2,000 people, 1,384 of whom were children between the ages of seven and fourteen, implicating a further 5,000 named individuals. Most of 1,802 people〔''(Brujería )'' at the Auñamendi Encyclopedia, by Idoia Estornés Zubizarreta.〕 retracted their statements before Salazar, attributing their confessions to torture. The evidence gathered covered 11,000 pages in all. Only six people out of 1,802 maintained their confessions and claimed to have returned to sabbaths. In the stir of the events, proceedings were started in Hondarribia too (1611), some 35 km away from Zugarramurdi and 19 km from St-Jean-de-Luz, main hotspots of witchcraft allegations, against presumable female witches accused of casting spells on living creatures and meeting in Jaizkibel in akelarres led by a he-goat shaped Devil. It does not go unnoticed the fact that men in this Bidasoa region were recruited in droves for Basque whaling, leaving women on their own (sometimes save for the priests, children, and elder) to deal with their problems and fend for themselves during long periods. Interestingly, according to evidence given by a witness as attested in the document, "the Devil summoned in the Gascon language those from San Sebastian and Pasaia, and in Basque those from Irun and Hendaye, addressing a few words to them..." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Basque witch trials」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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