The story is well documented: in 1588 a group of women from Triora were accused of what at the time was considered the most heinous of crimes, namely to be followers of the heretical sect of diabolic witches. That is how Franchetta Borelli and other accused local women were subjected first to the Inquisitor then to Commissioner Giulio Scribani. They were found guilty of being Satan’s worshippers.

According to the judges they had renounced their bodies and souls to the Devil (of Christian religion) in exchange for his evil powers. Although they were not burnt to death, their fate was marked forever. Today, through scrupulous archival research conducted on ancient documents we have finally uncovered new elements which allow us to retrace one of the most notorious witchcraft trials that took place in our country. A sequence of events that profoundly marked the relationship between the Holy Office and the Republic of Genoa and at the same time permanently established the Church of Rome’s new position towards folkloric “superstitions” and their custodians providers of traditional magic, whom under the various titles of herb healers, midwives and faith healers played a significant role in the safeguarding of health and well-being within their communities, especially among the lower classes.

The biggest heed taken by the Inquisition in evil witchcraft trials involved a change in the strategies used to counteract superstitions; these were eventually no longer fought but mostly absorbed as orthodoxy. This fact allowed the spread of that particular condition known as hunt-free demonopathy which characterized Italy during the age of the great persecutions of the 1500-1600 in Europe. While maintaining a severe stance in their fight against demonology, ecclesiastic authorities ended up substituting burning at the stake with holy water exorcisms. As a matter of fact, it is not by chance that Triora still celebrates a curious religious ceremony in order to ward off caterpillar invasions, a ritual deeply ingrained in that magic mentality which on paper was meant to be eradicated but instead, at the end of the Counter-Reformation resulted in it being absorbed and in fact amplified within a religiousness inspired by a sense of the supernatural, by the cult of relics (Triora hosts an enviable array of holy relics, even odd ones such as the Virgin Mary’s milk), of sacred images and by the use of sacramentals (holy water, oil, salt, candles and incense). It remains unclear whether behind the apparent confessionalization of society and through the abandonment of its witchcraft accusations the Church wanted to maintain its spiritual hegemony, coming to terms with folkloristic religiousness and with those profound beliefs (the vane rites) that were part of Franchetta and the other victim’s cultural world. Those who tried, against the tide and the times, such as Giulio Scribani, to eradicate them appealed to a tradition preceding the Counter-reform when the Church came out victorious against Cathar and Waldensian heretics. Thereafter they started to look at rural superstitions with different eyes giving a juridical and theological shape to that new heresy called diabolic witchcraft which had been fought for over three centuries. It is questionable whether the witch hunt in Italy ended in Triora but it is certain that Scribani thought its end was untimely. In a letter to his seniors he claimed it necessary to conduct an inquisition, the likes of which hadn’t been seen for over a century in this area, against evil women referring to an important preceding phenomenon of which there were only traces left in human memory. From these events we have just a few remaining references, the most famous of which is the fresco in the Saint Bernard Church dating back to the end of the 1400s. The fresco depicts “witches” wearing a miter who burn in an infernal furnace along with “Gazari” heretics. This illustrates how early witch hunting took place in this area, considering the role this Franciscan monk had in the spread of this new threat and the active part he took in the instruction of the first two trials against two women Finicella (Rome 1426) and Matteuccia (Todi 1428) both of whom were burnt at the stake for being in collusion with the Devil.

In the year 1588, Triora just like the rest of Italian society had progressed from burning witches at the stake as much larger threats loomed over the Church of Rome. Soon those painful events would be hushed while the older beliefs and superstitious rites would be absorbed into the prevailing religion and survive to the 1900s a many oral sources gathered by local historians can testify to. From that perspective, we could say something has survived from Franchetta’s world, besides our recollection of her as a victim of religious fanaticism. However, we must not look for her legacy in the modern day stereotypical images of Triora’s witches as these paradoxically distance us even further from the memory of the trials’ victims, thus inappropriately handing them a posthumous “damnatio memoriae” (literally “condemnation of memory” meaning that a person should not be remembered). “Surprisingly” evidence of that world that Scribani wanted to eradicate completely can to this day still be found within the official religion. Beyond the layers of widespread devotion and inherited faith you can catch a glimpse of it woven between ancient traditions and words deriving from a more modern religion. This reveals that, centuries later, the various shapes of the ancestral magic originated from the “common social phenomenon” of which Franchetta and the other unfortunate ladies were a result of, can be placed on the same level of importance as their persecutors.