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The Night Battles and Friulian Society
- By John Schlismann
- Published 07/12/2008
- Religion and the Paranormal
- Unrated
John Schlismann
John Schlismann has in interest in renaissance European history. If you want to purchase The Night Battles goto: http://www.amazon.com/Night-Battles-Witchcraft-Sixteenth-Seventeenth/dp/0801843863
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Friulian society was one of superstition, a rural society in which the old traditions, many of them pre-Christian traditions died hard and were completely foreign to the non-Friulian inquisitors. Many of the people in the society were uneducated and sought to explain hard times they encountered through supernatural means, such as witches and the benandanti. The evidence put forth in Carlo Ginzburg’s book The Night Battles shows a society that is completely saturated with superstition and one that evolves its myths of the good benandanti vs. the evil witch into the idea that the benandanti are evil witches. He shows the roles of the peasants, the inquisitors, and the church in this change.
The Friulian peasants in the 16th and 17th century revolved their lives around agricultural cycles. Considering this was a rural society, agriculture was probably the most important aspect in their day to day lives. The calendar revolved around these cycles as exhibited by the Ember Seasons (22), and their very livelihood depended on a good harvest. The Friulian people attributed a good harvest to God, because they were after all a Catholic state, when the harvest was bad they attributed it to the devil. Early in their society witches were in essence the devils pawns; who did the devil’s bidding. And the benandanti literally meaning well-farers (back page) were doing the work of God by fighting these witches. Witches were responsible for most of the unexplainable negative things that happened in Friulian society. When a child experienced an unexplained illness and dies, it was attributed to witches and when the harvest was bad it was attributed to witches. Early on the
benandanti were the great equalizers who fought the witches on their own turf, countering there evil deeds with good.
A key aspect to the mind set of Friulian society is that of fate. In order to alleviate the feeling of helplessness when it came to such things as a bad harvest, or the unexplained death of a child the peasants created reasons to explain them. The reasons for explaining the good were God, and early on in their culture the benandanti; the bad is attributed to witches and the devil. Witches and the benandanti were created in order to explain the unexplainable. In the minds of those who believed in them, this was the only logical explanation for the bad and hardship that was continually facing them in there society.
The major difference between the Friulian peasants and the inquisitors was the level of education they each had. The inquisitors were educated by the church usually through monasteries as is exhibited by the majority of their titles being Fra (meaning monk or brother). The peasants were educated by each other many times in the local superstitions and myths of the geographical area in which they lived. The monks were educated exclusively in Catholic doctrine and to them the myths of the peasants were completely foreign and were not sensible. Early on the inquisitors didn’t seem to really pay the benandanti much attention, they seemed to believe that there beliefs were more of a hassle and did not threaten church doctrine as much as some of the other beliefs of the period. This is exhibited by the fact that from the years 1575-1619 no trial brought against the benandanti was brought to a conclusion except the trial against Paolo Gasparutto and Battista Moduco. (71) The repression of Lutheranism was much more on the inquisitors mind at this point in history. (71)
The Friulian peasants in the 16th and 17th century revolved their lives around agricultural cycles. Considering this was a rural society, agriculture was probably the most important aspect in their day to day lives. The calendar revolved around these cycles as exhibited by the Ember Seasons (22), and their very livelihood depended on a good harvest. The Friulian people attributed a good harvest to God, because they were after all a Catholic state, when the harvest was bad they attributed it to the devil. Early in their society witches were in essence the devils pawns; who did the devil’s bidding. And the benandanti literally meaning well-farers (back page) were doing the work of God by fighting these witches. Witches were responsible for most of the unexplainable negative things that happened in Friulian society. When a child experienced an unexplained illness and dies, it was attributed to witches and when the harvest was bad it was attributed to witches. Early on the
A key aspect to the mind set of Friulian society is that of fate. In order to alleviate the feeling of helplessness when it came to such things as a bad harvest, or the unexplained death of a child the peasants created reasons to explain them. The reasons for explaining the good were God, and early on in their culture the benandanti; the bad is attributed to witches and the devil. Witches and the benandanti were created in order to explain the unexplainable. In the minds of those who believed in them, this was the only logical explanation for the bad and hardship that was continually facing them in there society.
The major difference between the Friulian peasants and the inquisitors was the level of education they each had. The inquisitors were educated by the church usually through monasteries as is exhibited by the majority of their titles being Fra (meaning monk or brother). The peasants were educated by each other many times in the local superstitions and myths of the geographical area in which they lived. The monks were educated exclusively in Catholic doctrine and to them the myths of the peasants were completely foreign and were not sensible. Early on the inquisitors didn’t seem to really pay the benandanti much attention, they seemed to believe that there beliefs were more of a hassle and did not threaten church doctrine as much as some of the other beliefs of the period. This is exhibited by the fact that from the years 1575-1619 no trial brought against the benandanti was brought to a conclusion except the trial against Paolo Gasparutto and Battista Moduco. (71) The repression of Lutheranism was much more on the inquisitors mind at this point in history. (71)