Alonso de Salazar y Frías

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Alonso de Salazar y Frías (* around 1564 in Burgos , † 1635 in Madrid ) was a Spanish canon lawyer , priest and inquisitor .

Signature of Alonso de Salazar y Frías

Live and act

Alonso de Salazar y Frías was born in Burgos, the son of a lawyer. His family were among the most influential citizens of the city and included civil servants and wealthy merchants. From 1579 Salazar studied canon law , derecho canónico at the University of Sigüenza and general law at the University of Salamanca . He was later ordained a priest and took the position of vicar general in the Roman Catholic Church and became a judge at the court of the Bishop of Jaén . Bernardo de Sandoval y Rojas, the Bishop of Jaén and later Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Inquisitor , promoted his inner church career. After earning a reputation as a successful canon lawyer, Salazar was appointed general secretary of the Castilian Church in 1600.

In 1608 Alonso de Salazar was appointed Inquisitor for a vacancy in Logroño . Here he became known in the witch trial and inquisition proceedings around Zugarramurdi ( Comunidad Foral de Navarra ), brujas de Zugarramurdi and Proceso de Logroño . He was shown great respect for his careful approach to witchcraft trials and the judiciary. In 1610, a witch trial against a total of 53 accused took place before the Inquisition Tribunal of Logroño . One of the three inquisitors was de Salazar y Frías, the chairman was Alonso Becerra y Holguín and the second inquisitor was Juan de Valle Alvarado. Of the witches condemned, six were actually burned and five in effigy . De Salazar y Frías spoke out against the convictions, but the convictions were upheld by the Consejo de la Suprema Inquisición . Later, on behalf of the Suprema, de Salazar y Frías investigated further rumors of witch activity in Navarre. In 1614 he concluded that there was no evidence of witchcraft. This actually prompted the Suprema not to conduct any further witch trials in this case and even to rehabilitate the convicts of Logroño five years later.

In 1631 he took the position of a member of the Supreme Council of the Inquisition, ( Consejo de la Suprema Inquisición ). In 1618 he worked as Inquisitor of Murcia and from 1619 to 1622 in Valencia .

The inquisitor Alonso de Salazar y Frias developed into a critic of the witch hunt within the Spanish Inquisition. From 1610 onwards he examined with great meticulousness many statements from witnesses and suspects, researched archive material and held discussions with acquitted defendants. Although Salazar did not question the principled power of the devil , he made clear the inadequacies of the evidence in the witch trials . His memorandum on this, published in 1614, led the Spanish Inquisition to almost stop the persecution of witches.

literature

  • Gustav Henningsen: The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609-1619). Nevada 1980.
  • Gustav Henningsen (Ed.): The Salazar Documents: Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías and Others on the Basque Witch Persecution. Brill, Leiden 2004.
  • Julio Caro Baroja: Las brujas y su mundo. Alianza, Madrid 1990.
  • Henry Kamen: "Notas sobre brujería y sexualidad y la Inquisición." In A. Alcalá (ed.): Inquisición española y mentalidad inquisitorial. Barcelona 1983, pp. 226-236.
  • Brian P. Levack: "The Decline and End of Witchcraft Prosecutions." In M. Gijswijt-Hofstra, Brian P. Levack, Roy Porter: Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Vol 5: 3-93. Athlone Press, London 1999.
  • Robin Briggs: Witches and Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft. Harper Collins, 2002.
  • Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia. TOMO CLXXXIV. NUMERO I. AÑO 1987, p. 139 f

Web links

  • Julio Caro Baroja: De nuevo sobre la historiade la brujería (1609-1619). Dos legajos de la inquisición papeles sobre la brujería, pp. 741–802 [5]
  • Meredith Lindsay Howard: Discovering El Cuaderno: An Examination of the Zugarramurdi Witch-Hunts and Three Debating Inquisitors, 1609-1614. Bachelor thesis, The College of William & Mary, Williamsburg 2011 [6]
  • Rita Voltmer: witch hunts. From the clouded view of the early modern witch persecution - attempt to clarify. August 31, 2006, fowid.de [7]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to other sources, the year of death was given as 1636
  2. ↑ Gustav Henningsen (Ed.): The Salazar Documents: Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías and Others on the Basque Witch Persecution. Brill, Leiden 2004.
  3. ↑ Manuel de Ossuna, Benítez de Lugo: Historia genealógica de la casa de Salazar y Frías. Revista de historia, (1925), pp. 169–177 [1]
  4. ↑ Alonso de Salazar y Frías. Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia, euskomedia@euskomedia.org [2]
  5. ↑ Ferran Martínez Lliso: El auto de fe de Logroño de 1610 y las brujas de Zugarramurdi. December 1, 2010 [3]
  6. ^ Gustav Henningsen: Director de Danish Folklore Archives, Copenhague. Traducción de Marisa Rey Henningsen, de la revista History Today, 1980. Texto de HISTORIA 16 (1982) [4]
  7. ↑ Gerd Schwerhoff : The Inquisition - persecution of heretics in the Middle Ages and modern times. 3rd edition, CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-50840-0 , p. 118
personal data
SURNAME Salazar y Frías, Alonso de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Salazar, Alonso
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish priest, lawyer and inquisitor
DATE OF BIRTH 1564
PLACE OF BIRTH Burgos
DATE OF DEATH 1635
Place of death Madrid