The 'magic' of witchcraft in Malta

by Nadia Theuma

Witchcraft was widespread in Malta four centuries ago, according to Carmel Cassar. His paper “Witchcraft as a social protest in Maltese history” says it was practised among all strata of society, from poor rural people, to inhabitants of the harbour area, to the elite classes.

It was, however, far from the embodiment of evil that the term witchcraft conjures up in the more popular mind nowadays. It was more to do with practices such as foretelling the future and healing, rather benign in themselves, than with things connected to the so-called work of the devil. The closest witchcraft seems to have got to being “evil” was the way witches were sometimes called upon to put the “evil eye” on someone.

Witchcraft was part of the folk religious beliefs of the time, often mixed in with the Catholkic religion, which in the eyes of the witches made it all the more powerful. There was a tendency among women for example to make use of religious items, even dust from a dilapidated church, for the “magic” potions they concocted with uses ranging from healing to attracting men. Another favourite practice was to hide-an item connected with a “magical act” – perhaps a head scarf if one’s head needed healing – under the altar cloth so that the priest would say Mass over it.

The Roman Inquisition between 1562 and 1798 was lenient with convicted witches when compared to the type of punishment meted out on witches by the Protestants in the north of Europe, where thousands were burnt at the stake during the same period. The penalties were also mild compared with the treatment of people found guilty of “apostasy” (changing one’s religion to Islam) or heresy. For them, torture or being sent to the galleys without a stipend – a terrible punishment – was relatively common.

On the other hand, witches who were first-time “offenders” were given punishments like being made to attend High Mass with a candle in hand and to fast on bread and water twice a week. Those who refused to repent were tied up on the back of a donkey (facing the wrong way) and whipped in public. The worst punishment ever recorded in Malta – not one witch was ever burnt at the stake here – was exile.

The relative mildness of the punishments stemmed from the fact that the Inquisitors doubted the efficacy of witchcraft and other forms of “superstitious” folk religion. The chief concern of the Inquisition, after all, was only to reform the folk beliefs and bring people into line with the religious tenets emerging from Rome, as propounded by the Council of Trent.

In 1599, a man named Valerio Cauchi swore in front of the Inquisition Tribunal that two or three years before he had seem a mother and a daughter riding “like mad” on broomsticks in mid-air. The Inquisition dismissed his testimony, even though he claimed there were other witnesses to the incident.

Dr Cassar concludes that in Malta devil worship appeared to have played a very minor role at a popular level so that allegations of a pact with the devil were often vague and peripheral to the main accusations made in the majority of witchcraft cases.