Fairy Witch Trials of Sicily - Protocol of Statement

Protocol of Statement

The protocol of the Inquisition states how the fishwife and the other women flew through the air on goats to:

"a land called Benevento which belongs to the Pope and is situated in the kingdom of Naples. There was a field and in its center a platform with two chairs. One one was a red teenage boy and on the other a beautiful woman, whom the called the Queen, and the man was the king. The first time she came there -she was eight- the "ensign" and the other women in her company told her that she must kneel and worship the king and the queen and to all they commanded for they could help her and give her riches, beauty and young men to make love to. And they told her not to worship God or the holy Virgin. The Ensign made her swear on a book with large letters that she would worship the two others. The king as if he was God and the Queen ad if she was the holy virgin, ad gave herself to them with body and soul.....And after she had so worshipped them, the made the tables and ate and drank, and thereafter the men had intercourse with the women and with her many times in a short period of time. All of this seem to her as if a dream, for when she awoke, she did so in her bed, naked as if she had gone to rest. But sometimes they had called upon her before she had gone to bed so that her husband and children would not notice it, and without having gone to sleep before (as far as she could tell), she left and arrived fully clothed. She further claimed that she at that time did not realise that it was sinful before her confessor had opened her eyes and told her that it was Satan and that she was not allowed to do it further. but she still continued it until two months ago. And she left filled with happiness of the joy she received from it....and because the (the king and the queen) gave her means to cure the sick so that she could earn some money, because she had always been poor"

After this freely given statement, the Inquisition interrogated her and gave her leading questions. The attitude of the Inquisition was that fairies did not exist, but were a remnant of Pagan superstition which should be eradicated and not be taken seriously. Therefore, the events she described must have been either a dream, in which case they could accept her story about the fairies, or, if it did happen, it must have been a witch's sabbath, in which case it must have been demons rather than fairies, as the church believed in demons but not in fairies. Therefore, they made her leading questions to make her identify the events as either a dream or reality. If it were the former, she would be released, and if it were the latter, she would be a witch. The fisherwife, however, passed this interrogation of leading questions: the protocols state, that in the end, she came to the conclusion that : "All of this seem to her to have happened as if in a dream", and that it had truly all been just a dream, "as far as she could estimate the matter".