Quote:
The Benandanti ("Good Walkers") were an agrarian fertility cult in the Friuli district of Northern Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were a small group of anti-witches that ensured the protection of the crops and villagers. Children born with "the caul," or the placenta partially covering their face were destined to join the ranks of the Benandanti.
On Thursdays during the Ember days, periods of fasting for the Catholic Church, the Benandanti claimed their spirits would leave their bodies at night in the form of small animals. The spirits of the men would go to the fields to fight evil witches. The Benandanti men fought with fennel stalks, while the dark witches were armed with sorghum stalks. If the men prevailed, the harvest would be plentiful.
The Female Benandanti performed other sacred tasks. When they left their bodies they traveled to meet a Goddess, who was known by a variety of names, such as Abundia, Irodiana, or simply "the Abbess". There they danced, ate and drank with a procession of spirits, animals and faeries, and learned who amongst the villagers would die in the next year.
On the way home from their feasting or fighting, the Benandanti would often go into cellars to drink and then urinate in the casks. Supposedly if they did not do this, the wine would be spilt.
The themes associated with the Benandanti (leaving the body in spirit, possibly in the form of an animal; fighting for the fertility of the land; banqueting with a Queen or Goddess; drinking from and soiling wine casks in cellars) are found repeated in other testimonies: from the armiers of the Pyrenees, from the followers of Signora Oriente in 14th century Milan and the followers of Richella and 'the wise Sibillia' in 15th century Northern Italy, and much further afield, from Livonian werewolves, Dalmatian kresniki, Hungarian táltos, Romanian căluşari and Caucasian burkudzauta.
Between 1575 and 1675 the Benandanti were tried as heretics under the inquisition. The inquisitors were clearly astonished by their stories, and struggled to reconcile them with the Sabbath (witchcraft) stereotype. Accused Benandanti tried to draw sharp distinctions between their actions and the actions of the malevolent witches. They claimed they fought "for the faith of Christ", and described the evil that the witches inflicted upon the villagers and their crops, insisting that only the Benandanti could save the people from these afflictions. Drawing this distinction was difficult, however, as one inquisition account shows: "On the one hand, they declared that they were opposed to witches and warlocks, and their evil designs and that they healed the victims of injurious deeds of witches, on the other, like their presumed adversaries, they attended mysterious nocturnal reunions (about which they could not utter a word under pain of being beaten) riding hares, cats, and other animals."
To avoid persecution the Benandanti even began to accuse other villagers of witchcraft. This proved futile and only served to destroy their reputation in the village.
In the late 16th century, however, the inquisitors were less concerned with witchcraft, and more concerned with heresy. The actions of the Benandanti were idolatrous, and therefore heretical, and the distinction they tried to create between themselves and the witches was to no avail. Over time, the Benandanti were made to “realize” after serious persuasive work that they themselves were indeed witches. Slowly but surely they were grouped with those targeted by the inquisition, and by the 17th century they had almost completely died out. None of the trials ended in execution, however.[/b]
i read about this last year in a course, and found that interesting because 