Martinus de Arles y Andosilla (1451?-1521) was doctor of theology and canon in Pamplona

Pamplona

Pamplona is the historial capital city of Navarre, in Spain, and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 6 to 14, in which the running of the bulls is one of the main attractions...

 and archdeacon of Aibar

Aibar

Aibar - Oibar is a town located in the province of Navarre, in the autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain.-External links:*...

, author of a tractatus de superstitionibus, contra maleficia seu sortilegia quae hodie vigent in orbe terrarum (1515), a work on demonology

Demonology

Demonology is the systematic study of demons or beliefs about demons. It is the branch of theology relating to superhuman beings who are not gods. It deals both with benevolent beings that have no circle of worshippers or so limited a circle as to be below the rank of gods, and with malevolent...

 in the context of the Early Modern witch-hunts

Witch-hunts

-Track listing:#"Without Ceremony and Bell Toll" – 5:59#"Inside the Circle of Stones" – 6:38#"The Crow and the Warrior" – 4:21#"Dying to Meet you" – 6:14#"The Preacher Came to Town" – 7:16#"Burn, Witches, Burn" – 5:39#"Witch Hunters" – 5:31...

. Martin believed witches (sorginak

Sorginak

Sorginak are the assistants of the goddess Mari in Basque mythology. It is also the Basque name for witches or pagan priestesses , being difficult to discern between the mythological and real ones.Sometimes sorginak are confused with lamiak...

) to be particularly numerous among the population of Navarra, and the Basques of the Pyrenees

Pyrenees

The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...

 in general. He recommends stern measures of an inquisition

Inquisition

The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...

 against this. His depiction of witchcraft is, however, based on sources predating the Malleus maleficarum

Malleus Maleficarum

The Malleus Maleficarum is an infamous treatise on witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, an Inquisitor of the Catholic Church, and was first published in Germany in 1487...

, arguing against its simplistic depiction of witchcraft (falsa opinione [...] credentes cum Diana vel Herodia nocturnis horis equitare, vel se in alias creaturas transformare). The work was printed in Paris in 1517, and in Rome in 1559 (142 sextodecimo pages).

The work was not widely received and is now very difficult to find. Nicolas Rémy in his 1595 Demonolatry

Daemonolatreiae libri tres

Daemonolatreiae libri tres is a 1595 work by Nicholas Remy. It was edited by Montague Summers and translated as Demonolatry in 1929.Along with the Malleus Maleficarum, it is generally considered one of the most important early works on demons and witches...

writes:

"I am aware that Peter of Palude and Martin of Arles have said that when demons go about this work, they, as it were, milk the semen from the bodies of dead men; but this is as ridiculous as the proverbial dead donkey's fart." (trans. Ashwin 1929)

He is interred in the cathedral of Pamplona, his sepulchre bearing the inscription Hic jacet Reverendus Martinus ab Andosilla et Arles, doctor in sacra theologia, canonicus, et archidiaconus vallis de Aibar, in eclesia Pampilonensi qui diem clausit extremum. Anno Domini 1521 die 25 aprilis.

External links

• euskomedia.org
• facsimile of the 1559 edition (upenn.edu)