"Shortly before you were arrested, did you skin a bird backwards sticking two needles in the head from in front and two needles in the tail and then go into a dark room and begin to cast spells over the said bird so that the Devil spoke to you?" (Ruggiero, 92)

The attitude of the Church toward popular magic during the time of the Italian Renaissance had many different faces. Sometimes it took a fearful view of magic, which often lead to the more interrogative attitude that so many of these examples speak of. At times, the Church took a more hard-line view when it came to punishing those who used magic, while at other times, they were more understanding and used teaching as a device to remove popular magic from society. Whatever the case, one thing was clear: after fighting the "heresies" of competing churches for centuries, the Church was not about to let witches, sorcerers, or any other practitioners of magic institute a popular theology that in any way strayed from the disciplines that had just been established at the Council of Trent.

The women of Latisana were brought to the attention of the Holy Office by Pietro di Venezia, guardian of the monastery of Santa Caterina in Roveredo who had visited Latisana to preach the Lenten sermons in 1591. Pietro's last major charge was that the priestesses had cured illnesses by "signing." This practice created great problems for the Holy Office because it was so intertwined with a popular Christianity that stressed Christ's suffering and love for man, Mary's intercession for humanity, or the help of saints. This became a great problem for the Church in its quest to indoctrinate the reformed beliefs of Christianity because many of the women found it hard to believe that cures effected with the help of these great figures of Christianity could be evil. The Church did not care whether their plans were logical from the perspective of healing. They felt that there was to be only one master of the spiritual power of God in this world, that is, the Church itself, and they had no intention of conceding any power over the spiritual to healing magicians, especially female ones. This plan ended up backfiring in a way because, by trying to contain the spiritual cures of women healers, by withdrawing its own spiritual powers within a more clerical and disciplined frame, it heightened the attractiveness of such competitors and rendered them more threatening because they did not seem to have access to the spiritual.

The Devil was indeed a strong presence who could be used simply as a means of ascertaining certain desires only, or could be worshipped as the true master. But most people mixed the things of the Devil with the things of God to create an eclectic old black magic or popular faith, which the church would fight against for years.

Her logic seems to have been honor the Devil for that which is the Devil's. After all, the Church itself had stated that sexual passion was the work of the Devil, so it follows that those who wished to have power in this area should work with the Devil. Isabella's argument proved faulty in the end, however, when the Church discovered that she demonstrated an inconsistency in using holy things and the Devil's aid for the same ends.

Paolina of course denied this, but it became clear that lurking behind much of this magic was another power, the most dangerous of all in the eyes of the Church and perhaps the most promising of all in the eyes of those fully committed to power over love and sexuality - the Devil (Ruggiero, 92).

Some common words found in the essay are:
Holy Office, Mass Needless, Devil God, Battista Faceno, Gian Battista's, Renaissance Sometimes, Andrea Venetian, Catarina Faura, Don Felice, Church' Ruggiero, holy office, popular magic, popular christianity, women priests, throughout italy, practitioners magic, venetian holy office, venetian holy, reformed church, power devil, women healers, gian battista faceno,
Approximate Word count = 2861
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)