Historical method: a recorded belief or accusation is not independent proof of the supernatural event described.
Survival is selective
Most daily activities were never transcribed by church courts. Of the records that existed, only some survived and became available to later scholars. A story seen through an inquisition is not an unbiased census of local beliefs.
Absence is not a verdict
When a later deposition omits a motif, this may reflect changed belief, different questioning, selective recording or the witness’s circumstances. The omission alone usually cannot distinguish these possibilities.
Honest display
The archive marks what it cannot establish: exact claimed gathering locations, uniform doctrine, a continuous lineage and supernatural outcomes. Stated uncertainty allows future research to move forward instead of merely repeating attractive assertions.
Source and revision record
- Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles (2013 edition)Publisher listing · Accessible edition record with table of contents.
- Franco Nardon (ed.), Benandanti e inquisitori nel Friuli del Seicento (1999)University repository · University of Trieste volume focused on seventeenth-century healing and counter-witchcraft.