At the beginning of the 16th century, La Rhune, a place of prayer, became a place of Sabbaths (Akelarre in Basque).
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The Sabbath was a supposed assembly of sorcerers and sorceresses marked by devil worship. In 1609, King Henri IV began hearing of complaints from various citizens concerning strange activities in the region so he sent two magistrates, one of whom was Pierre de Lancre, to investigate and rebuke the crimes of this denounced sorcery. According to him, the sorcerers and sorceresses were covering their bodies with “an ointment made of ground toads mixed with the fat of still-born children” which, according to him, gave them the power to fly through the air, mounted on brooms, to return to the Sabbath. The black masses were followed by meals during which the attendees were no better dressed than Adam and Eve! Then came the dancing and the Sabbath: “The joy of Satan is great; hell triumphs; Sodom has been surpassed” At dawn, the sorcerers would leave La Rhune, along with their assistants, riding the flying brooms, and Domingina Malatena would jump “from the top of the mountain to a sand bank located between Hendaye and Fontarrabie”. (Extract from the book “La Rhune – Larrun” – Editions Sud-Ouest).
The purge, led by Pierre de Lancre, was quite exhaustive: within 4 months, 600 people had been judged, condemned, burned and buried.
