Religious Cafting and Subversion: Women and Magic in Early Medieval Iberian Sources

This chapter explores the role of women in shaping religious practices deemed unorthodox or magical in early medieval Iberia, focusing on how ecclesiastical sources from the 4th to 11th centuries portrayed and condemned such practices. While women were rarely mentioned explicitly in condemnations of magic, the few references that do exist reveal significant associations between female domestic activities—such as weaving, marriage rites, and fertility practices—and charges of magic or paganism. Diniz argues that these practices represented forms of "religious crafting," through which women adapted and created spiritual responses to the limitations imposed by official Christianity. Drawing on councils, treatises, penitentials, and legal codes, the chapter demonstrates how ecclesiastical authorities constructed an imaginary of female subversion rooted in fears about autonomy, sexuality, and social transgression. Yet, these narratives also reveal women’s agency in responding to societal constraints, crafting personalized religiosity in domestic and communal spaces often beyond clerical control.