In 1614, Spain’s Supreme Inquisition ordered that all witch trials then pending at Logroño be dismissed.
The decision followed Alonso de Salazar Frías’s investigation into the Basque witch panic. The Logroño tribunal had already held a major auto-da-fé, but Salazar’s later review found that alleged confessions and accusations were inconsistent, frequently withdrawn, and unsupported by physical evidence.
The August 1614 ruling did more than close the outstanding Logroño cases. It issued new standards for handling witchcraft accusations: investigators were to record contradictions, examine possible coercion, seek independent corroboration, and avoid sentencing anyone solely because another accused person had named them.
The order did not instantly eliminate every witchcraft prosecution in Spain, especially cases handled by secular authorities. Its importance was that it established a durable policy for the Spanish Inquisition and sharply reduced the chance that rumors would produce mass executions. Spain’s inquisitorial approach therefore became notably more skeptical than many contemporary campaigns elsewhere in Europe.