TEMPTING FATE
A palm reader tells a client’s future in
a 17th-century painting by Pietro della
Vecchia. Fortune-telling and other
occult practices were targets of the
Inquisition. Civic Museum, Palazzo
Chiericati, Vicenza, ItalyIn the house of the Count of Zabellán, Liébana found
books of spells and paraphernalia arranged like planets
around a statuette of Philip IV.
DEA/ALBUMtime before once again being taken
into the custody of the Inquisitors in
Barcelona.In a bid to evade the ordeal
of the rack, or worse, Liébana spun a
dramatic tale: Zabellán had rescued
him, he claimed, in order to use his
occult powers.When he was brought
into the parlor of the count’s house,
Liébana found books of spells and
paraphernalia set out like planets
around a statuette of Spain’s king,
Philip IV.Clearly,he argued,there was
a plot afoot against the king, and in
return for the information,he plead-
ed to be released. Liébana could not
procure witnesses and was sent back
to the galleys.
In 1627 he managed to escape again,
making his way to Ocaña in central
Spain, where his carefully cultivated
appearance of learning and sobriety
secured him a post with the Jesuits.The would-be sorcerer was involved
in several incidents of conning and
theft. He was recaptured in 1631, and
again spoke of a conspiracy against
Philip IV.Luck Runs Out
The authorities listened to him this
time and sent him to Madrid so he
could tell everything he knew to the
Count-Duke of Olivares, Philip IV’s
prime minister. Liébana told him
an elaborate tale, involving senior
Spanish nobles and a French wizard
in the port of Málaga. As part of an
occult ceremony, he explained, they
burned a set of statuettes in order to
bring about the fall of Olivares. He
described a rite in which the French
wizard placed the burnt statues in a
chest and threw it into the sea.
It is a sign of the power of the be-
lief in sinister forces and plots that
Philip IV and his minister sent a
committee to Málaga to retrieve the
coffer from the seabed with the pris-
oner’s assistance. They found noth-
ing, and this time the sorcerer was
out of luck. He appeared in an auto-
da-fé in summer 1632, with a candle
in his hand, a conical hat on his head,
a rope around his throat, and a wiz-
ard’s insignia. He was ordered to ab-
jure heretical superstitions and given
400 lashes.He was then imprisoned,
probably for the rest of his life.NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 69