This paper studies the strategies used by the Church to fight against the storm‐makers. These figures were said to cause the storms that ruined crops, and during Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages in the Visigothic and Frankish kingdoms were subject to punishment and constraints. The analysis begins with a review of the methods employed by ordinary people to nullify the actions of tempestarii . Next, the canonical legislation enacted to punish these practitioners of magic is examined, followed by an analysis of how the Church was helped in this struggle by the civil authorities. Finally, the study explores how the Church countered belief in the tempestarii both through preaching and teaching, and through the appropriation and reinterpretation of these beliefs within its own doctrinal framework.
Juan Antonio Jiménez Sánchez (Thu,) studied this question.