LAST EDITED ON Nov-26-13 AT 12:58 PM (EST)
 
> This concerns the peculiar adventures (and Inquisitional
>misadventures) of a group of people in the Friuli region of Italy
>known as the benandanti (literally the "good walkers"), who
>claimed they were chosen by angels to do battle with witches, and who
>were - inevitably - persecuted by the Church as witches themselves.

Ah, the benandanti -- when I wrote GURPS Shapeshifters a decade ago, they were easily the favorite of my topics. (Why were they in Shapeshifters? Because at least some varieties claimed to astrally project as wolves to harry the forces of Hell.)

One reason I liked them so much is that despite several centuries' work on them, the Church never actually broke the benandanti; the witch hunts ended before they could get members of the benandanti to admit to more than, roughly, "oh, all right, we're witches, but we're God's witches".

-- Bob
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My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.