Inmissores tempestatum in Hispania in Late antiquity

In this work we study the belief in the existence of tempestarii or inmissores tempestatum in Hispania in Late Antiquity. Despite the scarcity of sources on this subject, those that do exist suggest that, in the Iberian Peninsula, people believed individuals to be capable of causing storms with their own will. The sources in question include two Chindaswinth laws, which express the authorities' concerns over "storm-makers" capable of ruining the crops of others. In addition, two epigraphic testimonies, reproducing magic formulae engraved on slate (with an imprecise date between the 8th and 10th centuries) suggest the presence in Hispania of the defensores mentioned by Agobard of Lyon in the Frankish Kingdom, magicians who claimed to know how to move storms away from the fields. These scarce sources can be complemented by information from Frankish Gaul sources, and particularly the aforementioned Agobard. Finally, we consider how the Church sought to combat these beliefs, appropriating and adapting them to its own thought, and replacing the evil spirits that caused storms with Satan and his demons, and the divinities that protected the fields with Christian saints and angels.