Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) There is no record of Goya's thoughts during this period. He completed the series during a period recuperating from illness, possibly lead poisoning, when he was in considerable mental and physical pain, and withdrew from public life. "Witches' Sabbath" is believed to be a rather bitter, but silent, protest against the royalists and clergy who had retaken control of Spain after the Peninsular War of 1807–14. Advocates of the Enlightenment had sought to redistribute land to the peasants, to educate women, publish a vernacular Bible and, by replacing superstition with reason, put an end to the Inquisition. Witch hunting, seen
Sabbath in Christianity but tends to be used to describe the general establishment of Sunday worship and rest observances within Christianity. It does not necessarily imply the displacement of the Sabbath itself, which is often recognized as remaining on Saturday. As such, the Christian Sabbath generally represents a reinterpretation of the meaning of the Sabbath in the light of Christian law, emphases of practice, and values. In 1998 Pope John Paul II wrote an apostolic letter "Dies Domini", "on keeping the Lord's day holy". He encourages Catholics to remember the importance of keeping Sunday holy, urging that it not lose its meaning by