SACRED CHARITY
Sacred Charity Confraternities and Social Welfare in Spain, 1406-1700 Maureen Flynn Assistant Professor ofhistory University of Georgia MMACMILLAN
Maureen Flynn 1989 Softcover reprint of the hardcover Ist edition 1989 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permi ssion or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyr ight Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence perm itting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WClE 7DP. Any person who does any unauth orised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1989 Published by THE MACMILLAN PR ESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG 21 2XS and Lond on Companies and repre sent atives throughout the world Flynn, Maureen, 1955- Sacred charity: confraternities and social welfare in Spain, 1400-17 00. 1. Spain. (City) Zamora. Confrate rnities. Welfare work, 1400-1700 I. Title 361.7'5 ISBN 978-1-349-09045-7 DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-09043-3 ISBN 978-1-349-09043-3 (ebook)
To my parents
Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction The Confraternal Structure of Zamora 12 Corpor ate Finances 34 Ritu als of Solidar ity 39 2 The Charitable Activities of Confraternities 44 'To feed the hungry... ' 49 'To offer hosp itality... ' 56 'To red eem captives' 62 'To bury the dead ' 64 The Confraternal Welfar e System 70 3 Welfare Reform: Attempts to Displace Charity 75 4 The Catholic Reformation and Tradition 11 5 Conclusion : The Psychology of Confratern al Piet y 141 Notes and Ref erences 146 Sources and Bibliograph y 183 Index 198 viii IX
List of Figures 1.1 Map showing the confraternities in the city of Zamora in the mid-sixteenth century 18 1.2 Table showing Zamora's parishes and their confraternities 19 2.1 The Acts of Mercy: The Distribution of Bread and Wine to the Needy 49 2.2 A man and a woman in mourning in Castile 68 4.1 A Castilian flagellant on Holy Thursday 129 4.2 A flagellant from Zaragoza 130 4.3 Table showing confraternities in Spain in 1771 139 4.4 Map showing the incidence of confraternities in relation to populations of Spanish Provinces in 1771 140
Acknowledgements Many mentors walked with me through the heap of broken images that traditional Spanish culture has left behind. And if we all puzzled at times over the unusual signs of life that the arch ives delivered, no-one was more baffled than me. I turn with gratitude now to those who helped me find meaning. My dissertation adviser, Stanley G. Payne, provided essential guidance in the interpretation of Spanish history. His demands that I constantly subject archival facts to critical analysis and synthesize them into issues of broad intellectual appeal ring in my ears like the urgent ad all-too-distant call of a foghorn to the lost voyager. I am indebted as well to other teachers at the University of Wisconsin who have broadened the vista of this local study by suggesting issues for consideration that extend beyond Spain to include the entire European continent. Professor William Courtenay lent invaluable assistance in medieval source material to locate the roots of many sixteenth-century religious ideas. Professor Robert Kingdon's knowledge of social conditions across sixteenthcentury Europe served as a mirror to catch the reflection of Spanish events in other places. With kind yet insistent patience, Professor Domenico Sella cautioned me more than once from overzealously presenting popular religious beliefs as if they were doctrine, an enchanting illusion for social historians. Professors Jerzy Kloczowski, Henry Kamen and William Christian, Jr. made useful recommendations on aspects of the social context of poverty and charity. For opening the doors to Spain and its archives, I thank the Fulbright Commission as well as the archivists in Zamora, Valladolid and Madrid. They graciously facilitated research and have inspired in me a perpetual desire to return to the archives. Special thanks belong to Jose Luis Rodriguez for assistance with paleography. Many other Spaniards, some untrained in the discipline of history but eager to reveal the secrets of their past, aided in the recovery of insights and information. Guadalupe Ramos de Castro and Chano Lorenzo Sevillano assisted with their knowlege of local Zamoran history in the reconstruction of pilgrimage routes to medieval Leonese churches and shrines, and Antonio Reina Romero tracked down numerous sources on confraternitiesthat could not have been found in archives. For sharing all the early struggles while I set the course of dissertation chapters, Oliver Hayward, thank you. And finally Willy, ix
x Acknowledgements lowe you a lifetime of ritual gestures of gratitude for the innumerable acts of mercy that you offered while I wrote, not least of which was your patience in enduring periods of obsession with confraternitiesin conversation. Butconversations, like alms-gifts, are mutally and unboundedly indebting, aren 't they? My greatest joy has been in this debt of ours.