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Afterlife (Spain)--Carlos M. N. Eire
- University of Texas Press
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Spain Afterlife Carlos M. N. Eire I n 1587 Father Juan de Talavera Salazar did something very baroque: he named his own soul the heredera universal (sole heirof his entire estate). Expecting a challenge from relatives who might sue for their share of this loot, Father Juan, a canon of the Cathedral of Sigüenza and administrator of the hospital of San Lucas y San Nicolás at Alcalá de Henares, inserted into his will and last testament a bristling defense of such a seemingly selfish and impractical gesture: I declare that I wish to make my soul the heir of all that remains of my possessions . . . because I have worked for fifty-three years, toiling and struggling along diverse roads and towns, and I have done all I could for my brothers and sisters, out of my own sweat and the income I earned through it . . . Therefore, it is fitting that my soul . . . should now enjoy the fruits of this labor, and that my earnings all be spent in masses and sacrifices , so that through these devotions and through His mercy,God my redeemer maydesist from damning me, and save me.1 Sinking everything he had earned into something totally beyond this world—el más allá—as into some eternal retirement plan, expecting some return on his investment, Father Juan displayed more than a keen interest in his salvation : he also placed all bets on the redemptive power of the Mass and in the compatibility of the here and the hereafter . Odd as it may seem in our own age, Father Juan’s choice was commonplace—even expected—in baroque Spain, where every testator was required to request at least ten Masses and where most of them asked for hundreds or thousands more than that. Father Juan’s will, like all others, reified the hereafter, making it as much a part of the here- and- now as furniture, jewels, scuffed- up shoes, or any trinket that might be passed on by the dying. Multiplied millions of times over in will after will, these legally binding bequests made the afterlife a crucial part of the Spanish economy. They also caused a great need for a large clerical class in baroque Spain, for such a vast number of Masses required a great number of priests. As Father Juan’s case indicates, the afterlife was as inseparable from daily life in baroque Spain as it was from ritual that reified it. Whether or not everyone believed in the efficacy of rituals focused on the afterlife was immaterial . Even when doubt is factored in, no one can deny that Spaniards, on the whole, invested enormous amounts of time and money in elaborate funerals and Masses for the dead.They also tended to focus a great deal of attention on the social dimensions of such rituals, as markers of rank and status and as a means of dealing with grief and of interacting with their kin and neighbors. Whether or not everyone understood the theologyof the afterlifewas immaterial too, for participation in ritual did not demand total or even partial comprehension of the beliefs concerned. Yet, just as no one could do without the rituals, no one could fully ignore the beliefs and conceptual structure that gave shape to them or to the inescapable symbiosis that always links rites to theology and vice versa. As Roman Catholics, all baroque Spaniards were formally required to believe in the immortality of the human soul and in an afterlife that had a very specific cosmic geography and an inseparable link with a person’s behavior on earth. How individuals lived their earthly life determined which location their souls would enter upon death: heaven, purgatory, or hell. Judgment was immediate and personal, based on the intensity of the amount of sin the person had committed. Very few were believed capable of reaching heaven directly, for that required extraordinary holiness. Most would end up in purgatory, a place where the soul was gradually cleansed of the stain of sin. Those who died in a state of mortal sin were destined for eternal suffering in hell. At the end of the world, when Christ would return to judge the living and all of the dead, a second judgment would take place. Purgatory would then be abolished, and all humans would be resurrected and granted eternal embodied life in one of the two locations they had earned for themselves: heaven or hell. At its simplest level, Catholic belief in the...