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4. Universal Religion in a Local Context
- University of Arizona Press
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66 chapter four Universal Religion in a Local Context From July 30, 1752, to January 30, 1753, Puebla, along with other cities of the Spanish Empire, celebrated a “holy year of jubilee,” during which the faithful received a plenary indulgence for confessing and receiving the sacrament for six months, for visiting specific churches, and for praying for the aims of the Roman Catholic Church. The jubilee emphasized fraternity and community; members of religious orders, confraternities, congregations , and schools attended the event’s processions as corporations. Councilmen , as spiritual examples to the community, also participated with the cabildo’s lawyers, judges, scribes, and treasurer in tow. At seven o’clock in the morning of August 9 and 10, Puebla’s councilmen left the municipal palace in a procession for the churches singled out for the jubilee, pausing at each to pray for the extirpation of heresies, the exaltation of the church, peace between the Christian princes, and the salvation of Christendom.1 The cabildo subsidized, organized, and participated in a variety of religious practices related to the Easter cycle of moveable feasts, the Nativity cycle of fixed feasts, patron saint days, and special occasions, such as the holy year of jubilee. Patron saint days represented “fixed” feasts and reflected the religious sensibility of local communities. Yet Catholics all over the world celebrated many of the same specific fixed feasts, like Christmas, as well as the Easter cycle of moveable feasts. By lending support to these ceremonies, and to extraordinary occasions like jubilees, the cabildo encouraged devotion to the Catholic faith. Naturally, the cathedral of Puebla consistently reinforced the notion that poblanos, like all Catholics, formed part of the mystical body of Christ. As Universal Religion, Local Context · 67 the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Puebla, the bishop and cathedral chapter worked tirelessly to integrate poblanos into the larger diocesan community by organizing ritual occasions that encouraged a more overarching sense of identity. This, of course, would have been expected. More surprising perhaps is the central role that the secular cabildo played in increasing devotion to the universal church. The people of the early modern Spanish Empire did not draw a sharp distinction between the sacred and profane, but in questions of ritual devotion , historians have paid more attention to the history of overtly religious institutions and far less to the spiritual objectives of municipal governments .2 This imbalance may stem from an erroneous belief in the relative insignificance of the municipal governments’ promotion of the faith. After all, with so many religious organizations available in the colonies, why would the faithful need the cabildo? Historian Oscar Mazín has suggested that in eighteenth-century Valladolid, the cabildo played a far less significant role than the cathedral in creating a collective Catholic consciousness .3 In Puebla, however, the cabildo played an active, if not equally important role in transforming barrio-specific devotions into symbols of urban identity and Catholic solidarity. Regidores had an obligation to promote the faith. As caretakers of the real patronato—the monarch’s patronage of, and authority over, the colonial church—councilmen supported a large number of pious activities. However, they did not necessarily intend to “delude” the masses through religion. Regidores believed, and as pious practitioners of the faith and caretakers of the republic, they regarded it as their solemn duty to encourage religious practice and shepherd the populace. While ritual certainly helped to legitimize imperialism, abet the smooth functioning of government, and consolidate corporate and local identities, it also allowed councilmen to shape religious culture in crucial ways; the goals, of course, were not mutually exclusive. By coordinating religious activities, the cabildo sought, among other things, to create a uniform Catholic consciousness and gain some sense of control over natural calamities. People, in turn, regarded regidores as models of Catholic piety. For these reasons, councilmen refused to stand by passively while late-colonial Crown officials dismantled their sacred calendar. Councilmen envisioned themselves as spiritual leaders and sought to raise a collective Catholic consciousness by celebrating and sponsoring some of the more significant holidays of the Roman Catholic liturgy. In the socially stratified city of Puebla, religious ritual served an important integrative function. Historian William I. Christian has observed that [35.169.107.177] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 15:47 GMT) 68 · Chapter 4 Spanish urban religiosity was more corporate and less communal than in the countryside, where communities were more socially homogenous and where dependence on agriculture necessitated collective supplications to gain control...