In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Chapter Seven The Holy Trinity and the Annunciation in La Lozana andaluza By presenting the capital of Christendom as a whore, Delicado coincided with those Christians who also decried the immorality of Rome and sought to reform the Church. Although they disagreed with Rome, their Christianity was not in doubt. Delicado was not one of those reformers. As we will see in the pages that follow, he avoids the names of Mary and Christ, shows no respect for saints, and the only Christian prayers proffered in the text are superstitious, paraliturgical incantations. Furthermore, Delicado also decided to attack the Annunciation and the dogma of the Holy Trinity, which constitute the core of the religion of the Old Christian persecutors ultimately responsible for both of his "voluntary" exiles. Whereas God is invoked well over one hundred times, Christ's name seldom appears (Mackay 1992, 234-35n9; see also Macpherson and Mackay 1998, 181-82 and 182n5). The first reference to him is made by Silvano, a friend of Lozana, when he describes to her Pefia de Martos, where the "Auctor " had been raised. After associating the town with the god Mars-it had been first called Pefia de Marte-Silvano goes on to relate Martos to St. Martha, sister of Lazarus and St. Mary Magdalene, whose house Christ had visited in Bethany, stating that the church in the plaza was dedicated to the "solicita y fortisima y santisima Marta, huespeda de Cristo" ("most diligent, strong and holy Martha, hostess of Christ"; 397). Silvano then associates the saint with the French legend of the dragon Tarascon, transferring it to Martos, where the dragon slain by St. Martha is turned into "un ferocisimo serpiente, el cual devoraba los habitadores de la cibdad de Marte, y esta fue la principal causa de su despoblaci6n" ("an extremely ferocious serpent that was devouring the inhabitants of the city of Mars, and this was the main reason for its depopulation"; 398). There is an allusion to this legend, we recall, in the frontispiece of El modo de adoperare ellegno de India Occidentale, which is about the miraculous guaiacum wood that had supposedly delivered Delicado from the syphilis whose cure he attributes simultaneously to St. James (see Chapter 2, pp. 42-43). Since the engrav,ing portrays St. Martha standing on the Rhone, Delicado should have known better than to transfer 202 The Holy Trinity and the Annunciation it to Spain. In other words, wha~ we have here is a joke. Moreover, St. Martha is placed on the same level as the god Mars: Mart6s;"Marte, Marta, they are all the same. Still within the same speech, Silvano states that outsiders envy Pena de Martos because of its prosperity and the matchless hospitality that he attributes to St. Martha, mentioning Christ's name a second time: "que en todo el mundo no haya tanta caridad, hospitalidad y amor projimal cuanta en aquellugar, y causalo la caritativa huespeda de Cristo" ("there is no other place in the world with so much charity, hospitality, and love toward one's neighbors, and all of this is caused by the kind hostess of Christ"; 398). Delicado seems to take great pride in Pena de Martos, which he mentions frequently, but this praise is ridiculously excessive, and, therefore, extremely suspicious. It could very well signal the opposite. The appearance of Christ's name is incidental, for it is secondary to St. Martha's in both instances. Moreover, right after mentioning Christ for the second time, Silvano states that "AlIi poco lejos esta la sierra de Aill6, antes de Alcaudete" ("Not far from t~ere stand the mountains of Aill6, previously known as Alcaudete"; 398), to which Lozana replies: "Alcaudete, el que hace los cornudos a ojos vistas [sic]" ("Alcaudete, the one who turns men into cuckolds "; 398). These references to a pimp and to cuckolds right after the name of Christ are hardly respectful, for they bring to mind the Jewish charge that St. Joseph had been cuc~olded by the Virgin Mary. Christ also appears as "el Salvador" ("the Savior"; 442) at the end of an incantation (quoted below), and as "nuestro Senor" ("Our Lord"), when Delicado wishes health and prosperity to~ the captain of the imperial army to whom he dedicates his book: "deseo ... a vuestra merced serviry darle solacio, la cual [merced] nuestro Senor, pr6spero, sano y alegre conserve munchos y felicfsimos tiempos" ("I wish ... to serve and amuse Your Lordship, and may Our Lord keep you prosperous , healthy, and...

Share