Alfonso X's Incestuous Lady of Roma: A Redemptive Agenda?

ALFONSO X'S INCESTUOUS LADY OF ROMA: A REDEMPTIVE AGENDA? Paul Brian Nelson Drury University Cantiga 17 ofAlfonso X's Cantigas de Santa Maria, entided "Esta é de como Santa Maria guardou de morte a onrrada dona de Roma que o demo acusou pola fazer queimar", deals stardingly with a case of mother-son incest that leads to infanticide.1 Despite a possible ring of truth to this scandalous affair, the poet ofthe cantiga found his matière in a Marian tale that was growing ever more popular during the diirteenth century and whose aimwas to teach the necessity ofcontrition and confession. The Alfonsine treatment of this tale, however, deviates significandy from its Latin and vernacular sources and analogues in that die poet eliminates from the story both the clerical intervention and the mandatory confession necessary to be granted absolution. Cantiga 1 7 tells in condensed form a popular story of a noblewoman of Rome who is devoted wholeheartedly to the Virgin. Her husband dies and, tempted by the devil, she takes misguided comfort in their only son, becoming pregnant by him. Since no one knows of the pregnancy, to avoid scandal the lady kills her new born child. The devil is aware of the lady's crimes -she committed both incest and infanticide- and decides to bring them to light publicly. He takes the form of a diviner (orne sabedor and devyador, w. 25, 26) who wins die emperor's confidence and tells him ofthe good woman's offenses. When the emperor summons the woman and makes a public accusation, she asks for a delay in order to seek counsel. A three-day continuance is granted, and die woman goes direcdy to a church to ask the Virgin Mary for advice. The Virgin then accompanies the woman when she 1 Kathryn Gravdal observes that mother-son incest often leads to infanticide. ElizabethArchibald adds that infanticide might be added to tales ofthis type to show how sin begets sin: 137, and Chapter 3 "Mothers and Sons", 104-44. La corónica 35.2 (Spring, 2007): 103-22 104Paul Brian NelsonLa corónica 35.2, 2007 returns to the emperor, and the devil, no longer recognizing the lady, is struck speechless and flees. The cantiga s refrain emphasizes the Virgin's legal intercession in this sinner's "case", and the message is extended to Mary's mediation on everyone's behalf: "Sempre sejabèeita e loada / Santa Maria, a noss' avogada". As would be expected in the context of the Cantigas, it is not surprising that the Alfonsine poet foregrounds Mary's power and position in this version of the tale and that she acts alone. Moreover, whereas in other medieval stories containing mother-son incest, such as those ofSaints Gregory and Alban, there is generally no "apodieosis" of the mother (Gravdal 285), in the tradition of this sinful lady of Rome, there is emphasis on her exceptional Christian qualities and her venerability. This inherent righteousness contrasts with Elizabeth Archibald's observation on the female protagonists in stories oí this type. She concludes that "unlike the protagonists ofcomparable malecentered stories, these women ... do not usually achieve any special spiritual status at the end", asserting that stories ofthis type emphasize female lust (134). The omission of the original didactic message of diis tale (i.e., the necessity ofcontrition and confession), along with its sympathetic treatment of this sinning but "onrrada" lady, can only lead us to question and conjecture on the poet's motives for including this story in his collection and for altering contemporary source texts so significantly. The story ofthe mother who commits incest with her son owes its popularity in part to the proliferation of Marian tale collections and to the newly forming monastic Orders whose aim was to educate the general populace. Cluniac monasteries were among the first to claim her as the Mother of Mercy. Other monastic communities soon followed, and by the end ofthe twelfth century, the cult of Mary was in full bloom. Cistercians and Praemonstratensians joined the Cluniacs in their reverence ofthe Virgin; the mendicant Orders, the Dominicans in particular, followed suit and together they helped spread her cult throughout Western Europe. Evelyn Faye Wilson...