Literacy, Spirituality of Reading, and Catholic Literature Culture in Sixteenth-Century Spain PDF

DE GRUYTER Journal of Early Modern Christianity 2015; 2(2): 159-188
Rady Roldan-Figueroa*
Literacy, Spirituality of Reading,
and Catholic Literary Culture in
Sixteenth-Century Spain
DOI 10.1515/jemc-2015-0012
Abstract; Clerical attitudes toward reading and the book can help explain the
spread of literacy as well as the marked popular interest in devotional literature
in sixteenth-century Spain. The author argues that the Spanish clergy played an
important, although underestimated, role in the dissemination of literality (i.e.
knowledge of letters) in the early part of the sixteenth century. The article
demonstrates how the catechetical efforts of Catholic clergy contributed to the
long term forging of a confessional literary culture, a literary culture informed by
Catholic religious ideas. The author moves away from customary scholarly focus
on the coercive role of the clergy, examining instead how members of the clergy
crafted a spirituality of reading. The article thus explores how the Spanish clergy
elaborated a constructive understanding of reading that fused together the
practice of reading, understood as spiritual/devotional practice, with the con
tents of the faith. Synodal constitutions as well as diverse genres of devotional
literature are brought to bear as the author explains how the Spanish clergy
endeavored to make a lay Catholic reader.
Keywords: Spain, literacy, Catholic literary culture, reading, spirituality,
devotional literature, diocesan and provincial synods, Catholic reformation
1 Introduction
An important missing link in the existing scholarly literature on early modern
Spanish literacy is a detailed study of the clergy’s attitude towards reading. The
clergy’s approach towards reading and the book must be taken into considera
tion in explaining the spread of literacy as well as the marked popular interest in
devotional literature in sixteenth-century Spain. The point at issue is the need
for an assessment of how the Spanish clergy, regular or secular, in their different
capacities as theologians, confessors, preachers, catechists, and spiritual direc
tors approached the dissemination of reading skills among the laity.
‘Corresponding author: Rady Roldan-Figueroa, Boston University School of Theology, Boston,

MA, USA, E-mail: roldan@bu.edu
160 Rady Roldan-Figueroa DE GRUYTER
In fact, the Spanish clergy played an important, although underestimated,

role in the spread of literacy in the early part of the sixteenth century. Clerical
involvement in the dissemination of literality (i.e. knowledge of letters)
included the production of tools for the teaching of reading skills, the creation
of institutional spaces for basic instruction, actual instruction, and pastoral
reinforcement. Pastoral reinforcement, in turn, could take the form of homi
letic persuasion, confessional inducement, or expository encouragement by
means of the written page. Moreover, the clergy took it upon itself as a group
to teach the laity “how” to read. Indeed, myriad of religious writers provided
in their works written instructions to their readers, conveying in this way
minute guidelines on the practices of reading. These spiritual directors of
the printed page instructed their pupils on what to read and what not to
read; when to read, and when not to read; what thoughts to bear in mind,
and which ones not to; if the faithful should read alone or if they should read
under supervision.
The clergy fulfilled a significant role in adapting the medieval monastic
practice of lectio divina to the needs of the laity. Of special interest is how
religious writers addressed the question of reading in works that were primarily
intended for the laity. Instead of looking at the coercive role of the clergy in
prohibiting or regulating the reading of books, attention has to be devoted to the
way the clergy crafted a spirituality of reading. That is, careful attention has to
be given to the ways in which the Spanish clergy elaborated a constructive
understanding of reading that fused together the practice of reading, understood
as spiritual/devotional practice, with the contents of the faith. The spirituality of
reading was an important step in the making of a lay Catholic reader.
Accordingly, the larger issue in the balance is how the spirituality of reading
shaped Catholic literary culture in Spain.
The present essay examines the most relevant scholarly contributions to our
understanding of clerical involvement in the spread of literality in early modern
Spain. It suggests that clerical participation in the dissemination of literality has
been underestimated, but that important corrections have been made in the
scholarship. The argument calls attention to the record of late-fifteenth and
sixteenth century synodal constitutions as evidence that the secular clergy was
constructively involved in the spread of literality. The same record shows that
clerical involvement in the spread of literality responded to reformist tendencies
within late medieval and early modern Christianity. Moreover, synodal constitu
tions also mirror the incremental way in which the secular clergy grew worry of
literacy and opted to impose tighter controls on the spread of basic reading
skills. In closing, the essay examines the work of several religious writers in
search for indications of how they constructed a laical spirituality of reading that
DE GRUYTER Literacy, Spirituality of Reading, and Catholic Literary Culture 161
was conducive to the spread of literality. Throughout, it argues that the dis
semination of literality led to the formation of a distinctive Catholic literary
culture.1
2 Literacy and catholic literary culture

In 1986, Angelo J. DiSalvo inadvertently articulated what is perhaps the best
characterization of what I am calling Spain’s Catholic literary culture.2 DiSalvo
reflected on the “influence” that religious literature had on other creative literary
endeavors of the period. By religious literature he meant not fiction or imagina
tive literature but specifically “ascetical meditative literature.” He drew on the
work of Alexander A. Parker who argued that the picaresque novel rose as a
“deliberate alternative” to the period’s popular romances of chivalry.3 In a
similar way, DiSalvo went on to explain ascetical meditative literature as an
“alternative” body of writings. As he saw it, the flourishing of religious literature
of this sort stemmed from an effort of religious authors to provide the public
with “an alternative body of literature that could serve to counteract the influ
ence of the secularizing effects of the chivalric and pastoral modes in vogue.”4
As a result of their growing popularity, ascetical writings “exerted influence on
the literature written for a secular readership.”5 DiSalvo’s critical contribution
was to observe how this body of ascetical meditative writings provided a literary
canon for other writers of the period. As he concluded:
Thus we can determine that the ascetical-meditative-devotional works became a kind of

catalyst for the subsequent production of works created for a largely secular readership.
Various writers made a conscious effort to draw from this wealth of materials and themes
in the creation of their own works. Others read the religious literature and incorporated
what they learned therein into their own storehouse of already acquired Catholic beliefs.
1 On literacy, see the now classic Harvey J. Graff, The Labyrinths of Literacy: Reflections on
Literacy Past and Present (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995); on the topic of
Catholic literary culture in Spain, see Rady Roldan-Figueroa, “Martin de Roa, S.J. (1559-1637)
and the Consolidation of Catholic Literary Culture in Spain,” European History Quarterly 45, no.
1 (2015): 5-33.
2 Angelo J. DiSalvo, “Ascetical Meditative Literature of Renaissance Spain: An Alternative to
Amadis, Elisa and Diana,” Hispania 69 (1986): 466-75.
3 Alexander A. Parker, Literature and the Delinquent: The Picaresque Novel in Spain and Europe,
1599-1753 (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 1967), as cited in DiSalvo, “Ascetical
Meditative Literature,” 468.
4 DiSalvo, “Ascetical Meditative Literature,” 466.
5 Ibid., 468.
Whatever the case may be, the significant body of religious literature had a considerable
impact on Spanish literature produced after 1550.6
Accordingly, building upon DiSalvo’s characterization it is possible to come to a

more specific understanding of Spain’s Catholic literary culture. In fact, any
given literary culture can be described as a dynamic and recurrent historical
process of cultural appropriation and circulation of ideational contents. A lit
erary culture is made possible by a combination of factors that include the
spread of basic literacy. The dissemination of both reading and writing skills
are essential to the formation of a literary culture. However, the presence of a
reading public is critical for its expansion. A literary culture expands only in
response to growing demand. Literary cultures cannot be studied apart from the
materiality of the medium that facilitates the circulation of ideas. Careful con
sideration of the production, distribution, collection, and categorization of
media such as books at a given point in time or over time informs the proper
understanding of a given literary culture.
In the sixteenth century, Spanish literary culture drew upon the explicitly
Catholic ideas and themes that were in public circulation. Spain’s literary
culture, however, was not constituted exclusively by the passive assimilation
of Catholic themes. Instead, the active reworking of Catholic imagery also
contributed to its formation. Such reworking could be undertaken in order to
elicit grater appreciation and commitment to these religious ideals. Yet, it could
also be meant to provoke their critical re-evaluation. The defining trait of this
confessional literary culture, moreover, was the self-referential character of the
ideational nexus thus created. Finally, this literary culture was specifically
Spanish. After all, this was the period in which the use of vernacular was the
preferred mode of expression for religious writers. Indeed, 88 percent of all
works published in the Iberian Peninsula before 1601 were in Castilian.7
It is possible to appraise the contours of Spanish Catholic literary culture
during the period. One way to measure it is by looking at the lands of books that
appeared in print in the sixteenth century. For instance, Alexander S. Wilkinson
has chartered the real magnitude and significance of religious literature in terms
of its share of the overall output of the Iberian printing presses in the sixteenth
century. Wilkinson, who has used a restrictive definition of religious literature,
has estimated that the percentage of religious books printed during the period
6 Ibid., 472.
7 Alexander S. Wilkinson, “Mapping the Print World of Early Modern Iberia,” in Iberian Books:
Books Published in Spanish or Portuguese or on the Iberian Peninsula Before 1601, ed. Alexander
S. Wilkinson (Leiden/London: Brill, 2010), xviii n37.
remained constant at roughly 46 percent of all books.8 Moreover, the circulation

of this body of writings can be estimated by looking at book ownership as
revealed in testaments, inventories of private and institutional collections, and
other means.9 Lastly, the intertextual links holding literary works together as
part of a larger distinctively Catholic literary body can be established by careful
examination of cross references, lists of authorities and bibliographies.10
The study of literacy and of the character of the reading public during the
period has been intricate, however. For instance, in an essay published in 1989,
Sara T. Nalle offered an important analysis of the spread of literacy in early
modern Spain. Her essay remains valuable not only in terms of the quantitative
analysis of inquisitorial records from the diocese of Cuenca; but also in terms of
the scholarly synopsis that she offered. She asserted that, “little is known about
how ordinary Spaniards learned to read,” and made reference to the “incre
mental change” in literacy that Spanish society experienced during the sixteenth
century. She noted, moreover, the discrepancy between literacy and book own
ership and argued that the ready availability of books could not explain the
spread of literacy.11 For instance, out of 559 lay respondents who were inter
viewed by the Inquisition between 1570 and 1610, only 176 men and women said
they could read. Furthermore, merely sixty-six of those who could read owned
some kind of publication.12 Interestingly, Nalle reported that of 806 Inquisition
8 Ibid., xix. For a significant reconceptualization of the category of religious literature, see
Alison P. Weber, “Religious Literature in Early Modern Spain,” in The Cambridge History of
Spanish Literature, ed. David T. Gies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 149-58.
Keith Whinnom had already established that there was quite an extensive reading public for
devotional literature and that works of spirituality, dealing with such topics as prayer, were the
top sellers of the period. See Keith Whinnom, “The Problem of the ‘Best-Seller’ in Spanish
Golden-Age Literature,” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 57 (1980): 189-98.
9 For an insightful review and commentary on the literature, see Benito Rial, “Sixteenth-
Century Private Book Inventories and Some Problems Related to their Analysis,” Library and
Information History 26, no. 1 (2010): 70-82. The literature on this subject is extensive. See,
however, the following: Trevor J. Dadson, “La Biblioteca de Alonso de Barros, Autor de los
Proverbios Morales,” Bulletin Hispanique 89 (1987): 27-53; Pedro Ruiz Perez, “Observaciones
sobre libros y lecturas en circulos cultos (A proposito de Mai Lara y el humanismo sevillano),”
Bulletin Hispanique 100 (1998): 53-68; Pedro M. Catedra, “La biblioteca de la Universidad de
Toledo (siglo XVI),” Bulletin of Spanish Studies 81 (2004): 928-56.
10 Roldan-Figueroa, “Martin de Roa, S.J.” [see nl], 5-33; Rady Roldan-Figueroa, “Tomas
Carrascon, Anti-Roman Catholic Propaganda, and the Circulation of Ideas in Jacobean
England,” History of European Ideas 39, no. 2 (2013): 169-206.
11 Sara T. Nalle, “Literacy and Culture in Early Modern Castile,” Past and Present 125 (1989):
65-96. See also Anne J. Cruz and Rosilie Hernandez, eds., Women’s Literacy in Early Modem
Spain and the New World (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011).
12 Nalle, “Literacy and Culture,” 74.
defendants, only 14 percent reported to have learned to read from a village priest
or sacristan.13 According to Nalle, the finding seemed to confirm that the clergy
did not play any significant role in the spread of literacy.14
Nalle’s work on the spread of literacy in early-modern Spain represented an
important contribution in the study of the subject. However, it was consistent
with other works that underestimated the role of the clergy in the increase of
literacy. Remarkably, it has been widely recognized that a robust demand for
devotional/religious literature was matched with an equally abundant offer of
religious books. In fact, scholars have been generally quick to note how abun
dant were tools of literacy such as cartillas, catechisms and doctrinas. Yet, if
these tools played a part in the increase of literacy, can the religious authors that
produced them be ignored? Or could these tools of literacy have accomplished
their objective without the involvement of religious personnel for whom the
tools were crafted and intended in the first place?
For long the norm in the scholarly literature was to emphasize the negative
function that the clergy played in relation to literacy in Spain. To be sure, in his
milestone work on the subject, Richard L. Kagan didn’t see the clergy playing
any significantly positive function in the promotion of literacy.15 He discussed
the family as one of the primary contexts for the early education of children. He
even alluded to the service that “amigas” might have played in early education
up to the age of six.16 However, beyond the immediate confines of the family,
Kagan saw the enterprise of literacy as fundamentally the task of private
instructors as well as of “masters of primary letters.”17 Primary instruction was
expensive and, therefore, limited to families of means.18 Thus, he highlighted
the function that publicly funded charitable institutions such as orphanages
played in fostering literacy.19
Yet, the clergy didn’t figure positively in Kagan’s account. Ecclesiastical
institutions only came up in terms of their negative, largely coercive perfor
mance in regulating and even suppressing literacy.20 If the clergy engaged in
any constructive way in the increase of literacy it was out of fear of heresy; thus,
13 Ibid., 75.
14 Ibid.
15 Richard L. Kagan, Students and Society in Early Modern Spain (Baltimore, MD/London: The
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974).
16 Ibid., 9.
17 Ibid., 10-11.
18 Ibid., 12-14.
19 Ibid., 19.
20 Ibid., 11.
out of a purely reactionary impulse.21 He did not examine the clergy’s role in
producing tools of literacy, nor did he recognize that the clergy was construc
tively involved in teaching children to read. Only the Society of Jesus figured
prominently in Kagan’s account for its commitment to education.22
An important corrective to the too common misevaluation of the role of the
Spanish clergy in the promotion of literacy flows from the work of Victor
Infantes. In his many publications, Infantes has documented and analyzed the
print history of books used in the elementary formation of learners, especially
the cartillas.23 His extensive work—part of it produced in collaboration with Ana
Martinez Pereira—demonstrates that from the late fifteenth century and through
out the early part of the sixteenth, the Spanish clergy was actively engaged in
the production of printed tools of literacy.24 Moreover, he shows that many of
the earliest printed cartillas appeared together with catechetical works. For
instance, about 1505 a new edition of Hernando [Fernando] de Talavera’s
Breve doctrina was published with a cartilla and, as the title indicated, it was
to be used as an aid for teaching children to read.25 The intimate association
between early printed catechetical literature and aids to teach children to read
has led Infantes to observe that, “the learning of the first letters was associated
with an eminently Catholic education.”26 He argues that not only were cartillas
published with catechetical works, but that the latter were also used to teach
21 “The town councils and the Spanish Inquisition shared this crucial task; the former would
provide for, or at least look after, teachers and schools; the latter, through censorship, would
keep the ‘poison’ out” (ibid., 19).
22 Ibid., 21.
23 See the following: Victor Infantes, “De la cartilla al libro,” Bulletin hispanique 97, no. 1
(1995): 33-66; idem, “La educacion, el libro y la lectura,” in La cultura del renacimiento (1480-
1580), ed. Victor Garcia de la Concha, vol 21 of Historia de Espaha Menendez Pidal, 42 vols.
(Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1999), 5-50; idem, “La educacion impresa,” Cuadernos de historia
moderna. Anejos 3 (2004): 227-51; idem, “Los utensilios impresos de la fe: Nuevos testimonies
de cartillas y doctrinas para ensenar a leer del siglo XVI,” Hibris: Revista de bibliofilia 52 (2009):
27-35.
24 Victor Infantes and Ana Martinez Pereira, “Cartillas y doctrinas del siglo XVII: Primer censo
bibliografico,” Historia de la educacion: Revista interuniversitaria 18 (1999): 335-54; Victor
Infantes and Ana Martinez Pereira, “La imagen grafica de la primera ensenanza en el siglo
XVI,” Revista Complutense de la educacion 10, no. 2 (1999): 73-100.
25 Hernando de Talavera, Breve y muy provechosa doctrina delo que deve saber todo christiano
con otros tractados muy provechosos: Conpuestos por el Arzobispo de Granada (Granada:
Meinardo Ungut y Juan Pegnitzer, 1496); idem, Cartilla y doctrina en romance del Arzobispo
de Granada para ensenar nihos a leer (Salamanca: Juan de Porras, ca. 1505—1508[?]).
Throughout this essay, I am following the spelling and grammar as found in sixteenth and
seventeenth century sources with minimal modifications.
26 Infantes, “La educacion,” 12.
reading skills.27 In short, the early print history of the cartillas allows us to
conclude with Infantes that the clergy-lead process of alfabetizacion did not
simply produce readers, but that it generated Catholic readers.
The next logical question for scholars is to inquire about the modes of
reading that were promoted by the Spanish clergy. Here too a restrictive view
of the relation between the clergy and literacy has been influential. Manuel Pena
Diaz has documented the way that the Spanish Inquisition adopted the principle
of caute lege in the course of the seventeenth century.28 According to Pena Diaz,
the Spanish Inquisition, faced with the practical impossibilities of enforcing
expurgatory indexes, turned to the model of censorship instituted by Giovanni
Maria Guanzelli in the Roman Index librorum expurgandorum of 1607.29 The idea
of “reading cautiously,” he argues, allowed the Spanish Inquisition to turn the
reader into a censor. In other words, by practicing a form of self-censorship the
reader became a proxy agent of the Spanish Inquisition. In fact, in the preface to
the first volume of the Index librorum expurgandorum, Guanzelli warns his
readers about the possibility that some errors may have escaped the censor’s
scrupulous attention. In that case, he points out, it is the “duty of the pious and
Catholic reader to, according as it shall be necessary, cut them away.” That is,
the Roman Catholic public was now responsible for the expurgation of texts.
Furthermore, he reminds readers to be “cautious” and “prudent” (“sed caute, et
prudenter accedat, admonemus”).30 In order to accomplish this the censor
supplements the extensive list of prohibited books and items for expurgation
with numerous indications to “read cautiously” (caute lege).
27 Victor Infantes and Ana Martinez Pereira, De las primeras letras: Cartillas espaholas para
ensehar a leer del siglo XVII, 2 vols. (Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 2003),
1:55.
28 Manuel Pena Diaz, “La censure inquisitoriale en Espagne aux xvie et xviie siecle,” La lettre
clandestine: Les formes litteraires dans les manuscrits philosophiques clandestins 9 (2000):
143-55; idem, “Leer con cautela: estrategias y nuevos modos de censurar en el siglo XVII,” in
Historia y perspectivas de investigation: Estndios en memoria del profesor Angel Rodriguez
Sanchez, ed. Miguel Rodriguez Cancho (Merida: Editora Regional de Extremadura, 2002),
365-71; idem, “Identidad, discursos y practicas de la censura inquisitorial,” Astrolabio 11
(2013): 61-75. The basic argument and texts reappear in all three essays.
29 loannem Mariam Brasichellen [Giovanni Maria Guanzelli], Index libromm expurgandorum in
studiosorum gratiam confectus (Rome: Typ. R. Cam. Apost., 1607). Pena Diaz makes reference to
the work but does not provide the bibliographic information in any of his articles.
30 “Si autem (quod imbecillitatis humanae memores evenire posse minime dubitamus) aliquae
errorum reliquiae, quae diligentiam nostram effugerint, in huiusmodi libris remanserint, pii, et
catholici lectoris officium erit, eas, prout necesse fuerit, resecare. Quem propterea ut ad eosdem
libros legendos non oscitanter: sed caute, et prudenter accedat, admonemus” (loannem Mariam
Brasichellen, “Pio ac studioso lectori, salutem,” in Index libromm expurgandonim, no pagination).
The Spanish Inquisition first instituted the principle of caute lege in the
Index of 1640.31 The development took place over a century after members of the
Spanish clergy were actively promoting literality in conjunction with catecheti
cal formation. Hence, reading modalities should be examined in relation to
earlier developments that predate the turn that the Spanish Inquisition took in
the seventeenth century. That is precisely one of the contributions that Iveta
Nakladalova has made to this discussion. She has put forward a considerably
nuanced and carefully constructed interpretation of the sixteenth-century theory
of “devout reading” or “lectura devota.”32 Her inquiry furthers considerably our
understanding of how several spiritual and ascetic writers articulated a highly
consistent spirituality of reading. To be sure, Nakladalova herself does not treat
it solely as a “spirituality of reading” but chiefly as a “theory of reading.”33
She argues that the work of the twelfth-century Cistercian Guigo II, the Scala
claustralium (c. 1150), provided the governing paradigm embraced by Spanish
ascetic writers of the sixteenth-century.34 Guigo saw lecture as a preliminary
and, in Nakladalova’s words, “absolutely unavoidable” first rung in the spiritual
ascent to God.35 She finds a similar and closely related articulation in the works
of several Spanish authors. For instance, she relies on Tomas de Villanueva’s
Modo breve de servir a Dios nuestro Senor: leccidn, meditation, oration y
contemplation (c. 1545), and discusses Luis de Alarcon, Camino del cielo
(1547).36 Other authors in which she finds Guigo’s monastic paradigm are the
Dominican Juan de la Cruz (fl. 1555), Francisco de Borja (1510-1572), and Alonso
de Orozco (1500-1591). These are all authors whose works date to the middle or
31 Antonio Sotomayor, Novissimus libromm prohibitomm ex expurgandomm index (Madrid:

Diego Diaz, 1640).
32 Iveta Nakladalova, La lectura docta en la primera edad moderna (1450-1650) (Madrid:
Abada Editores, 2013), 221-68. See an earlier version of this chapter in idem, “La lectura devota
en el Renacimiento,” in Estudios sobre la Edad Media, el Renacimiento y la Temprana
Modemidad, ed. Francisco Bautista Perez and Jimena Gamba Corradine (San Millan de la
Cogolla: CiLengua, 2010), 703-10.
33 Nakladalova, La lectura docta, 226.
34 Guigo II, The Ladder of Monks: A Letter on the Contemplative Life and Twelve Meditations,
trans. Edmund Colledge and James Walsh (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1981).
35 Nakladalova, La lectura docta, 228.
36 Nakladalova cites Tomas de Villanueva, Obras de santo Tomas de Villanueva: Sermones de la
Virgen y obras castellanas, ed. Santos Santamarta (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos,
1952), 507-26; Luis de Alarcon, Camino del cielo, en que se demuestra como se busca y halla Dios
de todo corazon Christiano y se declara la maldad y ceguedad de este mundo compuesto por el
reverendo padre fray Lays de Alarcon, religioso de la orden del bienaventurado santo Agustin: Y
predicador de la palabra divina; Es libro muy catholico y no menos necessario para todos, assi
religiosos como seglares (Alcala de Henares: Juan de Brocar, 1547).
second half of the sixteenth century. She broadens the chronological scope of
her sources as she explores the metaphors or images that ascetic authors of the
period used to represent the activity of reading. Here the earliest figure she
discusses is Bernabe de Palma (1469-1532).
Nakladalova’s analysis opens the way for a holistic view of the dynamic
relation between catechetical activities, the spread of literacy, and the consoli
dation of Catholic literary culture. Scholars have dealt with these three subjects
separately, while in reality they are intricately related. The way to expand on her
provocative construction of “lectura devota” is to identify the mechanisms by
which the clergy adapted an essentially monastic understanding of reading to
the needs of the laity. A crucial transition took place in the course of the
sixteenth century by means of which the monastic spirituality of reading—like
many other aspects of monastic spirituality—was tailored to the active life of lay
people. The transition was decisive as it marked the origins of a new reading
public. Indeed, the laity was far more numerous and vividly attracted to the
mysteries of the faith. The thirst of lay readers fueled a growing demand for
devotional literature which members of the clergy were quick to address.
Consequently, the increase in religious literary production for the laity was not
a reactionary endeavor but the result of religious-cultural dynamics.
Scholars easily miss the juncture. Nakladalova, who is otherwise meticulous
in her treatment, overlooks this point as well. For instance, Villanueva’s Modo
breve de servir a Dios nuestro Senor figures prominently in her study. Yet,
Villanueva’s short treatise did not appear in print in the sixteenth century. In
fact, it was first published in the eighteenth.37 Furthermore, the work was not
addressed to a lay readership. Instead, Villanueva wrote his “rules” as well as
his considerations on “reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation” with a
37 The work first appeared in print in the eighteenth century, see Tomas de Villanueva, Modo
breve de servir a N[ues]tro Senor en diez reglas fecho por [el Sto. P.] Fray Tomas de Villanueva,
fraile Agustino, y Arzobispo de Valencia (Madrid: Joachin Ibarra, 1763). The work is bounded
with two other tracks by Villanueva and printed by the same printer, each treatise with separate
pagination. Tomas de Villanueva, Explication de la bienaventuranzas, y su correspondencia ya
con los dones del Espiritu Santo, ya con la oration del Padre Nuestro (Madrid: Joachin Ibarra,
1763); idem, Oration o Soliloquio, que entre Dios y el alma conviene hacerse despues de la
sagrada comunion: Para le dar gracias por tan immenso beneficio como recibio (Madrid:
Joachin Ibarra, 1763). In his preface, Fray Francisco Mendez, editor of these collected works,
points out that they were part of an unpublished manuscript: “Ademas de lo grande y devoto de
la materia tienen la recomendacion de no estar publicados. El ms. Del santo de donde se han
sacado, se guarda entre las preciosas reliquias de este Convento de san Phelipe el Real de
Madrid” (Francisco Mendez, “Advertencias,” preface to Villanueva, Explication, no pagination).
clerical audience in mind.38 His theory of reading was meant to explain reading
primarily as a spiritual exercise of the clergy. Moreover, the paradigm that
Nakladalova identifies originates in a tract that itself was written for a monastic
community. Guigo II, ninth prior of the Grande Chartreuse, addressed the Latin
original to other Carthusian monks.39 More relevant to the present question is
her treatment of Luis de Alarcon’s Camino del cielo as it was written with a lay
readership in view.40 As Alarcon notes in the opening lines of Camino del cielo’s
tenth chapter, reading is a spiritual exercise for people of all states; that is, the
regular, secular, or laical state. Yet, this has not been the focus of scholarly
discussion. Hence, it remains to be shown how the Spanish clergy articulated a
spirituality of reading for the laity. Following Infantes, I want to suggest that the
first step was the programmatic association between catechization and literacy.
Further evidence to support this thesis can be found in the synodal constitutions
of the period.
3 On Spanish synods, catechization, and the

spread of literacy
The Spanish clergy was, for the better part of the early sixteenth century,
actively involved in a concerted literacy effort. The impulse behind this move
ment was fundamentally informed by the reformist aspirations of late-medieval
Christianity. As already mentioned, a clear indication of this movement can be
found in the cheer number of catechetical and instructional aids that the clergy
composed during the period. The impetus stirring the production of this body of
didactic works, in turn, is to be found in the ecclesiastical legislation
38 The third rule instructs the reader to “avoid visitations of lay people” (“huir visitaciones de
seglares”) (Villanueva, Modo breve, 3).
39 Atsushi Iguchi, “Translating Grace: The Scala Claustralium and A Ladder of Foure Ronges,”
Review of English Studies 59 (2008): 659-76.
40 “Ninguna persona, por ocupada que sea—como lo es el Rey y el Principe y cualquier Senor
o Juez temporal o de cualquier otro estado o condition que sea—, debe dejar de leer, por lo
menos una vez al dla, en algun libro devoto, si quiere aprovechar en este primer ejercicio, que
pone al hombre en el camino del cielo” (Luis de Alarcon, Camino del cielo: Y de la maldad y
ceguedad del mundo, ed. Angel Custodio Vega [Barcelona: Juan Flors, 1959], 98). See also Rafael
M. Perez Garcia, “Communitas Christiana: The Sources of Christian Tradition in the Construction
of Early Castilian Spiritual Literature,” in Books in the Catholic World during the Early Modem
Period, ed. Natalia Maillard Alvarez (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2014), 71-113 (113).
promulgated by Spanish diocesan synods. Injunctions ordering the teaching of

reading as part of catechetical instruction can be found in synodal constitutions.
Surely, clerical involvement in the spread of literacy accounts for the for
mation and consolidation of a distinctively European intellectual heritage.41
Already in 789, Charlemagne decreed the establishment of schools for children
in his admonitio generalis. Naturally, members of the clergy staffed Carolingian
schools and literacy consisted in the ability to read and write Latin. Although
these schools could provide lay boys with a basic education, they were mainly
intended to replenish clerical ranks.42 Furthermore, Medieval councils enun
ciated this ideal, which reflected the Augustinian synthesis of Christian theology
with Greek paideia as best denoted in De doctrina Christiana (c. 396, 426-27).43
Among the canons of Lateran Council III (1179) was canon eighteen, which
instructed that each cathedral church should have a benefice designated for a
teacher whose duty was to teach cathedral clergy and poor students free of
charge (“qui clericos eiusdem ecclessiae et scholares pauperes gratis doceat”).44
Moreover, canon eleven of Lateran Council IV (1215) called for the appointment
of “competent masters” for the free instruction of clerics in grammar and
theology.45 The critical difference between these medieval examples and the
Spanish case at hand was the twofold turn in the direction of the instruction of
the laity in the vernacular.
The transition in question took place at the level of local synods. Historians
have seen the celebration of local synods under the presiding authority of a
bishop as a hallmark of Tridentine reform.46 However, the celebration of local
synods and the printing of synodal constitutions or statutes were already taking
place in Spain during the last quarter of the fifteenth century and early part of
the sixteenth. In fact, the late Bernabe Bartolome Martinez estimated that some
150 synods and provincial councils were held in Spain between Lateran Council
41 Jacques Le Goff, The Birth of Europe (Malden/Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), 36-38.
42 Rosamond McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word (Cambridge/New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1989), 220; M. M. Hildebrandt, The External School in Carolingian
Society (Leiden: Brill, 1992), 57.
43 Werner Jaeger, Early Christianity and Greek Paideia (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, 1961).
44 A. Garcia y Garcia et al., eds., Conciliorum oecumenicomm generaliumque decreta: Editio
critica (869-1424), vol. II/l (Tumhout: Brepols, 2013), 140.
45 Ibid., 173.
46 See for instance Guy Bedouelle, The Reform of Catholicism, 1480-1620, trans. James K. Farge
(Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2008).
V (1512-1517) and the Council of Trent (1545-1563).47 In addition, Jose Sanchez

Herrero affirmed that the birth of the modern Spanish parochial school could be
traced to the last decade of the fifteenth century as evidenced in the synod of
Toledo of 1480.48 Synods were mechanism of ecclesiastical reform and as such
they embodied late-medieval reformists tendencies. Synodal constitutions, or
synodal decrees, governed the ecclesiastical administration of archdioceses and
dioceses. They were institutional devices employed for the codification of eccle
siastical legislation, the stipulation of ecclesiastical discipline, and the regula
tion of the clergy.
The synodal constitution of the Diocese of Avila, a suffragan of Santiago de
Compostela, is emblematic of the reformist tendencies of the period.49 The synod
was held on 10 September 1481, with Archbishop Alonso de Fonseca y Acevedo
(“El Joven,” d. 1512) presiding. Fonseca made the reformist orientation of the
synod patently clear in his opening discourse. He asserted the authority of
synods from ancient times in the history of Christianity. He explained that
their purpose was to “legislate and ordain all things pertaining to the service
of God, the increase of divine worship, the wellbeing and immunity of God’s
ministers and sanctuaries, the reformation of the way of life and customs of the
faithful, and the elimination of vices.”50
The famed reformer of the regular clergy and patron of Spanish humanism,
Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros (1436-1517) had a very similar view of synods.51
Interestingly, scholars have for long noted his towering importance for six
teenth-century Spanish Catholicism.52 In reality, however, he has to be seen as
emblematic of a broader and much more generalized reform-minded orientation
47 B. Bartolome, “La educacion institucional: Las escuelas de primeras letras,” in Historia de la

education en Espana y America, ed. Buenaventura Delgado Criado, vol. 2 (Morata: Fundacion
Santa Maria, 1994), 175-94 (179).
48 Jose Sanchez Herrero, “Alfabetizacion y catequesis dominicana en America durante el siglo
XVI,” in Actas del II Congreso international sobre los dominicos y el nuevo mundo, ed. Jose
Barrado Barquilla (Salamanca: Editorial San Esteban, 1990), 727-64 (733-34).
49 Alonso de Fonseca (d. 1512), Sinodal de Avila (Salamanca: Tip. De Nebrija, ca. 1481).
50 Ibid., no pagination; A. Saez, “Fonseca, Alonso de,” in Diccionario de historia eclesidstica de
Espana, ed. Quintin Aldea Vaquero et al., 4 vols. (Madrid: Instituto Enrique Florez, Consejo
Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1972), 2:949 [henceforth DHEE]; Alfonso de Palencia,
Fechos de Espana: Gesta hispaniensia ex annalibus suorum dierum collecta, ed. Brian Tate and
Jeremy Lawrance, 2 vols. (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 1999), 2:299.
51 Erika Rummel, Jimenez de Cisneros: On the Threshold of Spain’s Golden Age (Tempe, AZ:
Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1999); Joseph Perez, Cisneros, el cardenal
de Espana (Madrid: Taurus, 2014).
52 Cf. Jose Garcia Oro, Cisneros y la reforma del clero espahol en tiempo de los reyes catolicos
(Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1971).
of late fifteenth and early sixteenth-century Spanish prelacy. In this sense, he

was not the exception and his significance has to be seen in relation to prelates
such as Alonso de Fonseca y Acevedo, Hernando de Talavera (even if Hernando
de Talavera and Jimenez de Cisneros had different and opposing views about the
Christianization of the moriscos of Granada), and other prelates discussed here.
The Archbishop of Toledo celebrated two consecutive synods in Alcala (1497)
and Talavera (1498). The final constitution of Toledo appeared in print in 1498.53
According to Jimenez de Cisneros, his predecessors were “moved with holy zeal
and intent” as they “made and ordained many praiseworthy constitutions.”
However, as time passed many of these constitutions “have been violated”
while others “have not been implemented.” Moreover, a new constitution was
needed since unforeseen “cases have emerged and even newer cases and situa
tions emerge every day.” Accordingly, it was necessary to come up with “new
remedies.”54
The synods of Avila (1481) and Toledo (1498) instruct the diocesan clergy to
catechize the faithful. The synodal constitution of Avila opens with a full chapter
on the importance of teaching the articles of the faith. To that purpose it
instructs that boards be placed in churches containing the “Seven Articles of
the Faith, the Ten Commandments, the seven sacraments and works of mercy.”
The constitution articulates the importance of catechetical formation in clear
pastoral terms describing the elementary principles of the faith as “an indis
pensable good” which the clergy was responsible for imparting to those under
their care.55 The synodal constitution of Avila delineates two mechanisms for the
fulfillment of this pastoral task. First, it instructs that catechetical summaries be
posted in churches “in a decent place and manifest to all so that it can be better
seen and read.” In this way it was hoped that the faithful could be “more easily
instructed and informed.”56 The injunction that the summaries of the faith—
Seven Articles of the Faith, Ten Commandments, seven sacraments, and works
of mercy—be posted in written is an important indication of the context and
assumptions of the constitution. In making these recommendations, the synod
of Avila reflects a different disposition that is no longer circumscribed by the
notion of Gregory the Great (r. 590-604), as stated in his letter to Bishop Serenus
53 Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros, Constitiiciones del Arzobispado de Toledo, ordenadas por Fray
Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros: Tabla de lo que han de ensenar a los ninos (Salamanca: Juan de
Porras, 1498).
54 Ibid., Constitiiciones, iiv.
55 Fonseca, Sinodal de Avila [see n49], no pagination.
56 Ibid., no pagination.
of Marseille, that the illiterate read in images “what they cannot read in
books.”57 The injunction assumed an audience with some degree of literacy.
The second mechanism is the designation of clergy responsible for instruct
ing the faithful on the summaries of the faith. According to the synodal con
stitution of Avila, the chief chaplain of the cathedral church of Santiago de
Compostela as well as the “priests and rectors” of the parochial churches, or
their corresponding chaplains, are responsible for teaching the elementary
doctrines of the faith “every Sunday of Advent, and from the first Sunday of
the Septuagesima until Passion Sunday, including every Sunday after the high
mass.” They are to “read, and as God would permit them, explain” the summa
ries of the faith once yearly in “romance with loud and clear voice.”58 The
constitution of Avila makes room for variations or substitutions of religious
personnel in the local parishes, allowing for local clergy to alternate in the
fulfillment of this charge. However, failure to observe this regulation is to be
punished with a fine of three silver reales.59
The synodal constitution of Toledo (1498) is not as extensive as that of Avila
(1481). It consists of nineteen chapters that regulate the conduct of the clergy.
The first chapter calls for the periodic celebration of diocesan synods. The
diocesan clergy is to gather on a yearly basis, allowing prelates to “dutifully
inform themselves of the life and customs of their parishioners.”60 As they
rectify present ills they make provisions for future developments.61 Chapter
four defines the responsibility of the diocesan clergy to instruct children in the
articles of the faith. In the opening lines it declares a “great defect and guilt of
the subjects” and a “remarkable negligence of the priests” that the “parishioners
don’t know those things pertaining to their salvation.”62 Among those “funda
ments” of the faith, the synodal constitution itemizes the Ten Commandments,
the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, the Salve Regina, and the Apostles’ Creed.63
Therefore, in order that such “ignorance” is ended the synod commands that
every Sunday after vespers and completes, priests should sing the Salve Regina.
Priests should also encourage their parishioners to come to the parish and more
importantly to send their children, especially those under twelve, to listen. The
clergy should “publicly teach the children everything.” It further instructs that
57 Sancti Gregorii Magni Epistolarum Lib. XI, Epist. 13, Patrologia latina, ed. J. P. Migne, vol. 77
(Paris: 1849), cols. 1128-30.
58 Fonseca, Sinodal de Avila, no pagination.
59 Ibid., no pagination.
60 Jimenez de Cisneros, Constituciones [see n53], iiir.
61 Ibid., iiir—v.
62 Ibid., iiiiv.
63 Ibid.
they should follow the format of questions and answers and that the children
should respond on the basis of the summaries of the faith that are posted in
boards in the churches. Priests should do this every Sunday or they will receive
a fine of two silver reales every time the fail to do so.64
The activity of teaching reading skills became a noteworthy pastoral practice
in the sixteenth century. Synodal constitutions of the second and third decades
of the century were consistent on this point. Alonso Suarez de la Fuente del
Sauce (d. 1520), bishop of Jaen, presided over the diocesan synod of 12 March
1511.65 Interestingly, Alonso Suarez, who was elevated to the bishopric of Jaen in
1500, was original from Fuente del Sauce, a vicinity of Avila.66 Accordingly, he
must have grown under the influence of the reformist clerical atmosphere that
the 1481 synod ushered in the region. Indeed, he is better remembered for his
patronage of the arts in Jaen, especially well attested in the architectural land
scape of the region.67 He occupied important posts in the Castilian court,
including that of President of the Consejo de Castilla and Inquisitor General
(c. 1498).68
Like the previous constitutions, Jaen’s synodal statutes pay close attention
to matters of ecclesiastical discipline. The body of legislation is seen as founded
upon the authority of bishops to “institute statutes and laws for the good
governance, holy disposition, and peace of the Christian people.”69 Of para
mount importance are the formation, conduct, and proper ordering of the clergy
as well as clerical functions. The constitution calls for all ordained clergy to be
literate and expects that illiterate clergy between the ages of 13 and 30 learn
grammar within a period of six months after the celebration of the synod.70 More
64 Ibid., iiiiv-vr.
65 Alonso Suarez de la Fuente del Sauce, Sinodal del obispado de Iaen [Libro de las constitu-
ciones sinodales hechas y ordenadas por el muy reverendo y muy magnifico senor don Alonso de
Fuente el Sauce] (Sevilla: Jacobo Cronberger, 1511); Daniel Tirapu Martinez and Juan Manuel
Mates Barco, “Reforma y renovacion religiosa en la Edad Moderna: Los slnodos de Jaen (1478-
1628),” Anuario de historia de la Iglesia 1 (1992): 139-60.
66 “Suarez de Fuente el Sauce, Alonso (fl. 1500-1520),” in Censo-guia de Archivos de Espana e
Iberoamerica, accessed 28 April 2015, http://censoarchivos.mcu.es/CensoGuia/productordetail.
htm?id=50140.
67 Jose Manuel Almansa Moreno, “Arquitectura en Jaen durante el obispado de Alonso Suarez
de la Fuente el Sauce (1500-1520),” in La arquitectura tardogotica castellana entre Europa y
America, ed. Begona Alonso Ruiz (Madrid: Silex, 2011), 185-96.
68 On Alonso Suarez’s role as General Inquisitor, see Jose Ramon Rodriguez Besne, El Consejo
de la Suprema Inquisition: Perfil juridico de una Institution (Madrid: Editorial Complutense,
2000), 47nl01, 213n601.
69 Suarez, Sinodal del Obispado de Iaen [see n65], ixv.
70 Ibid., xviv.
importantly, it makes allowances for the instruction of reading skills to the laity
in the same chapter that sets standards for the office of sacristan. The synod
requires that the dignity of sacristan be bestowed upon ordained clergy, who
shall be responsible for the sacristy.71 Among the responsibilities of the sacristan
were—in addition to taking care of the sacred vessels used in divine worship—
those of “teaching the children of the parish who would like to be so instructed
to read, the confession, the articles of faith, and other things that are contained
in the panels that we ordered be placed in churches.”72 Thus, the synodal
constitution coalesced the teaching of reading with the teaching of traditional
catechetical elements such as the articles of faith. Parochial schools, like those
that the clergy gathered in the synod of Jaen envisioned, were clearly meant to
instruct children in their vernacular. Moreover, the objective was not limited to
the replenishment of the clergy; it also included the formation of a literate
Catholic laity.
While synodal constitutions of the early sixteenth century were consistent in
stressing the importance of catechetical formation as well as basic literacy
training, there were some important variations. In Seville, Archbishop Diego
de Deza (1443/44-1523) sponsored a provincial synod and had Jacob Cromberger
publish the final constitution in 1512.73 The constitution envisioned that mem
bers of the secular clergy as well as laymen would be responsible for teaching
children to read and write.74 Interestingly, however, it instructed that children
should be taught to read and write the articles of the faith before teaching them
anything else.75 In Malaga, Bishop Diego Ramirez de Villaescusa (1459-1537)
held a synod in 1512 that ratified the provincial constitution of Seville. Moreover,
the synod also adopted a separate constitution that was intended to guide the
work of the secular clergy with the morisco population of the city and environs.76
Accordingly, it instructed clergy to catechize “new Christian” youth under fifteen
and children under ten in the articles of faith.77 Following the Sevillian stan
dard, the constitution also envisioned that children could be taught by secular
71 Ibid., xxir-xxiv.
72 Ibid., xxiv.
73 Diego de Deza, Constitiidones del argobispado y provincia de Sevilla (Seville: Jacobo
Cromberger, 1512).
74 Ibid., iiiiv.
75 Ibid., iiiiv.
76 See Ramirez de Villaescusa’s preface in which he makes reference to the “mucho numero de
infieles de los moradores del [i.e. Malaga] se convirtieron poco ha a nuestra sancta fe catholica”
(Diego Ramirez de Villaescusa, Constitiidones del obispado de Malaga [Seville: Jacobo
Cromberger, 1512], no pagination).
77 Ibid., no pagination (“capltulo primero”).
clergy as well as by laymen. However, it specified that sacristans were expected

to teach children to read and write as well as the catechism.78 The synod also
admonished lay teachers to give priority to the articles of faith.79
As can be seen, parochial schools often operated parallel to schools run by
laymen. Nevertheless, catechetical instruction involved the teaching of reading
skills, and sometimes even writing. The humanist Alonso Manrique (1476-1538),
then bishop of Cordoba, presided over a provincial synod on March 9, 1520.80
Cordoba’s synodal constitution, which was published the following year,
reflected a situation in which children were taught not in a parochial school,
but in a school headed by a lay teacher.81 Nevertheless, the constitution expli
citly required secular clergy to catechize children as well as lay adults in the
vernacular language in order to ensure better comprehension.82 Furthermore,
the process of catechization required the reading of written tables with the
articles of faith.83 According to the 1536 synodal constitution of Toledo, lay
teachers were negligent in fulfilling their obligation to teach basic literacy
together with the catechism.84 Consequently, the synod ordered that in every
parish throughout the province there be an ordained sacristan responsible for
the instruction of reading and writing as well as teaching the catechism and
singing.85 Notwithstanding the apparent disdain that lay teachers had towards
teaching the catechism, the secular clergy implicitly acknowledged their impor
tance in the spread of literacy as well as their undeniable value in furthering the
clergy’s catechetical mission. Thus, the synod held in 1553 in Calahorra and
Calzada insisted that lay teachers, who were apparently fully entrusted with
teaching reading and writing, also teach children the Christian doctrine.86
Clearly, Spanish secular clergy participated in the spread of literacy. Synodal
constitutions furnish evidence that indicates that the secular clergy saw its
catechetical mission intimately associated with teaching children to read, and
sometimes even to write. These documents, which have the character of
78 Ibid., no pagination (“capitulo xxi”).

79 Ibid., no pagination (“capitulo primero”).
80 Alonso Manrique, Constitiiciones sinodales del obispado de Cordoua (Sevilla: Jacobo
Cromberger, 1521).
81 Ibid., ixv-xr.
82 Ibid., ixr.
83 Ibid., ixv.
84 Juan de Tavera, Constitiiciones synodales del Argobispado de Toledo (Alcala de Henares:
Miguel de Eguia, 1536), iir.
85 Ibid., iiv.
86 Juan Bernal Diaz Luco, Constitiiciones synodales del obispado de Calahorra y la Canada
(Leon: no publisher, 1555), ivr.
ecclesiastical legislation, do not sustain the notion that the clergy was always
inclined to suppress literacy. The secular clergy had a keen interest in developing
a Catholic reader. Accordingly, they were also interested in regulating reading in
as much as this meant that the reading of doctrinal matter would take priority
over other modalities. Here lays the origin of the spread of devotional reading and
the growth in demand for devotional literature among the Spanish laity.
In fact, it was in the second half of the sixteenth century, under Philip II, that
constitutional synods approached reading as a suspicious activity and targeted
schoolteachers for closer scrutiny. The shift in question could be attributed to the
Council of Trent and the emphasis it placed on the renewal of episcopal authority,
especially in its third and final period (1562-63). Indeed, just as new diocesan
synods sought to increase episcopal control over the spread of literacy it became
more common and frequent for them to call upon the authority of Trent. On the
other hand, the same tendency could also be attributed to Philip II’s regalism.
While these two distinctive forces may remain undistinguishable at the level of
ecclesiastical legislation, it is clear that greater episcopal control over the spread
of literacy was exercised in the second half of the century.
For instance, the 1573 synodal constitution of Malaga—adopted the previous
year—conflated in the same paragraph those who preach “scandalous doctrine”
and schoolteachers.87 Schoolteachers who don’t use “honest” books and don’t
teach virtue are, just like someone who preaches scandalous doctrines, to be
censured and removed.88 Women in charge of teaching trades to girls were
subject to the same requirement of instructing their pupils in Christian doc
trine.89 The addition of this chapter amounted to a significant change from
Malaga’s synodal constitution of 1512. In 1584, the diocese of Osma, which was
a suffragan of Toledo from 1210 until 1859, created several layers of ecclesiastical
control over the teaching of reading and writing. First, in its chapter on school
teachers it invoked the authority of the Council of Trent and the authority of the
synod of Toledo of 1580. Second, like contemporary constitutions it required that
schoolteachers, both men and women, be subject to episcopal approval and
clerical visitation. Finally, it explicitly required that all books be approved by
“holy mother church.”90 Sacristans remained in charge of catechizing and
teaching the first letters but they were not required to be ordained.
87 Francisco Blanco, Constituciones synodales del obispado de Malaga (Granada: Hugo de

Mena, 1573), 19r.
88 Ibid., 19r.
89 Ibid.
90 Sebastian Perez, Constituciones synodales: Del obispado de Osma (Villa del Burgo de Osma:
Diego Fernandez de Cordoba, 1586), 317.
In 1590, Bishop Bernardo Sandoval y Rojas (1546-1618) presided over the

diocesan synod of Pamplona.91 The new constitution became a model for others to
follow in the way it regulated the spread of basic literacy. According to
Pamplona’s ecclesiastical legislation sacristans were responsible only for catechiz
ing children.92 Moreover, a complete chapter dealt with the responsibilities of
schoolteachers, which included teaching reading and writing as well as imparting
Christian doctrine. The synodal constitution required that schoolteachers receive
the approval of the bishop and it made them subject to examination as well as
visitations.93 Women responsible for training girls in trades were subject to the
same kind of ecclesiastic oversight.94 Lastly, the 1595 synodal constitution of
Astorga, ratified in 1592 under Bishop Pedro de Rojas (d. 1602), instructed school
teachers, under penalty of excommunication, not to give their consent to the
reading of “lascivious and dishonest” books that pervert young people.95
The rigor of new controls over basic education was manifested in the
incorporation of women’s vocational training under ecclesiastical legislation.
The synodal constitution of Astorga, like those of Malaga (1573) and Pamplona
(1591), made the distinction between male schoolteachers responsible for teach
ing reading and writing and women responsible for training girls in trades.
These vocational instructors were only referred to as “mugeres que ensenan
ninas a labrar.” They were expected to teach girls the catechism or “doctrina
Christiana.” Ecclesiastical legislation made them subject to episcopal approval
and they were supposed to operate under the same system of clerical visitations
as their male counterparts.96
Interestingly, the synodal constitutions of Toledo remained largely
unchanged on this point since 1536. The new rigor did not took hold until the
last decade of the century. In fact, the metropolitan see of Toledo offers a
remarkable example of continuity spanning over a century of provincial synods.
At least nine provincial synods were held under archbishops Alfonso Carrillo
(1480), Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros (1497-98), Juan de Tavera (1536), Gaspar
de Quiroga (1580), Albert of Austria (1596), Bernardo Sandoval y Rojas (1601)
91 Bernardo de Rojas y Sandoval in contemporary sources, see Francisco de Pisa, Description

de la imperial ciudad de Toledo, vol. 1 (Toledo: Pedro Rodriguez, 1605), 273r; Bernardo de Rojas
y Sandoval, Constitntiones synodales del obispado de Pamplona (Pamplona: Thomas Porralis,
1591).
92 Rojas y Sandoval, Constitntiones, 31r-v.
93 Ibid., 137r-v.
94 Ibid., 137v.
95 Pedro de Rojas, Constitntiones synodales del obispado de Astorga (Salamanca: Juan
Fernandez, 1595), 16.
96 Ibid., 16.
and Fernando of Austria (1620). Bishop Gomez Tello Giron presided the Toledan
synod of 1566. He was at the time bishop of Cordoba but functioned as the
administrator of Toledo in the absence of Archbishop Bartolome Carranza, who
was under arrest by the Spanish Inquisition. The provincial synod of 1566 was
the first major one celebrated in Spain after the closing of the Council of Trent
and its constitution was published in 1568. The placement of the chapter dealing
with the instruction and catechization of children changed slightly but the text
remained identical. The only exception was the addition of a succinct reference
to the catechization of moriscos.97 However, the admonition regarding lay tea
chers remained unchanged: schoolteachers were instructed to incorporate the
teaching of the catechism to their labors.98 Cardinal Gaspar de Quiroga was
responsible for a complete reordering of the synodal constitution. The edition
that was published in 1583 was the most complete and extensive of those
published in Toledo in the sixteenth century.99 The placement of the chapters
dealing with the catechization of children, the role of the sacristan—who
remained an ordained clergyman—, and the brief paragraph bidding lay tea
chers to catechize their pupils was different but the text remained identical.100
Only the reference to the catechization of morisco children had been dropped.
While the synodal constitution of 1596 was never published, the one drafted
under Cardinal Bernardo Sandoval y Rojas—former bishop of Pamplona—was
published in 1601.101 The new constitution offered the first major revision of
Toledan ecclesiastical legislation related to schoolteachers. As noted in the
book’s margin, the new chapter was adapted from the 1591 synodal constitution
of Pamplona, drafted under Sandoval y Rojas himself. The new chapter reflects
the difference between Toledo and Pamplona. While in Pamplona sacristans
were responsible only for catechizing children, in Toledo they were also respon
sible for teaching children to read and write in parochial schools. Moreover, the
new Toledan constitution implemented Pamplona’s model by requiring that
schoolteachers receive the approval of the bishop and making them subject to
examination and visitations.102 The provincial synod celebrated in 1620, under
Cardinal-Infante Fernando of Austria left the provisions of 1601 unchanged.103
97 Gomez Tello Giron, Constitiidones synodales del argobispado de Toledo (Toledo: Juan de
Ayala, 1568), xxr-xxir.
98 Ibid., Constitiidones, xxir.
99 Gaspar de Quiroga, Constitiidones sinodales (Madrid: Francisco Sanchez, 1583).
100 Ibid., 33r-33v.
101 Rojas y Sandoval, Constitiidones synodales [see n91[.
102 Ibid., Constituciones, 8v.
103 Cardinal-Infante Fernando of Austria, Constitiidones sinodales (Madrid: Bernardino de
Guzman, 1622), 7r.
In conclusion, the evidence from synodal constitutions indicates that it was

during the second half of the sixteenth century that the secular clergy grew
anxious and apprehensive over reading. Accordingly, ecclesiastical legislation
provided a stricter regulatory framework over activities that contributed to the
spread of literacy. Other indications of the clergy’s participation in the spread of
literacy are to be found in sermons, correspondence, and devotional literature in
which members of the clergy instructed laypeople how to read.
4 The adaptation of devotional reading

to the needs of the laity
The adaptation of monastic practices to the needs of the laity was a slow process
undertaken by members of the clergy. It consisted of using theological language
to explain ordinary practices and infusing them with extraordinary value and
significance. The adaptation required sensibility on the part of the clergy to the
different social situations of laypeople. Hence, considerations of gender, status,
and class were critical. This section examines a few examples of how ascetical
writers endeavored to do this in relation to devotional reading in the late
fifteenth and early sixteenth century.
To begin with, it is crucial to consider Fray Hernando [Fernando] de
Talavera (c. 1430-1507), first archbishop of Granada. Talavera had a distin
guished ecclesiastical and political career. He was of judeovoncerso background,
a member of the Order of St Jerome, and trusted confessor and advisor of Queen
Isabella I (r. 1474-1504). In his devotional writings he sought to adapt monastic
spiritual practices to the needs of the laity. He participated in the reformist and
catechetical movement of the turn of the century. His Cartilla y doctrina en
romance published circa 1505 was one of the earliest to appear in print and it
was inspired on the notion that catechization and the spread of literality were
intimately related. In the Cartilla, which was a bona fide catechetical work
oriented to the needs of the laity, he explicitly urged the practice of devotional
reading as part of preparations for confession. He advocated the observance of
scrupulous confession, the detailed examination of personal sin. In order to
accomplish a true confession, he recommended that the penitent “work hard to
remember all sins, reading or listening to the reading of some treatise or book
that teaches this.”104
104 Talavera, Cartilla y doctrina [see n25], no pagination [p. 10].

Talavera made a strong connection between liturgical practices and devo

tional reading. In doing so he contributed an understanding of ordinary lay-
people’s reading practices that turned them into a sacred event. In a treatise that
remains undated, which he probably composed for Isabella I herself while he
was already archbishop of Granada, Talavera offered an allegorical interpreta
tion of the mass for laypeople. In his Tratado de lo que significan las ceremonias
de la missa y de lo que en cada una se deve pensar y pedir a nuestro senor,
Talavera discussed in detail the different liturgical elements and moves of the
mass.105 Not surprisingly, he interspersed the treatise with references to reading
and books. The most important was his explanation of the moment in which the
deacon or priest makes the sign of the cross over the holy book. “Why is the sign
of the cross made over the book,” he asked. In response, he stated, “mention is
made in it of the one who was crucified for us.”106 He observed how the faithful
should remain standing during the reading of the Gospel and admonished that
people listen to its reading with solemn attention. Talavera’s interpretation of
the liturgical act of making the cross over the holy book most likely mirrored
how contemporaries viewed reading in such a liturgical context.
He, however, frequently referred to reading as a devotional and “pious”
practice in other works that he composed before 1505. For instance, he wrote a
treatise on the use of time for Maria Pacheco, countess of Benavente.107 He
composed it while he was prior of Santa Maria de Prado, sometime between 1470
and 1485. He offered her a meticulous outline of the pious and devotional use of
time. The work did not simply, as Elisa Ruiz has suggested, “reflect the ideal of
life that a woman of privileged social standing should follow.”108 In effect it
functioned as a rule for a laywoman, translating a monastic conception of time
for the benefit and consumption of a lay member of the Castilian aristocracy.
Among his many instructions on the usage of time—instructions that covered the
entire day—were minute indications about reading. In fact, he recommended
that his spiritual mentee engage in pious reading at least three times during the
day, namely morning, afternoon, and evenings before sleep. Mornings she could
105 Hernando de Talavera, Tratado de lo que significan las ceremonias de la missa y de lo que en
cada una se deve pensar y pedir a nuestro senor, in Breve y muy provechosa doctrina [see n25], no
pagination.
106 Talavera, Tratado, no pagination.
107 Hernando de Talavera, Avisacion a la virtuoso y muy noble senora dona Maria Pacheco,
condessa de Benavente, de comma se deve cada dia ordenar y ocupar para que expienda bien su
tiempo, in Breve y muy provechosa doctrina, no pagination.
108 Elisa Ruiz, “Los libros de horas en los inventarios de Isabel la Catolica,” in De libros,
librerias, imprentas y lectores (Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, Seminario de
Estudios Medievales y Renacentistas, 2002), 389-420 (392).
use reading as a form of recreation or for her instruction. Reading was as

valuable as conversing with people of spiritual depth.109 In the afternoons she
could choose between conversing, listening to music, or reading, and it would
be preferable for her to choose reading.110 Evenings she could read a work that
would give her spiritual joy.111 Interestingly, he presented her with a model of
devotional reading that was well adapted to the kind of social daily routine she
had as a noble women.
The Franciscan, Fray Alonso de Madrid (ca. 1485-ca. 1535), developed a
similar program of devotional reading for laypeople.112 The first edition of his
Arte para servir a Dios appeared in print in Seville in 1521, and was followed by a
revised edition that was published in the same city in 1526.113 The popularity of
Fray Alonso’s Arte is perhaps well attested by its numerous reprints, a total of
20, which appeared before 1626.114 It was also translated into English, French,
Italian and Latin in the course of its first century. Indeed, it is clear today that
the book was highly influential on Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avila, the
latter read the book repeatedly and referred to its author with admiration in the
Book of Her Life (Libro de su vida, print 1588).115 Of equal significance was his
second work, Espejo de ilustres personas, which he published in 1524.116 It was
also translated into French, Italian, and Latin, but the number of reprints that
appeared in the sixteenth century was considerably less than those of his first
book. Both works were written for a lay readership. In Arte, he assumed the role
109 Talavera, Avisacion, no pagination [under chapter eight].

110 Ibid., no pagination [under chapter twelve].
111 Ibid., no pagination [under chapter thirteen].
112 Eulogio Pacho, “Alonso de Madrid,” in Diccionario de espiritiialidad, ed. Ermanno Ancilli,
3 vols. (Barcelona: Editorial Herder, 1987), 1:88-89; Manuel de Castro, “Alonso de Madrid,” in
DHEE [see n50], 2:1388; Luis Cortes, “Fray Alonso de Madrid, the ‘Arte para servir a Dios’ and
Sixteenth-century Religious Literature,” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 65 (1988): 369-82; idem,
“En torno al ‘Arte para servir a Dios’ de Fray Alonso de Madrid,” Discurso Literario 2 (1984):
167-74.
113 Alonso de Madrid, Arte para servir a Dios: Compuesta por Fray Alonso de Madrid de la orden
de San Francisco; Con las ediciones despues hechas por el mismo (Alcala de Henares: Miguel de
Eguia, 1526). I consulted the 1551 edition, Arte para servir a Dios: Compuesta por Fray Alonso de
Madrid, con el Espejo de ilustres personas, y una Epistola de San Bernardo, de la perfection de la
vida spiritual; Anadiose tambien el Memorial de la vida de Jesucristo (Antwerp: Martin Nucio,
1551). All references are to the 1948 edition, G. B. Gomis, ed., Misticos franciscanos espanoles I,
Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos 38 (Madrid: Editorial Catolica, 1948).
114 Cortes, “Fray Alonso de Madrid,” 369.
115 Ibid., 376.
116 Alonso de Madrid, Espejo de illustres personas (Burgos: Alonso de Melgar, 1524). All
references are to the 1948 edition, G. B. Gomis, ed., Misticos franciscanos espanoles I (Madrid:
Editorial Catolica, 1948).
of a spiritual director for a lay audience with varying degrees of sophistication.

Similarly, in Espejo he combined the late-medieval genre of the speculum with
his social and ecclesiastical function as personal confessor and spiritual director
of members of the Spanish elite.
In Arte para servir a Dios, Fray Alonso de Madrid made general remarks
about reading that reveal much about the kind of audience that he was addres
sing. For instance, he pointed out that the ability to understand what is read
depends to a large measure on the amount of prior reading that has been done.
His lay readers, for instance, were likely to feel perplexed with his writing
because they had “read little in great books.”"7 He also found it necessary to
explain to them the use and function of marginal notes, references, and sum
maries.117
118 He recommended that they should read slowly, but at length and with
frequency. He argued that to read works of spirituality speedily and with haste
was as beneficial as reading a book of logic “once or twice, passing it swiftly.”119
He sustained that reading books allows people to understand the mysteries of
the faith, but books were not a substitute for experience. Thus, one could read
and believe what was read about sin and its consequences. Yet, he affirmed that
reading about sin was not the same as crying out of contrition.120 Clearly, then,
he was writing with a lay audience in mind. He was addressing, however,
laypeople who could read but did not have university training as he assumed
they would not be acquainted with technical aspects of scholarly writing.
Moreover, these were people who read devotional literature as a form of self-
help; who were not so much interested in understanding the theology of sin, but
with the expectation of experiencing redemption.
Alonso de Madrid delved at greater length on reading as a devotional
practice in his Espejo de ilustres personas. Assuming the perspective of a spiri
tual guide or advisor, he encouraged his readers to take his book as a devocio-
nario (“devotional book”).121 In fact, the book was originally published in an
octavo format.122 In addition, he suggested that they should read it as if it was of
vital importance. Among his recommendations was the advise that they should
read it and “pray it” slowly everyday.123 He added that if in order to read with
benefit they had to stop praying other prayers, including the Lord’s Prayer, or
117 Madrid, Arte, 103.

118 Ibid., 103-4.
119 Ibid., 115.
120 Ibid., 126.
121 Ibid., 190.
122 Mercedes Fernandez Valladares, “Una edicion valenciana desconocida del Espejo de ilus
tres personas (1532) a la luz de una primera lectura tipobibliografica,” Lemir 17 (2013): 101-12.
123 Madrid, Espejo [see n!16], 190.
the Hail Mary, then they should do so. “God,” he reassured them, “will be better
served” by their reading if they put into practice what they learnt through
reading.124 He believed that reading is an important component of the overall
organization of the spiritual life, as one of several spiritual exercises to be
observed daily.125
More importantly, he called Christ the book of life, and used reading as a
metaphor for contemplation. Christ is the “precious” book that should be read
every day, he asserted.126 He thought of Christ as the “book of the wisdom of
God.” Those who could not read books, i.e. the illiterate, have no excuse for
they could “read” or “contemplate” Christ. Still, they were invited to read. He
insisted that the “book of the wisdom of God” should be read every day, or at
least during the festivals of the Church.127 The faithful were expected to learn
about God’s charity and Christ’s humility and meekness. They were required
to have riches in no esteem and to despise life’s pleasures.128 Alonso de
Madrid was adamant that the wealthy and the grandees, specially, should
learn by reading in this book to act with mercy, to be friends of justice and
truth.129
In short, Alonso de Madrid had a very positive view of reading. He clearly
called it a devotional practice, and regarded it to be of greater worth than
different forms of vocal prayer, including the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary.
He likened Christ to a book, and contemplation to the practice of reading. He
indicated that reading is conducive to a good understanding of the mysteries of
the faith and considered it a pleasant service to God.
Clerical promotion of literality was not limited to the production of cateche
tical literature. The confessional value of elementary letters could also be
advanced from privileged places such as the pulpit. Sermons were powerful
tools for the formation of public opinion, even if not available to all sectors of
society. Sermons circulated in the form of short notes or complete manuscript
copies. Many sermons were also published, particularly those preached during
festivals and special occasions. Moreover, complete collections of sermons
circulated either as manuscript or print copies.
Thus, preachers stood in a unique position from which they could shape
public opinion about literality. One such preacher who advanced humanist ideals
124 Ibid., 190.

125 Ibid., 194.
126 Ibid., 205-6.
127 Ibid.
128 Ibid., 206.
129 Ibid., 207.
and promoted learning was Fray Dionisio Vazquez (1479-1539).130 Original from
Toledo, and probably of judeoconverso background, he entered the Order of St
Augustine in 1500. He studied first in Paris and then in Rome where he became a
disciple of Egidio Antonini da Viterbo (1469-1532). In 1517, he preached for Pope
Leo X his sermon, De unitate et simplicitate personae Christi in duabus naturis
oratio.131 At that point he was already known as preacher for Charles I of Spain.
From 1532 to 1539, he was professor of Scriptures at the University of Alcala. He
was the teacher of several prominent figures of the period, including Cipriano de
la Huerga who in turn was the teacher of the distinguished Hebraist and scholar
Fray Luis de Leon (1527-1591).132 Vazquez was well regarded for his preaching and
his sermons circulated in manuscript form.133 In fact, Fray Luis de Leon read his
works and kept manuscript copies of Vazquez’s sermons in his possession.134
Vazquez fused together confessional content with the ideal of literality in a
compelling way. In his “Sermon on the Resurrection,” preached sometime
before 1539, he drew on a similar relation between Christ, salvation, and the
book as Talavera and Madrid did.135 In the sermon he offered an interpretation
of Revelation 5:5: “Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. See, the Lion
of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the
scroll and its seven seals’.”136 He argued that the passage of Revelation 5:5 had
to be understood in terms of another passage, namely Luke 24:45: “Then he
opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”137 According to Vazquez, the
vision of Revelation 5:5 was fulfilled after the resurrection as the risen Christ
explained the Scriptures to his disciples and “opened their minds.”138 In the
same way, Vazquez contended, the “learned” (doctos) of his day were far from
the truth.139 Yet, their learning wasn’t the impediment. On the contrary, they
could come to the truth if they read the Scriptures: “Look then, you are learned
130 Peter G. Bietenholz, ed., Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the

Renaissance and Reformation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985), 381-82; A. Manrique,
“Vazquez, Dionisio,” in DHEE [see n50], 4:2715-16.
131 Dionisio Vazquez, De unitate et simplicitate personae Christi in duabus naturis oratio (Rome:
Mazochius, 1518).
132 Victor G. de la Concha, Fray Luis de Leon: Historia, humanismo y letras (Salamanca:
Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 1996), 176-77.
133 Felix G. Olmedo, ed., Fray Dionisio Vazquez, O.S.A. (1479-1539): Sermones (Madrid: Espasa-
Calpe, 1943).
134 Ibid., xxxix.
135 Dionisio Vazquez, “Sermon de la resurreccion,” in Olmedo, Fray Dionisio, 3-43.
136 Ibid., 7; English translation from the New Revised Standard Version.
137 Ibid., 23; English translation from the New Revised Standard Version.
138 Ibid., 29.
139 Ibid., 32.
men and of good judgment, look at the Scriptures, you will see that it was a
necessary thing for the Christ to be buffeted, spat on, scorned, and crucified,
dead and buried.”140 Consequently, Vazquez concluded that Jesus came to give
“example of obedience and patience to open the book, which until his resurrec
tion was never open and couldn’t be open.”141 Vazquez’s idea that Jesus came to
“open the book” and that his resurrection opened the way to deeper under
standing of the Christian Scriptures conveyed an optimist perspective on learn
ing, one that emphasized the positive character of the spread of literality. His
perspective was consistent with his humanist training and background. He
established a unique relation between the Christian understanding of the resur
rection and learning, as represented by the “book.” These two, the resurrection
and learning, were not in opposition but in harmony.
Finally, the judeoconverso secular priest and preacher Juan de Avila (1499-
1569) played an active role in the foundation of schools for children and
institutes for the training of members of the clergy throughout Andalucia and
parts of Granada. He embodied the reformist ideal of clergymen like Hernando
de Talavera and Jimenez de Cisneros. In fact, he was an emblematic figure of the
clerical movement that sustained and promoted the spread of literality. Like
Talavera, Avila was the author of a Christian catechism that combined the
instruction of first letters and Christian doctrine. In 1554, he published in
Valencia his Doctrina Christiana que se canta, a catechism in verse. The cate
chism opened with a graph containing the alphabet and pronunciation guide
with consonants and vowels.142
His role, however, in the spread of literacy was not limited to the founding
of new schools. In his letters, sermons, and treatises he conveyed a consistent
approach to reading as a spiritual discipline. In fact, he adapted the practice to
the social situation of his followers. His instructions were clearly gender and
class specific. For instance, in an undated letter to his friends from the village of
Utrera he advised them to “be friends of the word of God reading, speaking, and
putting them to action.”143 In a letter to a widow he explained that devotional
reading should not be tiring, but should be done for consolation.144 To another
widow he offered more detailed advice, pointing to spiritual practices such as
140 Ibid., 32-33.

141 Ibid., 42.
142 Juan de Avila, Doctrina cristiana, in Obras completas: Nueva edition critica, ed. Luis Sala
Balust and Francisco Martin Hernandez, 4 vols. (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos,
2003), 2:811 [henceforth OCNEC].
143 Juan de Avila, “Para la Villa de Utrera,” in OCNEC, 4:371.
144 Idem, “A una senora ilustrisima,” in OCNEC, 4:175.
prayer, reading, and communion that could give her solace: “And for these
things you should ask the Lord for grace with prayers and tears, and you should
read devotional books as well as receive the heavenly bread of the holy sacra
ment; raise your fallen heart and walk.”145 In all of these cases he emphasized
the devotional value of reading as both ancillary practice to the sacraments and
as a comforting activity.
Furthermore, in the Audi, filia of 1556 he set forth programmatic rules for
the spiritual life of laywomen. The book was originally written for his young
disciple Sancha Carrillo. These rules included instructions about reading. He
recommended reading on a daily basis as part of a complete daily cycle of
vocal and mental prayer, communion, and works of charity. He portrayed
reading as a way to recogimiento: “This reading should not be with grief, nor
with haste, but raise your heart to our Lord and beseech him that he may speak
in your heart with his living voice by means of those words that you read
externally, that he may give you their true sense.”146 Women disciples like
Sancha Carrillo and Ana Ponce de Leon followed Avila’s advice on reading
with scrupulous attention. Carrillo’s brother, Pedro Fernandez de Cordoba,
described her life as a domestic hermit and highlighted that among the only
possessions that she kept were her devotional books, which she read assidu
ously.147 The former widow and cloistered nun, Ana Ponce de Leon kept a
written record of her visions that reflects the way she observed the practice of
devotional reading.148 Yet, consistent with the thesis that has been argued
throughout the present essay, Inquisitor General Fernando de Valdes (1483-
1568) included the Audi, fdia in the Index of Prohibited Books of 1559.149
In contrast, in some of his writings to laymen in positions of political
authority Avila stressed the instrumental value of reading as a means to tech
nical information. Thus, in his extensive letter/treatise on good government
addressed to the mayor of Seville, Francisco Chacon y Tellez de Giron, he
indicated how important was reading for effective governance.150 Interestingly,
145 Idem, “A una senora viuda,” in OCNEC, 4:422-23.

146 Idem, Avisos y reglas Cristianas sobre aquel verso de David: Audi, filia, in OCNEC, 1:445.
147 Fernandez de Cordoba, La vida de dona Sancha Carrillo: Hija de don Luis Carrillo de
Cordoba y de dona Luisa de Aguilar, in Avisos y reglas Cristianas sobre aquel verso de David:
Audi, filia, ed. Luis Sala Balust (Barcelona: Juan Flors, 1963), 290.
148 Her visions can be found in Martin de Roa, Vida de dona Ana Ponce de Leon condesa de
Feria: Monja en Santa Clara de Montilla (Seville: Alonso Rodriguez Gamara, 1615).
149 Jesus Martinez de Bujanda, Index de I’Inquisition espagnole: 1551, 1554,1559 (Sherbrooke:
Centre d’Etudes de la Renaissance/Lib. Droz, 1984).
150 Juan de Avila, “A un senor de este reino, siendo asistente de Sevilla,” in OCNEC [see nl42],
4:76.
Avila wrote his letter/treatise to Francisco Chacon circa 1564, and yet displayed
a less guarded approach to reading than many of his contemporaries under
Philip II. He advised the asistente of Seville to read the books of Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes and Wisdom, as well as some of the Hebrew prophets that “deal
particularly with those who rule others.” In the New Testament he could find
“doctrine which is more excellent than any other.”151 Avila also added that he
should consult the glossa ordinaria in order to better understand the Scriptures.
He also recommended the reading of the church councils, or the writings of Pope
Gregory the Great, or any ecclesiastical book in which he could learn much
about the episcopal office. Avila noted that from the functioning of the episcop
acy he could draw important and useful applications for his own office.152
Finally, he encouraged the mayor to use city moneys to hire and keep school
teachers and recommended that a member of the clergy regularly instruct them
on their religious duties.153
5 Conclusion
In conclusion, the Spanish clergy of the early sixteenth century was actively
promoting literality, or knowledge of letters. They conceived the production of
catechetical literature in tandem with the spread of basic literacy. They
encouraged reading, although the reading of religious literature. They endea
vored to adapt the monastic practice of reading to the needs of the laity. In
doing so they crafted spiritualties of reading that allowed the laity to make
theological sense as they enacted the practice of devotional reading. Their
efforts set the stage for the genesis of Spanish Golden Age devotional litera
ture, which has to be seen as a logical response to the growing demand from
the literate laity. The production of this literature was not a reaction to a
perceived threat. In the second half of the sixteenth century, diocesan synods
displayed an increasing tendency to place tighter controls and regulations over
the teaching of basic letters. That was not the case with earlier synods. The
confessionalization of Spanish literary culture began with the catechetical
work of the Spanish clergy.
151 Ibid.
152 Ibid., 77.
153 Ibid., 83.
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DE GRUYTER Journal of Early Modern Christianity 2015; 2(2): 159-188

‘Corresponding author: Rady Roldan-Figueroa, Boston University School of Theology, Boston,

In fact, the Spanish clergy played an important, although underestimated,

2 Literacy and catholic literary culture

Thus we can determine that the ascetical-meditative-devotional works became a kind of

Accordingly, building upon DiSalvo’s characterization it is possible to come to a

remained constant at roughly 46 percent of all books.8 Moreover, the circulation

31 Antonio Sotomayor, Novissimus libromm prohibitomm ex expurgandomm index (Madrid:

3 On Spanish synods, catechization, and the

promulgated by Spanish diocesan synods. Injunctions ordering the teaching of

V (1512-1517) and the Council of Trent (1545-1563).47 In addition, Jose Sanchez

47 B. Bartolome, “La educacion institucional: Las escuelas de primeras letras,” in Historia de la

of late fifteenth and early sixteenth-century Spanish prelacy. In this sense, he

clergy as well as by laymen. However, it specified that sacristans were expected

78 Ibid., no pagination (“capitulo xxi”).

87 Francisco Blanco, Constituciones synodales del obispado de Malaga (Granada: Hugo de

In 1590, Bishop Bernardo Sandoval y Rojas (1546-1618) presided over the

91 Bernardo de Rojas y Sandoval in contemporary sources, see Francisco de Pisa, Description

In conclusion, the evidence from synodal constitutions indicates that it was

4 The adaptation of devotional reading

104 Talavera, Cartilla y doctrina [see n25], no pagination [p. 10].

Talavera made a strong connection between liturgical practices and devo­

use reading as a form of recreation or for her instruction. Reading was as

109 Talavera, Avisacion, no pagination [under chapter eight].

of a spiritual director for a lay audience with varying degrees of sophistication.

117 Madrid, Arte, 103.

124 Ibid., 190.

130 Peter G. Bietenholz, ed., Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the

140 Ibid., 32-33.

145 Idem, “A una senora viuda,” in OCNEC, 4:422-23.

Except as otherwise specified, Copyright © 2016 American Theological Library Association.

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Talavera made a strong connection between liturgical practices and devo