PhD Program in Historical studies
The early history of Holy Week in Seville
At the end of the Middle Ages, extra-liturgical penitential rites (such as those involving self-flagellation) and the theatrical performances of the Passion (such as the Via Crucis) were still held in churches or as part of the official celebrations of Easter. The decision of the ecclesiastical authorities to move such manifestations of worship away from the churchyard (sixteenth century), favoured the spread and role of the Cofradías de la Semana Santa: a particular type of confraternity (often founded by a corporation, by an ethnic group or a noble class), which had as its main objective the imitation of Christ’s martyrdom and the adoration of Our Lady of Sorrows. Such a mission was fulfilled during Holy Week with the staging of a Estación de Penitencia, or the re-enactment – divided into “stations” – the ascent to Calvary, a form of public penance, which often also included the bloody self-flagellation of the Brothers (who were disinfectected with an infusion containing mulled wine, bay leaves, roses, violets, rosemary and myrtle powder). At the dawn of the Early Modern age, the confraternities also took part in the Corpus Christi processions, a scenic space in which several spectacles on a sacred theme were held. In this ritualistic context, in fact, the city’s guilds dramatized biblical or hagiographic representations (called autos sacramentales), also included the participation of Giants and the Tarasca. Originally, the protagonists of the Easter rites were disciplined or Nazarenes (dressed in a white robe, hooded, encircled by a crown of thorns and barefoot), who made their processions with the statue of the Virgin Mary, crosses and instruments of flagellation. In the second half of the sixteenth century, thanks to the efforts of the Council of Trent, Holy Week in Seville began to be transformed. The existence of a large number of confraternities, which often held their processions in a disorderly way and not well adapted to the dictates of the Counter-Reformation, pushed the authorities to strengthen control on the civil and ecclesiastical penitential rites of Holy Week. Between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries a strict regulation of the Easter rites also began, with the objective of avoiding excesses, preventing accidents and giving uniformity to the manifestations of popular worship. A measure of the Archbishop of Seville, issued in 1604, obliged each of the confraternities to perform their religious practices in a uniform fashion and ordered a penitential “station” at the Cathedral. He forbade the night processions and assigned schedules and routes to be followed by each association.