La devoción popular a la Santa Vera Cruz. Fundación de cofradías penitenciales en el ámbito gaditano

Abstract

With the end of the Middle Ages and in response to several factors, the devotion to the True Cross, introduced by the Franciscan friars, leads to the formation of the first penitential brotherhoods on the Iberian peninsula: the Vera Cruz brotherhoods. The first associations emerged in Spain at the end of the fifteenth century, especially in the northern cities, which had been freed some time before from Muslim occupation. Gradually, the devotion to the True Cross and to the Blood of Christ lead to the rapid expansion of these lay religious associations throughout the Peninsula. This article will examine a specific case, the foundation of Vera Cruz brotherhoods in the current province of Cadiz, in southern-most in Spain. After a brief introduction on the state of scholarship in this area, the article will examine unpublished documental data touching on the founding and early years of some of these corporations. It will then provide some brief information on other, non-penitential contemporary devotions that deserve a separately study. This new information has been obtained on the whole though the analysis and transcription of sixteenth-century legal documents from Cadiz and in particular from one specific type of document, the last will or testament.