The correction of the non-devout faithful in fourteenth and fifteenth century castile

Abstract

From the beginning of the fourteenth century, there is an increase in the amount of space assigned in ecclesiastical works produced in Castilian-Leonean lands, especially in synodic constitutions and pastoral treatises, to the subject of limiting the actions of churchgoers guilty of the sin of pride (superbia). The purpose being to reform these sinners and make them obedient to the teachings prescribed by confessors and bishops. Based on works that aimed to teach confessors to admonish the faithful sinner, this essay seeks to examine how ministers and clergymen in the kingdom of Castile helped to convince men and women to embrace the virtues contrary to the mortal sin of pride, especially humility. In other words, the aim of this study is to analyse to what extent the practice of devotion by lay churchgoers depended, among other things, on a behaviour of obedience to the commandments and aversion to sins considered to be derived from pride, such as insurgence.