Forging the Catholic Monarchy. Religious Orders as Elites in the Iberian Transatlantic World (16th Century)

WILDE, GUILLERMO

Virtuosos of Faith. Monks, Nuns, Canons, and Friars as Elites of Medieval Culture

LIT Verlag

Lugar: Muenster; Año: 2020; p. 303 - 319

This essay focuses on three dimensions of religious orders as elites in the moment of expansion of catholic monarchy, which saw the widening of the limits of the known world. In the first place, it emphasizes the role of religious orders as organizers of the knowledge of cultural difference and the production of a ?world consciousness? of otherness by means of written reports obtained in the interaction with the diverse conquered peoples. The missionaries would produce, avant la lettre, the first ethnographies based on first hand information. Secondly, the essay studies the character of religious as the ?intellectual vanguard? of Iberian Catholicism, as representatives of humanism that expands beyond the European territory, especially during the reign of Charles V. The missionaries served as catalysts for a transfer of ?models? of religious life that would have simultaneous repercussions on both sides of the Atlantic. Thirdly, their role as mediators and educators of the native elites in the conquered territories, i.e. their character as transmitters of an elite culture that is transformed and adapted to the conquered territories.9 This last aspect invites us to think the concept of ?elite? not so much as the attribution or identity of particular individuals but as a space for transcultural negotiation.