Política paternalista y orden social en la Castilla del Renacimiento

Abstract

The Renaissance city found itself in a uniquely difjicult position. It could not acquire the theoretical justijication of noble society, with its systems based on birth, honor, and divine plan, yet it needed to create for itself the authority necessary to preserve public peace. By creating traditions and law, and implementing logical policies, the city was able to substitute «legitimacy» (in a literal sense, the law) for honor and paternal programs for seigneurial paternalism, thus carving out for itself a niche in early-modern society. Although outside the medieval «body politic», a «caneen> on the corporate body in a way, the city slowly developed an amalgamation of medieval and ancient rituals and methods of government and social order. The cities of Castile provide excellent examples of this Renaissance creation of «authority » where before only birth could bestow it. By combining the use of law, ceremony, and religious rite within the traditional hierarchy, together with innovative social and economic programs based on Christian Humanism, cities like Burgos in central Old Castile became the site of a dif!erent type of authority. (Original del autor).