Blasphemy and public atonement: the orality of social exclusion (XV-XVII centuries)

Abstract

Through the study of various civil and ecclesiastical sources developed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (real and religious legislation, theological and moral reform literature...) we analyzed the role of public ceremonies of atonement against blasphemy and oaths in the peninsular geographic framework with special emphasis on Catalonia. Expiatory celebrations sometimes converted in main instrument to exorcise the evils of a society gripped by the fear of an uncertain future, against the inability of the temporal and spiritual powers in resolving situations of extreme political or social crisis.