The Misacantano .. ... Author: Luis Lopez ... .. Source: his blog, "Third Brushes "
Introduction have to agree with Francis J. Rill Flores ("
Running the bulls in Spain - From the mountain to the square ) in which the man the fans stand up to the bull is very old, and because of the move should bring to the town that prehistoric man had to do I hunted with uros live in the country, for what was served, among other elements, lead ropes to the precinct in which they would be locked, without those actions, of course, missed runs, lunges, and shocks, beatings and even picked. Therefore, this primitive way of conducting the bulls must be considered as a source of inspiration is one of the oldest forms of popular bullfights, the bull roped.
And it forward, in Spain, the passion for the bullfights was always characteristic of men of all walks of life: from simple villagers to dignitaries of the highest hierarchy of the state, through representatives of the aristocracy and , as discussed in the text, figures with an illustrious academic qualification and members of the Church.
So ingrained is from our old habit of running bulls
that already in the Middle Ages, we needed no programming to do a specific act. The mere transfer to the slaughter of a bull tied with a rope so that swirl around the bull pedestrians and rudeness that some practices and luck. That reflected, for example, outside Madrid, 1202. However, the most common was that bulls were scheduled to run specific celebrations that used to be aimed to entertain distinguished visitors, to commemorate special dates and, among other reasons, to hold rituals, civil and religious holidays or social events such as births, weddings. .. Thus, can say that the games of bulls used to be associated with events and happy holidays. As in the two cases that will occupy us here: the conclusion of the first Mass by a priest and obtaining a Ph.D. degree.
The
Misacantano The term
misacantano called the priest says or sings his first mass.
For that memorable day, the priests were never required to program or extraordinary social events to celebrate Mass with pomp, but it was always followed tradition in the church service, known by the expression
new Mass, there will also special ceremonial and, later, by way of celebration, be organized in the town a festive day in which the most common was to give a banquet at the home of misacantano.
The rest of the acts of this event vary depending on local customs and, of course, the economic availability of the priest or his family. But what there is documentary evidence that in the Middle Ages, and at least in an area now corresponds to Navarre, had to be very important and consolidated tradition that bulls were run on the occasion of the festive celebrations in honor of misacantano.
Tudela After being conquered in 1119, King Alfonso I the Battler gave the town a charter which stated in Chapter 293:
"De qui encarnizare
baca ox or bull or Qui
encaniçare UACA ox or bull or other beast and any common ficiere any jurisdiction Danni is the Madam of the beast that perish, the Madam tayendola by uillean, but fuesse trymiento or solace for weddings or handcuffing or nueuo missacantano : si danno is there any auiniere periglo penna or if any holder or holders Donca fizieren not ease facer maliciosanent by danno ad that person or derision and there to do this is prou perdre the beast in the manna to dita. "
(Literal collected by Luis Royo María Marín in" The Privilege of Tudela
")
What came to establish this Charter of Tudela rule is that those who carry the village an ox, a cow, a bull or other beast was done carefully and keep it securely fastened, because the owner would lose the beast if angry and caused the damage. But if the transfer or diversion was for weddings, handcuffing or new misacantano, there would be no penalty if perhaps some damage, unless the holder or holders of the rope holding him to maliciously damage or ridicule someone. Well, in case that was tried, the owner would also lose the beast.
Without analyzing the historical and legal controversy whether the Charter of Tudela's Charter brings Sobrarbe origin or any other court of Aragon, and whether their content is based on rules and customs of the whole territory of Navarre and Aragon, which itself is absolutely certain is that the Jurisdiction of Tudela is a body of laws adapted to the customs of that village, and that it at least is proved that must have deeply rooted tradition of running bulls ensogados to celebrate and honor the misacantano. Therefore, as this practice and appear in the bridal run out as the only exceptions to a general rule.
I do not know other direct evidence of this holiday ritual, but indirect.
As Weaver says Alberto del Campo ("
Entertainment clerical burlesque in the thirteenth to the sixteenth century: new Masses"), the celebration of misacantano in the Middle Ages gave way to joyful parties and burlesque entertainment, which aroused resentment in many high Church hierarchies and caused them to be common in the sixteenth century church councils and synods that limited the excesses that, in the opinion of those instances, were committed in the celebration of new masses. Thus, in relation to the tradition in question, the author points out that cites the bull run between recreational and festive events were banned from the clergy in the Synod of Calahorra 1545.
Meanwhile, Beatriz Martín Badorrey (Main
canonical and civil bans bullfighting ) points out other examples of canonical restrictions for the new masses, among which we can highlight the following: the Bishop of Orense Antonio Ramírez de Haro passed at a synod held in his diocese in 1539 "That no clergyman
bayle dance or sing songs or secular in Miss New or weddings, or any other business groups, or go running bulls , so ten real penalty is applied as said. "
is evident therefore that the celebrations that took place in the festive tradition of Misacantano were, at least until the sixteenth century, the source and context of bullfights. Some
bullfights in which should be common to have the active participation of the priest and, at least in the town of Tudela, were held in the form of bull roped.
(The painter Luis Lopez has reflected Misacantano ritual in the beautiful picture that heads this post considering these two elements, and the fact that the territory of Navarre and Aragon was a region where lots of bullfighting practiced in foot your body starts to clean.)
should be noted also that the two celebrations cited in the texts analyzed, the Toro Misacantano and Bridal (
already the study here), the bullfights were held on public roads, where it appears that had popular involvement, characterized by improvisation and, as noted Ángel Álvarez de Miranda ("Rites and games
bull"), were the seeds of modern bullfighting.
addition, and as a curiosity, the term should also misacantano a semantic derivation which is still used in bullfighting:
toricantano , coinage designating the bullfighter he appears his first run bulls.
But weddings and new masses were not the only party that led to the conclusion of bullfights. Obtaining a PhD, which is the highest of all academic, has always been a source of happiness for the few university succeeded. And, as we used to happen in the Middle Ages, that happy event was also held at universities with bullfights.
Doctoral Bulls
Since the birth of universities in the Middle Ages, very few were students who came to obtain the maximum degree of doctor, because the very difficulty of passing and going climbing up the academic ladder was added the fact that major universities are celebrating the final achievement with great solemnity and doctoral students were those who had to pay the high costs of granting degrees ceremonies, which included, among other acts protocol, offer gifts to the university community, preparing opulent banquet for a large number of guests and programming bullfights.
These features, in particular to offer a celebration of bullfighting, we must imagine that at first had come and performed spontaneously and voluntarily by the doctoral student, came to join up with details on the quantity and quality statutes universities as important as that of Salamanca, Alcalá de Henares and Valladolid, becoming thus mandatory requirements for applicants for the post of doctor and the threat of severe penalties for doing sparingly in the preparations (as we shall see) .
Thus, by way of example, and as detailed Badorrey Beatriz Martin in his article "
The Bulls and the University " in Valladolid was provided that, to commemorate the award of doctoral degrees in the faculties of Canon Law, Laws, Medicine and Arts (all except theology), every doctor should offer four bulls, which contributed directly to the University or paid at the rate of 3,000 coppers for each bull, and only in the case of multiple rankings, with the risk of excessive duration of the celebration, opened the possibility of negotiating a reduction in the total number of bulls and therefore the amount needed to provide each doctoral student. In Salamanca, however, was agreed between the University and the city that runs ten bulls with death if they graduated from one to three doctors and twelve bulls, if they were more graduates (Luis Enrique Rodríguez-San Pedro Bezares "
History University of Salamanca: structures and flows. ")
that are friends of the graduates, in the case of doctorates in science, using the blood of the bulls festival of celebration to produce a pigment with which they painted in any facade of the city a cheer
(an anagram like the picture that heads this paragraph) to immortalize the achievement of the new doctor. In the case of doctorates of letters is said that the pigment was vegetable, but also in shades of red.
Given the immense popularity of bullfighting in the Middle Ages and in later times, it is not surprising that the final test day of the Bachelor of Salamanca, and after the applicants had been watching the books for all last night in the chapel of Santa Barbara in the cloister of the Old Cathedral, which did not exceed examination were forced out in disgrace by a back door that is known as car doors, amid the jeers and abuse of people, whereas those above the test out by the front door of the Cathedral and shoulders of his colleagues and friends, were hailed throughout the city. And, for the celebration party and, with it, the bullfight, it only remained that the new graduate make the request of the honorary degree of doctor.
However, as stated in a very healthy economy to pay for doctors, not all chose to that degree in the major universities. There were those who were content with a bachelor's degree, and those applying for a doctoral degree at colleges, who performed a ceremony more modest and less expensive. Moreover, as Agatha Mary Rodriguez Cruz (Mexican
illustrious son of the classroom Salamanca), there was also the possibility of applying the maximum advantage of mourning periods of the royal family, since in that case were dispensed bulls joys and bubbles.
On the statutory basis, and therefore obligatory celebrations in grades, lack of some components that were established protocol or parsimony in its preparation involved the possibility that in the same university would open a process for judging the conduct of offenders graduates, as the universities of the Old Regime was a self-governing and independent corporations, which had its own courts to prosecute non-compliance with statutory regulations.
So, I had access to a letter handed down by the Royal Audience of Valladolid in 1595 to carry out the sentence became final in a trial against six doctors for errors they committed in the celebration of their graduation. A process that, although at the time did have a great gravity, as of today be described as curious and gives us a measure of the seriousness with which the PhD students at the time had to celebrations reach their degrees.
The rector of the University of Valladolid began a process on September 22, 1593 against Philip de Vaca Santiago, Alonso de Santiago, Juan Fernandez de Talavera, Francisco Martínez Polo, Antonio del Campo y Antonio de Herrera, all of them medical doctors, who are accused of:
-snacks that college had only given two bowls of nuts with three pounds of jam, still customary to use and over a hundred pounds of jam, preserves and fruit, which
the food had been very notable failures, because instead of chickens were "chickens dry" and had served time for new wine in old;
-in the bull fights that same day was held at the Piazza Santa Maria had made a very noticeable lack of the bulls, because instead of the 24 bulls that belonged in the statutes, customs and traditions of the university, already agreed 8, and those who gave were not stale, as it should, but calves and oxen, and met him they were prevented from "Zamora or other parties who were to give and take", but Cuellar and were not brave;
-and, moreover, Dr. Juan Fernandez de Talavera two bulls had been released without running, disobeying the orders of the president publicly. Therefore
the chancellor ordered that preventive, doctors are caught in the public jail and ordered the university which deposits articles to provision a repeat of the run with four bulls Zamora, your snacks and other convictions that were levied.
The process, which lasted more than a year, specifically to the February 7, 1595, was followed in three instances: in the University, at the hearing on appeal and a subsequent review, which were issued their judgments, all with different statements, the content of the decision of the acquiring firm would end up condemning the defendants to pay 100,000 doctors coppers, which were pay: 20,000, Dr. Juan Fernandez de Talavera, and the 80,000 remaining, the other five doctors in equal shares (16,000 each).
(Archives of the Royal Chancery of Valladolid, Executorships Registration, Box 1781-44.)
Regarding the type of celebration that was made in these bullfights of doctorates, by the pomp that went on all ceremonial and the assistance of the highest personalities of the respective cities, it is conceivable that they were the kind of chivalry, although it is also likely to be dealt with in celebration mixed with popular participation at the end of the fight for each bull. On the other hand, as doctoral students were part of the procession of the university attending the celebration and this specially marked boxes available for that purpose, it is difficult to imagine that participate actively. In fact, in the bullfight because the process was seen before, the documentation located at the Dr. Juan Fernandez de Talavera in the same box that held the rector of the university.
doctorates celebrations with bullfights, snacks and other pumps, which were so onerous for graduates, universities remained English until the eighteenth century. And there seems no coincidence that it coincided with the arrival to the throne of Spain's Bourbon dynasty, the earliest of which were contrary to all kinds of celebrations bullfighting.
Thus, Fernando VI abolished the bubbles in the rankings of Doctor of the University of Salamanca by a provision of 1752. Three years after delivery of the same measure for other provision Valladolid 1755. And in Alcalá de Henares, which is another city that has been citing various royal decrees issued between 1720 and 1764 were forbidding cheering, bulls and other celebrations and expenses in the appointment of professors, as well as the abuses to outsiders oppositional students a chair.
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NOTES:
... ... First I thank the painter Luis Lopez to accept my proposal to make an original drawing to illustrate the text, and thank you for the quality of your creation, and I recommend all internet users who go in on his blog ("Third Brushes ") to get their works.
... ... Secondly, for the help and information I have provided, I also want to thank Badorrey Beatriz Martin, Professor of History of Law, and Rafael Cabrera Bonet, President of the Union of Bibliophiles Taurinos; Speakers common theme both in days of taurine. ..
