preaching to the converted: valladolid's "cristianos nuevos" and the "retablo de...

Medieval Academy of America

Preaching to the Converted: Valladolid's "Cristianos nuevos" and the "Retablo de don Sancho deRojas" (1415)Author(s): Cynthia RobinsonSource: Speculum, Vol. 83, No. 1 (Jan., 2008), pp. 112-163Published by: Medieval Academy of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20466148 .

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Preaching to the Converted: Valladolid's Cristianos nuevos and the Retablo de don Sancho de Rojas (1415)

By Cynthia Robinson

IBERIAN PARTICULARITIES

During the first decades of the fifteenth century, when devotions to the humil iations, torments, and death of the Son of God had reached elevated, even feverish, heights elsewhere in Europe, Castilian Christians were reluctant to confront Christ's suffering human body. In striking contrast to the growing culture of im ages related to Passion devotions that characterized most regions of Christian Europe from the mid-thirteenth century to the final decades of the fifteenth,1 in

I would like to express sincere thanks to the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford Uni

versity, to the New England Medieval Conference, and to the Princeton-Penn Islamic Art Circle for

affording me the opportunity to present portions of this material; I received useful and insightful

suggestions on all three occasions. Appreciation is due to Jessica Boon, Miguel Falomir, Mar?a J.

Feliciano, Renata Holod, Ann Kuttner, Suzanne Lewis, Felipe Pereda, Jos? Miguel Puerta V?lchez, Juan Carlos Ruiz Sousa, Ronald Surtz, Heather Webb, and Andrew Weislogel for their ongoing discussion

of the themes examined here. I am also grateful to Robert Bartlett and Ronald Surtz for commenting on an earlier, somewhat different draft of this paper, as well as to the two anonymous readers assigned

by Speculum to this project, whose useful suggestions helped to shape the final version. Special thanks,

likewise, go to two groups of students, to those from the University of New Mexico who participated in a fall 2002 seminar on the retablo in Iberia, entitled "The Fifteenth-Century Image," and to those

who made up a spring 2005 seminar at Cornell University on late-medieval devotional imagery related to the Passion; research conducted by Emily Kelley, Emily Spratt, Ted Van Loan, and Sasha Wachtel

was particularly helpful. The present study is related to a larger, monographic project concerned with

the devotional practices and visual culture of late-medieval Castile currently in progress.

1 See (and the following is of necessity a limited selection of the plethora of bibliography that has

appeared on this topic over the past two decades or so) Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence: A History

of the Image before the Era of Art, trans. Edmund Jephcott (Chicago, 1994); idem, The Image and

Its Public in the Middle Ages: Form and Function of Early Paintings of the Passion, trans. Mark

Bartusis and Raymond Meyer (New Rochelle, N.Y., 1981); Jill Bennett, "Stigmata and Sense Memory: St Francis and the Affective Image," Art History 24 (2001), 1-16; Anne Derbes, Picturing the Passion

in Late Medieval Italy: Narrative Painting, Franciscan Ideologies, and the Levant (Cambridge, Eng.,

1996); Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, C.1400-C.1580, 2nd ed. (New Haven, Conn., 2005), pp. 256-65; Jeffrey F. Hamburger, The Rothschild Canticles: Art

and Mysticism in Flanders and the Rhineland circa 1300 (New Haven, Conn., 1990); idem, The Visual

and the Visionary: Art and Female Spirituality in Late Medieval Germany (New York, 1998); A. A.

MacDonald, H. N. B. Ridderbos, and R. M. Schlusemann, eds., The Broken Body: Passion Devotion

in Late-Medieval Culture, Mediaevalia Groningana 21 (Groningen, 1998); Millard Meiss, Painting in

Florence and Siena after the Black Death (Princeton, N.J., 1951; repr. New York, 1964); Henk van

Os et al., The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe, 1300-1500, trans. Michael Hoyle (Princeton, N.J., 1994); Caroline Walker Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender

and the Human Body in Medieval Religion (New York, 1991); eadem, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The

Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women, The New Historicism: Studies in Cultural Poetics

1 (Berkeley, Calif., 1987); eadem, "Women Mystics and Eucharistie Devotion in the Thirteenth Cen

112 Speculum 83 (2008)



Preaching to the Converted 113 dividual, somatic, or intimate relationships with Christ established through the use of "personalized" Passion imagery, whether actual or imagined, simply do not appear to have been an important (or even a very present) component of late medieval Castilian devotional culture. This essay intends to open a dialogue con cerning the absence and then introduction of Passion-centered devotional imagery in the Christian kingdom of Castile during the final decades of the Middle Ages; it will also discuss the practices and attitudes to which that imagery was connected. I hope thereby to contribute toward a reorientation of current discussions of late medieval religious art produced and used in Castile, away from the questions of attribution and formal analysis around which they, to a great extent, revolve2 and toward a more contextualized consideration of issues of reception and use, de votional practice, belief and attitude.3 Finally, it is my goal to bring Castilian

tury," Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 11 (1984), 179-214; and Jeryldene M. Wood, Women, Art, and Spirituality: The Poor Clares of Early Modern Italy (Cambridge, Eng., 1996). The

beginnings of this phenomenon have recently been traced to the late eleventh and twelfth centuries.

See Rachel Fulton, From Judgment to Passion: Devotion to Christ and the Virgin Mary, 800-1200

(New York, 2002), and Sara Lipton, "'The Sweet Lean of His Head': Writing about Looking at the

Crucifix in the High Middle Ages," Speculum 80 (2005), 1172-1208. 2 In general, painting in Toledo in the fourteenth century is explained as a rather isolated case of

"Italian influence" (attributed to Gherardo Stamina); the fifteenth century is the century of "northern

influence," with the "Italian Renaissance" portrayed as "arriving" (finally) in the sixteenth. Most, if

not all, of the sources listed in the following note follow this model unquestioningly, though it has

recently been revisited by the editors of El Renacimiento mediterr?neo (Madrid, 2001), and we now

have a much more nuanced idea of the formation of "the Renaissance" through pan- and trans

Mediterranean, largely royal, patronage. Questions of devotional practice, however, were not of central concern to the volume. Also a welcome addition to the growing corpus of exhibition catalogues con

cerned with fifteenth-century Iberian painting is La pintura g?tica hispanoflamenca: Bartolom? Ber

mejo y su ?poca, Museu Nacional d'Arte de Catalunya, Barcelona, 26 de febrero-11 de mayo de 2003; Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 9 de junio-31 de agosto de 2003 (Barcelona, 2003); here again,

however, focus is on questions of influence and attribution, with devotional function and reception

being secondary concerns. 3 It is, in fact, remarkably difficult to find contextualized and practice- or reception-related studies

devoted to late-medieval devotional art in Iberia. Excellent exceptions to this general rule are two

publications by Joan Molina i Figueras, Bern?t Martorell i la tar dor del gotic c?tala: El context artistic

del retaule de P?bol (Gerona, 2003) and Arte, devoci?n y poder en la pintura tardog?tica catalana

(Murcia, 1999). Other recent studies that take up such questions, though not in the depth attempted

by Molina, are Lynette M. F. Bosch, Art, Liturgy, and Legend in Renaissance Toledo: The Mendoza and the Iglesia primada (University Park, Pa., 2000), and Chiyo Ishikawa, The Retablo de Isabel la

Cat?lica by Juan de Flandes and Michel Sittow, Me Fecit 2 (Turnhout, 2004). All, moreover, of the

objects of Molina's study were produced in Catalonia; thus the conclusions drawn do not necessarily hold true for the Castilian material under consideration here. On late-medieval visual production

(particularly painting) in Castile, still the most complete compendium is the multivolume series pro duced by Chandler Rathfon Post, A History of Spanish Painting, 14 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1930

66). More recently on the retablo in general see Judith Berg Sobr?, Behind the Altar Table: The

Development of the Painted Retable in Spain, 1350-1500 (Columbus, Mo., 1989), which contains

some discussion of Castilian material but?as is most often the case, given its earlier date and greater

abundance?gives greater attention to Catalan production. For Castilian centers of production in

Burgos and Palencia specifically, see Mar?a Pilar Silva Maroto, Pintura hispanoflamenca castellana,

Burgos y Palencia: Obras en tabla y sarga, Estudios de Arte 5, 3 vols. (Valladolid, 1990). Joaqu?n Yarza Luaces's El Retablo de la Flagelaci?n de Leonor de Velasco (Madrid, 1999) takes important

steps in the interpretation of an object from the Castilian context, but I am not entirely in agreement with a number of the similarities asserted between Iberian material, both textual and visual, and larger

European currents and examples.



114 Preaching to the Converted

material into the broader discussions taking place across the various disciplines that make up medieval studies, perhaps thereby also nuancing our understanding of such practices and visual culture(s) elsewhere.

Although the issues outlined in the preceding paragraph are extremely broad, the key to their elucidation is best sought in object-specific studies that seek to reconstruct the probable rationale for the commission of, and the possible ranges of responses intended to be elicited by, individual objects of religious art. Therefore this essay will focus on one convent-that of San Benito, founded in Valladolid by King Juan I in 13904 -and on a single retablo, or altarpiece, donated in 1415 by one of the convent's most wealthy, influential, and devoted patrons, the arch bishop of Toledo, don Sancho de Rojas.5 The retablo contains a total of nineteen scenes, almost all of them depicting events in the lives of Christ and the Virgin (Figs. 1-5). Twelve of the scenes are presented in two horizontal registers of six images each; the upper one includes, from left to right, the Presentation in the Temple, the Birth of Christ,6 the Adoration of the Wise Men (Epiphany), the Pieta, the Burial, and the Descent into Limbo, while the lower one presents the Mocking of Christ, the Flagellation, the Road to Calvary, the Ascension, Pentecost, and the Mass of St. Gregory.

4 On San Benito see Javier Rivera, ed., Monasterio de San Benito el Real de Valladolid: VI centenario, 1390-1990 (Valladolid, 1990), and Luis Rodr?guez Mart?nez, Historia del Monasterio de San Benito

el Real de Valladolid (Valladolid, 1981). In actuality, don Sancho de Rojas gave three images to the

convent; the one not discussed here, because of limitations of space, is a small sculpture of the Piet?, housed today in the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid. It was intended for don Sancho's

private?probably funerary?chapel and remained there throughout most of the fifteenth century, even though don Sancho was not, after all, buried there. It will be treated in a forthcoming study; see

Rivera, p. 54, fig. 2, and Clementina-Julia Ara Gil, Escultura g?tica en Valladolid y su provincia

(Valladolid, 1977), pp. 184-88. I have eliminated it from the present discussion because of its more

private nature, vis-?-vis the retablo and the Cristo de la Cepa (or "Root Christ," a curious object

supposedly not of human making and said to have been found by a wealthy Jew in Toledo as he tended

his vines; see Cynthia Robinson, "Trees of Love, Trees of Knowledge: Toward the Definition of a

Cross-Confessional Current in Late-Medieval Iberian Spirituality," in Maria Judith Feliciano, Leyla

Rouhi, and Cynthia Robinson, eds., Interrogating Iberian Frontiers, a special edition of Medieval

Encounters 12 [2006], 388-435). It is worth noting here in passing, however, that the Virgin as she

is depicted in the Piet? (echoed in the Crucifixion scene from the retablo) is shown as young, with

uncovered head and a mane of gloriously golden hair cascading down over her shoulders. This detail

alone separates these images from the traditional depictions and is worthy of investigation. See also

Margarita de los Angeles Gonz?lez and Mar?a de los Angeles Polo Herrador, Museo Nacional de

Escultura: A Brief Guide (Valladolid, 1993; Spanish edition, Madrid, 2002), p. 5. The most complete

study of the retablo to date is found in Mar?a de los Angeles Blanca Piquero L?pez, La pintura g?tica toledana anterior a 1450, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1983), 1:59-233. Piquero discusses don Sancho's life and

career (with notes to relevant primary sources) and offers extensive visual description, iconographie

analysis, and comparative analysis (particularly with the Italian tradition to which she links the piece) of the retablo.

5 On the retablo, in addition to Piquero, see Berg Sobr?, Behind the Altar Table, pp. 134-36, and

Isidoro Gonzalo Bango Torviso, ed., Maravillas de la Espa?a medieval: Tesoro sagrado y monarqu?a, 2 vols. (Le?n, 2001), 1:445-47. The archbishop's donation of the retablo to San Benito is recorded

in a manuscript today in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (MS 28), Libro de

los bienhechores de San Benito de Valladolid, c. 1400-1700, fol. 16r-v. 6 These first two scenes are out of order, a circumstance for which I do not, at present, have a

satisfactory explanation.



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These two horizontal sequences are divided by a central vertical row, or calle, composed of three images; included, from top to bottom, are Christ Triumphant, the Crucifixion, and the Virgin and Child with Angels. The Virgin and Child and the Crucifixion are significantly larger than both the Christ Triumphant and the narrative scenes they, in effect, interrupt; thus we may assume that they were intended to be, at least some of the time, the principal focus of viewers', or of cultic, attention. Also present in the Virgin and Child are, on the bottom left, don Sancho himself, presented by St. Benedict, and, on the bottom right, Fernando de Antequera, the Castilian prince and heir to the Aragonese throne, presented by St. Bernard. Since both the retablo's donor and Fernando de Antequera were ardent devotees of the Virgin,7 her placement at the center of the retablo makes a great deal of sense. The Child blesses Fernando de Antequera and, rather than a plump toddler, has the appearance of a miniature adult, as in the images of the Infancy proper, to be discussed below.8 Against the sumptuous backdrop provided by a golden cloth of honor and observed by music-making angelic members of the heavenly court, the Virgin, rather than engaging her son with any gesture of motherly affection, directs her gaze toward Archbishop Sancho, as she places, with a graceful hand, the miter upon his head. As noted by Judith Berg Sobre, the location of the Crucifixion, typical of the position it occupies in Castilian retablos designed to be placed atop main altars, is probably to be explained by its relation to the performance of the Eucharist.9 Also present above the upper row of nar rative scenes are two scenes, separated by the Crucifixion, depicting the Annun ciation: the angel is on the left, Mary on the right. Each, in turn, is flanked by an Old Testament prophet; beside the Virgin, we find Abraham, whose pendant is David, located to the left of the angel. In the greatly reduced predella area are medallions containing busts of saints.10 The retablo is attributable to the workshop of a Toledan painter, Rodriguez de Toledo, and one imagines that the patron's links to that capital explain this particular choice. Maria Angeles Piquero has linked the retablo's format to Italian precedents, perhaps because of the presence

7 Don Sancho de Rojas also donated to San Benito a smaller retablo, dedicated to the Virgin, for

private devotion (Fitzwilliam MS 28, fol. 16r) and was the founder of a chapel, in the same monastery,

probably originally intended to serve as his own burial chapel, which was dedicated to and intended to house a small granite sculpture of the Piet?, one of the earliest known in Castile. I will have much

more to say about this sculpture, and the theme of the Piet? in Castile in general, in a monograph currently in preparation, entitled Imag(in)ing the Passion in a Multiconfessional Castile: The Virgin, Christ, Devotions, and Images in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. As for Fernando de Ante

quera, a study by Felipe Pereda, Las im?genes de la discordia: Pol?tica y po?tica de la imagen sagrada en la Espa?a del cuatrocientos (Madrid, 2007), traces his direct and extensive involvement in the creation and spread of the cult of the Virgen de la Antigua in Seville and beyond.

8 As does the infant Christ of the Epiphany scene in the "Capilla Dorada," also at Tordesillas, executed sometime during the middle decades of the fourteenth century; see Cynthia Robinson, "Mu

dejar Revisited: A Prologomena to the Reconstruction of Perception, Devotion and Experience at the

Mudejar Convent of Clarisas, Tordesillas, Spain (14th Century A.D.)," Res 43 (2003), 51-77. 9 See Berg Sobr?, Behind the Altar Table, pp. 134-36. 10 Several scholars, among them Piquero (La pintura g?tica toledana), speculate that the piece has

lost its predella proper. I do not agree, however, given that the piece, as it is, possesses donor portraits, narrative subject matter, as well as a collection of saints; therefore no iconographie component is

"missing." (Thanks to Taryn Chubb for discussion of this point.)



Preaching to the Converted 119

of the Italian painter Gherardo Starnina in the Iberian Peninsula and particularly in Toledo during the final years of the fourteenth century;11 the format did not survive in Castile far into the fifteenth century. The images are executed in brilliant colors, among which gold, pink, royal blue, and red prevail; backgrounds are limited in depth and are, save the minimal amount of detail required to indicate place (for example, in the Entombment and the Flagellation), principally occupied by gold leaf.

I have elected to focus on this retablo because it was produced approximately seventy-five years prior to sweeping monastic reforms carried out during the final quarter of the fifteenth century by Queen Isabel I of Castile and her ecclesiastical counselors, including Cardinal Cisneros; it thus embodies aspects of the religious landscape that, as I will argue in greater detail in a forthcoming monograph,12 those reforms sought to alter or replace. Often inseparable from the activities of the Inquisition, Isabel's reforms were highly preoccupied with Castile's religious minorities, and images, as recently demonstrated by Felipe Pereda, were very much implicated in them.'3 Well into the fifteenth century, long after the official Christian conquest of any given Castilian city or territory had been effected, populations continued to include substantial numbers of Jews and Muslims,14 not to mention recently converted Christians, whose numbers often swelled in the years imme diately following significant events, such as the violence against Iberian Jews in 1391 or the Tortosa debates in 1411.15 We are thus reasonably assured that most of the objects of fifteenth-century Castilian religious art that have traditionally been studied as though they spoke-and were intended to speak-only to a Chris tian audience were both seen by and, at least to some extent, directed to a mul ticonfessional public.16 Each object must now be reexamined on its own terms, in

11 Piquero, La pintura g?tica toledana, pp. 23-49.

12 See above, n. 7. 13

Felipe Pereda, "El debate sobre la imagen en la Espa?a del siglo XV: Jud?os, cristianos y conver

sos," Anuario arte 14 (2002), 59-79, and Las im?genes de la discordia. On religious reform in Castile

see Jos? Garc?a Oro, La reforma de los religiosos espa?les en tiempo de los Reyes Cat?licos ( Valladolid,

1969), and idem, El Cardenal Cisneros: Vida y empresas, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos 520 and

528 (Madrid, 1992-93). 14 Most recently on the somewhat vexed subject of the percentage of the population of Castilian

cities that may be conceived as Muslim, see Ana Echevarria, "La 'mayor?a' mudejar en Le?n y Castilla:

Legislaci?n real y distribuci?n de la poblaci?n (siglos XI-XIII)," La Espa?a medieval 29 (2006), 7

30. (I would also like to thank her for sharing with me a draft of an unpublished study in progress, "From Muslim Slave to Free Mudejar in the Kingdom of Le?n-Castile.") On the basis of her extensive

archival research, it would seem that, for the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, we should imagine a

population of mudejares (Muslims living under Christian rule) substantially larger than is currently

thought. 15 On violence against Jews and conversos in Castilian cities see David Nirenberg, Communities of

Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages (Princeton, N.J., 1996). On the Tortosa debates

consult Antonio Pacios, ed., La disputa de Tortosa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient?ficas, Instituto "Arias Montano," Publicaciones B/6, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1957); and Sina Rauschenback, "Jo

seph Albo, der Messias und die Disputation von Tortosa," Disputatio: An International Transdisci

pUnary Journal of the Late Middle Ages 5 (2002), 53-66. 16 This possibility is mentioned briefly by Berg Sobr? in Behind the Altar Table (pp. 205-67) but is

not pursued. Nonetheless, recent work by Pereda (Las im?genes de la discordia) and by the historian

Ana Echevarria (Caballeros en la frontera: La guardia morisca de los reyes de Castilla, 1410-1467



120 Preaching to the Converted order to test the validity of the scholarly generalizations and commonplaces-the categorization of virtually all fifteenth-century religious painting in Castile as "Hispano-Flemish" and such unwieldy terms as mudejar and convivencia, as well as the cultural categories to which they refer-that have long held sway in the consideration of these objects.17 Though it has thus far been impossible to recon struct the specific responses of members of religious minorities to these objects, with diligent archival research that may change.

Don Sancho's retablo, because it may be thoroughly contextualized in terms of patronage and intended audience, serves as an excellent vehicle for a foray into the uncharted territory of "what was there before," that is, into the devotional currents that Isabel's and Cisneros's reforms sought to supplement, or perhaps to replace. It is clear that the Ordinance of 1412-promulgated in Valladolid, it attempted, probably somewhat unsuccessfully, to curtail the privileges of Valla dolid's thriving community of Jewish artisans, merchants, and entrepreneurs and to limit their interactions with their Christian colleagues-was the direct result of the visit to Valladolid of the anti-Semitic Dominican preacher Vincent Ferrer, as was the wave of conversions that ensued. Although a new Jewish quarter, or juderia, was created in the northern part of town (just next door to San Pablo, the city's preeminent Dominican convent), when its inhabitants arrived, chroni clers noted that the numbers of new tenants were not those that had been antic ipated. Many of the dwellings that the brothers of San Pablo had hoped to rent to them remained empty: the conversions had taken their toll, and Valladolid's Jewish community had diminished drastically. The preferred neighborhood for well-to-do vallisoletano Jews prior to the Ordinance of 1412 was the same one occupied by San Benito, in convenient proximity to the town's bustling market. As observed by Adeline Rucquoi, documents somewhat surprisingly do not indi cate a flurry of sales or termination of rental contracts in this particular area of town following the post-Ferrer wave of conversions.18 We must assume, therefore,

[Madrid, 2006]) points toward a diverse population in Castilian and Andalusian cities. The presence of "infidels" at debates and public sermons was often forced, and one must imagine a similar audience

for at least some works of Castilian religious art. 17 On "Hispano-Flemish" painting see above, nn. 2 and 3. For convivencia and mudejar see Vivian

B. Mann, Thomas F. Glick, and Jerrilynn D. Dodds, eds., Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians

in Medieval Spain (New York, 1992); Robinson, "Mudejar Revisited"; Actas del II simposio inter

nacional de mudejarismo: Teruel, 19-21 de noviembre de 1981 (Teruel, 1982), and subsequent pub lications appearing approximately every three years; and Feliciano et al., eds., Interrogating Iberian

Frontiers. 18 On St. Vincent Ferrer and his Castilian preaching see Sigismund Brettle, San Vicente Ferrer und

sein literarischer Nach lass, Vorreformationsgeschichtliche Forschungen 10 (M?nster in Westf., 1924); Pedro M. C?tedra, Serm?n, sociedad y literatura en la edad media: San Vicente Ferrer en Castilla

(1411-1412). Estudio bibliogr?fico, literario y edici?n de los textos in?ditos (Valladolid, 1994); R.

Chab?s, "Estudio sobre los sermones valencianos de San Vicente Ferrer," Revista de archivos, bibli

otecas y museos, 3rd ser., 8 (1903), 38-57; Jos? M. Millas Vallicrosa, "San Vicente Ferrer y el anti

semitismo," Sefarad 10 (1950), 182-84; Margherita Morreale, "Sobre San Vicente Ferrer y Pedro

C?tedra: Serm?n, sociedad y literatura en la edad media. San Vicente Ferrer en Castilla," Bulletin of

Hispanic Studies 73 (1996), 323-32; Adeline Rucquoi, Valladolid en la edadmedia, 2 vols. (Valladolid,

1997), 2:446-62; and J. Sanchis Rivera, Quaresma de Sant Vicent Ferrer predicada a Valencia I'any 1413 (Barcelona, 1927).



Preaching to the Converted 121 that the erstwhile Jewish neighbors of the monks of San Benito were now part of the Christian flock for whose souls the monks were at least partially responsible. The retablo was destined to occupy, not a cloistered area of the monstery, but the principal altar, where it presided over the performance of the Mass.19 It is thus very unlikely that it was used by the monks for private devotional purposes and highly probable that its message was aimed directly at the newest members of Valladolid's Christian community.

Don Sancho's retablo, in fact, is the first large Castilian altarpiece dedicated to the theme of Christ's life, narrating significant events in that life (and after it) from the moment of conception through the Ascension. Moreover, though this has not been remarked in any of the extant scholarship I have consulted, "Life of Christ" retablos represent a uniquely Castilian phenomenon.20 In no way can these altar pieces be conceived-as is so frequently the case in the interpretation of their European counterparts-as part of a larger culture of "devotional images" de signed to foster affective piety; their purpose is much more a didactic than a devotional one.21 As elucidated by the texts that I will seek to relate to this altar piece, one of the ways through which Castilian Christian authorities initially sought to effect and cement the conversion of the "infidel" members of their com munities was education.22 In line with such a program, together with the texts to which it is related, this altarpiece tells the story of Christ's life to a mixed audience, including monks, lay brothers, lay faithful, and quite probably a number of very recently converted Jews, and also tells them how they should approach, interpret,

19 It would have also presided over a myriad of other ceremonies and events. Much scholarship has

focused in recent decades on the function [s] of altarpieces in liturgical and extra- or paraliturgical contexts (challenging, indeed, the previously implied bipolar juxtaposition). See Beth Williamson, "Al

tarpieces, Liturgy, and Devotion," Speculum 79 (2004), 341-406, for new insights as well as extensive

discussion of previous bibliography. Though Williamson does make very brief mention of the Iberian

context, it is fair to say that the question, for Castile in particular, has not been addressed since Berg

Sobr?, Behind the Altar Table, in which the issues of function and reception are touched on only

superficially. 20 This theme will be treated in some detail in my forthcoming monograph, Imag(in)ing the Passion. 21 The fostering of affective piety was, without any exception that I have been able to locate, con

sistently the objective of contemporary Passion texts and images elsewhere in Europe. See?and the

following is of necessity an incomplete bibliography, given the veritable flood of publications this topic has generated during recent decades?Belting, Likeness and presence; Bennett, "Stigmata and Sense

Memory"; Thomas Bestul, Texts of the Passion: Latin Devotional Literature and Medieval Society

(Philadelphia, 1996); idem and Anne Clark Bartlett, eds., Cultures of Piety: Medieval English Devo

tional Literature in Translation (Ithaca, N.Y., 1999); Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast; Hamburger, The Visual and the Visionary; idem,

" 'To Make Women Weep': Ugly Art as 'Feminine' and the Origins

of Modern Aesthetics," Res 31 (1997), 9-33; idem, "The Visual and the Visionary: The Changing Role of the Image in Late Medieval Monastic Devotions," Viator 20 (1989), 161-82; van Os et al., The Art of Devotion; Erwin Panofsky and Daniel Arasse, Peinture et devotion en Europe du nord: A

la fin du moyen ?ge (Paris, 1997); Erwin Panofsky, "Imago pietatis": Ein Beitrag zur Typengeschichte des "Schmerzensmanns" und der "Maria Mediatrix" (Leipzig, 1927); MacDonald et al., The Broken

Body (above, n. 1); and Sixten Ringbom, Icon to Narrative: The Rise of the Dramatic Close-up in

Fifteenth-Century Devotional Painting, 2nd ed. (Doornspijk, Netherlands, 1984). 22 This was the prevailing attitude through the middle decades of the fifteenth century, with a notable

hardening of attitudes during the 1460s and 1470s. See Ana Echevarr?a, The Fortress of Faith: The

Attitude towards Muslims in Fifteenth Century Spain, Medieval Iberian Peninsula, Texts and Studies, 12 (Leiden, 1999).



122 Preaching to the Converted and interact with this story. As will be seen, the relationship thus established between the viewer and the protagonists of the central narrative of the Christian faith is quite different from the relationship that united other European Christians with their Savior and his mother in compassionate bonds of shared humanity and suffering.

WORDS AND PICTURES

In their readings of Castilian images, art historians often unquestioningly invoke the written sources that have proved central to the interpretation of religious im ages elsewhere in Europe. For example, in reference to a group of fourteenth century crucifijos dolorosos, or "painful" wooden crucifixes (all designed, it is worth noting, for liturgical and processional, rather than contemplative, pur poses),23 Angela Franco Mata cites the visions of the late-fourteenth-century holy woman and mystic St. Bridget of Sweden, which, as far as we know, did not enter Castilian libraries until the very late fifteenth century, possibly the early six teenth.24 Likewise, copious references to the highly popular compilation of Passion

meditations known as the Meditationes vitae Christi (hereafter, Meditationes),25

23 See Francesca Espa?ol, "Los descendimientos hispanos," in Giovanna Sapori and Bruno Toscano,

eds., La Deposizione lignea in Europa: L'immagine, il culto, la forma ([Milan], 2004), pp. 511-54. 24

Angela Franco Mata, "El crucifijo g?tico de la iglesia del convento de San Pablo de Toledo y los

crucifijos g?ticos dolorosos castellanos del siglo XIV," Archivo espa?ol de arte 223 (1983), 220-41, here p. 238. She also cites works by Bonaventure (p. 236) and the Meditationes (p. 237), which belong to an affective current of Passion devotion that, as I shall argue in greater detail in my forthcoming

monograph, Imag(in)ing Passions, was largely absent from the Castilian devotional landscape at this

time. On translations of Brigittine material see Bridget Morris and Veronica O'Mara, eds., The Trans

lation of the Works of St. Birgitta of Sweden into the Medieval European Vernaculars, The Medieval

Translator 7 (Turnhout, 2000), p. 1; the late entry of Brigittine material, and of the Brigittine order, into Spain was the subject of lively discussion on the medieval Spanish literature listserv, MEDIBER,

during the spring of 2003, with contributions from numerous colleagues, including one from Julia Bolton Holloway facilitated from MEDTEXT-L through the mediator Jim Marchand. (My thanks to

all who participated and offered ideas and citations.) In fact, the late entry of this material serves as

a perfect case in point of medieval Iberia's having elected to edit or to inflect the culture of devotions

to the Passion prevalent elsewhere. St. Birgitta's confessor was a Spaniard, the former bishop of Ja?n, Alfonso Pecha, who, by the time he met the Swedish saint in Rome and traveled with her to the Holy

Land, had left the worldly privileges of his position and had taken the newly minted Jeronymite habit,

alongside his brother, the founder of the order, Pedro Fern?ndez Pecha, in the early 1370s (the order

became official in 1373). Though Alfonso is believed to have died and been buried at a Jeronymite establishment he founded in Genoa, his family in Spain was numerous, and some members were

involved with the Jeronymite takeover of the immensely prestigious Marian shrine and pilgrimage site

at Guadalupe (C?ceres) in 1389. Thus a conduit of Birgitta's visions into Spain would have been quite

easily available had there been a market for them. 25

Johannes de Caulibus, Meditaciones vitae Christi, olim S. Bonaventuro attributae, ed. and trans.

M. Stallings-Taney, CCCM 153 (Turnhout, 1997). The Meditationes was written in Tuscany by a

member of the Franciscan First Order sometime during the latter thirteenth or early fourteenth century. As is well known, the treatise was incorrectly attributed throughout most of the Middle Ages to St.

Bonaventure; its reattribution to Johannes de Caulibus by Stallings-Taney, however, has recently been

disputed by Barbara Newman in Speculum 80 (2005), 27; and Michelle Karnes, ibid., 82 (2007), 387,

among others.



Preaching to the Converted 123 as well as to the closely related Vita Christi by the Carthusian Ludolph of Saxony,26 are made by Maria Pilar Silva Maroto.27 These impulses have hardly been checked by the small amount of scholarship concerned with Iberian devotional culture during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: the texts of primary importance to the interpretation of objects such as don Sancho's retablo remain either completely or partially unedited. Principal among these are the Llibre dels angels (Book of the Angels, translated into Castilian as the Libro de los a'ngeles)28 and an enormous compendium entitled Llibre del Crestia', both written around the turn of the fif teenth century by the Catalan Franciscan tertiary Francesc Eiximenis. Books 8 10 of the Llibre del Crestia' circulated separately as a Vida de Cristo, or Life of Christ. These texts were translated into Castilian long before we find examples of "imported" texts and are vastly different from the imported texts.29 Again, how ever, this is not made evident in the extant scholarship. Albert G. Hauf,30 for example, focuses on identifying similarities between Eiximenis's narrative and the classic Franciscan texts concerned with Christ's Passion (in addition to the Medi tationes, he considers Bonaventure's Lignum vitae, De perfectione vitae ad so rores, and Officium de Passione Domini,31 as well as, to a lesser extent, Ubertino

26 Ludolph of Saxony, Vita Jesu Christi: Ex Evangelio et approbatis ab Ecclesia Catholica doctoribus

sedule collecta, ed. L. M. Rigollot, 4 vols. (Paris, 1870). 27 See Silva Maroto, Pintura hispanoflamenca (above, n. 3). These references are common through

out the three volumes of the publication. 28

Sergi Gasc?n Uris, "Edici? cr?tica del 'Libre dels ?ngels' (1392) de Francesc Eiximenis (Critical Edition of the 'Libre dels angels' [1392] by Francesc Eiximenis)," Dissertation Abstracts International

C/55/2 (Summer 1994), p. 343. 29 Other Castilian Passion, or "Life of Christ," texts were also in circulation. These include a set of

probably spurious letters from Samuel, a Jewish convert from Fez, to Rabbi ?ag in Sijilmasa (e.g., BN

MS 864), which essentially substantiate the Christian credo point by point. These letters were widely circulated, often appearing in the company of other Passion texts, such as one of the rare copies of

the Meditationes vitae Christi, thus giving the latter a distinctly polemical slant (e.g., El Escorial MS

Q.II.16). The Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo in El Escorial also contains a Passion narrative attributed to King David and dedicated to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel of Castile (MS M.II.6); the narrative

is bound with parts of a Flos sanctorum and a sermon on the Passion by Vincent Ferrer. My forth

coming monograph, Imag(in)ing Passions, will contain a detailed discussion of these other texts, as

well as of the "imports," which seem, for quite a long time, to have been limited to the Stimulus amoris and a set of meditations frequently attributed to St. Bernard, neither of which is at all graphic or gory.

30 Albert H?uf, ed., Vita Christi, Edicions 62 (Barcelona, 1995); idem, D'Eiximenis a sor Isabel de

Villena: Aportado a l'estudi de la nostra cultura medieval, Biblioteca Sanchis Guarner 19 (Barcelona,

1990); Ter? del Cresti? 1-352, ed. Mart? de Barcelona, Norbert d'Ordal, and Feliu de Tarragona, Els

Nostres Classics B/l, 2, and 4 (Barcelona, 1929-32); Contemplado de la Passi? de Nostre Senyor

Jesucrist, ed. Albert H?uf, Biblioteca Escriny 6 (Barcelona, 1982); Dotz? llibre del Cresti? 468-675, ed. Curt Wittlin et al., 1 (Gerona, 1986); De Sant Miquel arc?ngel (El quint tract?t del "Libre dels

?ngels"), ed. Curt Wittlin, Classics Curial 15 (Barcelona, 1983). The Vita Christi has not yet been

edited and published; it can be consulted in Castilian, based on Hernando de Talavera's translation:

Libro de la vida de nuestro se?or ihesu christo . . . emendado e a?adido en algunas partes e hecho

imprimir por don fray Hernando de Talavara, primero ar?obispo de la santa yglesia de Granada, conosciendo que a todo fiel christiano es muy provechoso e hizole este prologo (Granada: Meinardus

Ungut and Johann Pegnitzer, 1496). An excellent and accessible summary of Eiximenis's life and works,

along with citations for available editions, is found in the introduction to his Psalterium alias Lau

datorium Papae Benedicto XIII dedicatum, ed. Curt J. Wittlin, Studies and Texts 87 (Toronto, 1989). 31 St. Bonaventure, Decem opuscula ad theologiam mysticam spectantia, 5th ed. (Quaracchi, 1965).

The Officium de Passione Domini did circulate in Castile, but its appearance is strikingly late; this

issue will be discussed in greater detail in my Imag(in)ing Passions.




da Casale's Arbor vitae crucifixae Jesu);32 readers who do not consult the actual texts in question are apt to come away with an exaggerated impression of the similarities between them. It is absolutely crucial, therefore, to emphasize the scar city of copies of these "imported" Passion texts in Castilian libraries and collec tions.33 Indeed, the Meditationes was not translated into Castilian until the final decades of the fifteenth century, and then at the behest of Queen Isabel, achieving relatively widespread but quite late dissemination thanks to the introduction of the printing press.34 Similarly, the translation of Ludolph of Saxony's Vita Christi was carried out at the explicit request of the queen and was linked to royally sponsored programs of monastic reform; it, too, benefited from the press at Alcala in terms of achieving a wide-ranging diffusion among, first, a monastic and later a lay public.35

32Ubertino da C?sale (1259-ca. 1329), Arbor vitae crucifixae Jesu, ed. Charles T. Davis, Monu menta Politica et Philosophica Rariora 1/4 (Turin, 1961).

33 In order to contextualize this situation, it is important to note that the Meditationes survives in

libraries throughout Europe in over 230 manuscript copies and that it had been translated into English no fewer than seven times by the end of the fifteenth century. See Robert Worth Frank, Jr., "Medita

tiones vitae Christi: The Logistics of Access to Divinity," in Patrick J. Gallacher and Helen Damico,

eds., Hermeneutics and Medieval Culture (Albany, N.Y., 1990), pp. 39-49. Although Hauf mentions

the absence of these Passion "classics," whether in manuscript or incunable form, from Iberian, and

particularly Castilian, libraries, this circumstance is implicitly cast as accidental and explicitly as cause

for wonder rather than for caution: it does not impede him from interpreting the narratives of both

Eiximenis and Isabel de Villena as directly affected by their "influence." See H?uf, ed., Contemplado, pp. 7-12, where the history of the text's translation is discussed briefly; see also Psalterium, ed. Wittlin,

pp. 10-12. Similarly to the Castilian situation, in Catalonia it appears that vernacular translations of

the Meditationes were connected to reforming activities and were probably directly motivated by Cardinal Cisneros; the first dedicatee is a noblewoman. It is also worth noting that only one fourteenth

century copy of Bonaventure's Lignum vitae is known to exist in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid:

this is MS 54; the text is in Latin. See Manuel de Castro, Manuscritos franciscanos de la Biblioteca

Nacional de Madrid (Madrid, 1973), no. 2, p. 15. Ubertino's text is slightly better represented (the BN has two fifteenth-century copies, both in Latin: MSS 11523 and 17851), and it is referenced several

times in the material to be examined below (e.g., BN MS 780, fol. 374r, "de las razones de la tristeza

que ovo el Salvador al tiempo de la passion"). As discussed by Hauf (D'Eiximenis a sor Isabel, pp.

219-302), as well as in Davis's introduction to the Arbor vitae crucifixae Jesu (p. iv), a full translation

of the text was requested from Eiximenis by King Martin of Aragon in 1404. Although the translation was never completed, the request indicates greater interest, perhaps, in this Passion text (described as

"mystical" by Hauf) than in others of those mentioned here. Likewise, translations of northern, Passion-related treatises appear late; see, for example, Hermila Esthela Torres de Siegrist and David

Stephen Siegrist, The Text and Concordance of the Anonymous Fifteenth-Century Translation of"Im itatio Christi," Biblioteca Nacional 1-977, Spanish Series 83 (Madison, Wis., 1993), a text that is dated to 1493.

34 See Elizabeth Teresa Howe, "Cisneros and the Translation of Women's Spirituality," in Renate

Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Duncan Robertson, and Nancy Bradley Warren, eds., The Vernacular Spirit:

Essays on Medieval Religious Literature (New York, 2002), pp. 283-95; and Dorothy Sherman Sev

erin, Del manuscrito a la imprenta en la epoca de Isabel la Cat?lica, Estudios de Literatura %6 (Kassel,

2004). 35 See F. J. S?nchez Cant?n, Libros, tapices y cuadros que coleccion? Isabel la Cat?lica (Madrid,

1950), p. 60, for three catalogued copies of "Life of Christ" texts in the queen's library. One is a Latin

copy of the Meditationes; the second is probably (it is listed as Latin, but the title is recorded in

Castilian) a vernacular copy of the segments of that text which relate Christ's life from the age of thirty

through the Passion; and the third was in the process of becoming a bilingual, Latin and Castilian, copy of Ludolph of Saxony's Vita Christi. On Isabel's books see now Elisa Ruiz Garc?a, Los libros de

Isabel la Cat?lica: Arqueolog?a de un patrimonio escrito (Salamanca, 2004).



Preaching to the Converted 125 Although it has been categorized with and compared (most often unfavorably)36

with better-known European texts designed to focus individual meditations on Christ's sufferings, Eiximenis's Life of Christ, both in its original Catalan context and in the slightly later Castilian one into which it was imported, should be read against the backdrop of debates between prominent Jewish scholars and Christian theologians-many of whom had quite recently converted to Christianity-that characterized public discourse among Iberia's three faiths during the decades im mediately surrounding its production.37 Like don Sancho's retablo, Eiximenis's Life of Christ seeks, not to transport mystically, but to explicate, substantiate, persuade, and convince. In order to convince, it must avoid dwelling on aspects of the Christian faith that could be off-putting or seem absurd to, or even offend, potential or recent converts. It must also present the prospect of Christian salva tion in a "salable" way. Eiximenis took on these tasks in some creative and in novative ways. Rather than encourage devotees to identify and become one with the human Son of God through his sufferings, Eiximenis presents Christ as a model of forbearance, as happily, willingly, and even joyfully undergoing the Passion in order to carry out his mission of salvation, while Pilate is portrayed as a conflicted character who ardently wished to avoid sentencing an innocent man to death. Like many of his contemporaries, Eiximenis fashions Mary as a mirror of Christ, but for him, she reflects, not her son's pathos, but rather his stoicism, steadfastness, and even joy. Following his death, she becomes his delegate on earth as head of the church and is privileged throughout her life by divinely granted visionary experiences that help her to understand the necessary sacrifice of her son. Eixi menis's treatment of the Virgin suggests that, for an Iberian public, understanding the Passion means transcending, rather than re-creating, its pain and humiliation. My interpretation of don Sancho's retablo and its message for its intended au

dience takes its point of departure from three groups of manuscripts; all are in one way or another plausibly related to the devotional life of the convent. The first group contains texts written by conversos and intended to be used in the public debates held throughout Iberia during the first two decades of the fifteenth century; much of their content has also been preserved in sermon format.38 Their

36 H?uf, ed., Vita Christi, D'Eiximenis a Sor Isabel de Villena, and Lo Cresti?: Selecci?, Edicions 62

(Barcelona, 1983). 37 David J. Viera makes a similar argument for a Catalan context in "The Rabbi Mois?s and the

Primer del Cresti? of Francesc Eiximenis," Medieval Encounters 5 (1999), 184-97, and in "Sant Vicent

Ferrer, Francesc Eixemenis i el pogrom de 1391," in Karl I. Kobbervig, Arseni Pacheco, and Josep Massot i Muntaner, eds., Actes del sise Col.loqui d'estudis catalans a Nord-America, Vancouver, 1990

(Barcelona, 1992), pp. 243-54. On disputational literature surrounding the "Muslim problem" in

later medieval Castile see Echevarr?a, Fortress of Faith, and on the state of Jewish society and culture

in fifteenth-century Iberia in general, with ample discussion of previous bibliography, Mark D. Mey erson, A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain (Princeton, N.J., 2004), and idem, Jews in an

Iberian Frontier Kingdom: Society, Economy, and Politics in Morvedre, 1248-1391, Medieval and

Early Modern Iberian World 20 (Leiden, 2004). 38

See, for example, John Dagenais, ed., The Text and Concordances of Sermones contra los iud?os e moros: MS 25-H, Biblioteca P?blica y Provincial de Soria, Spanish Series 65 (Madison, Wis., 1991).

Jer?nimo de Santa Fe's De ludaicis erroribus ex Talmut, for example, was pronounced before Pope Benedict XIII and his court in August of 1412; therefore, in reality, Eiximenis's narrative can very

productively be placed against the backdrop of these debates.




authors include Rabbi Abner,39 whose Christian name was Alfonso de Burgos; Juan de Fuentesauco; and Juan el Viejo de Toledo, later known as Juan de Santa Maria. A "very old" copy of Rabbi Abner's now-lost Libro de las datallas de Dios (Book of the Battles of God) is known to have existed in San Benito's library.40 This first group exists in direct opposition to sermons on the Passion composed for Good Friday by Vincent Ferrer, to which these writers were certainly reacting.41 Inflammatory in their evocation of the coming days of judgment and damnation should the perfidious Jews fail to convert, and often filled with graphic evocations of the Passion's most abject moments (indeed, the Dominicans-rather than the Franciscans-may have been the most instrumental in introducing these themes into the Castilian religious arena), they were heard in the public context of Ferrer's preaching throughout Iberia and may well have contributed to the anxiety and violence produced in Valladolid by his visit.

The second group of texts consists of copies of books 8-10 of Eiximenis's Life of Christ, which treat the Infancy through the Passion and events following the Resurrection. As mentioned above, these books were translated into Castilian and circulated separately from the larger work, as they did in their original Catalan.42 Eiximenis's text was translated completely during the final years of the fifteenth century by the Jeronymite friar and royal confessor Hernando de Talavera, who was also the first bishop of the very recently conquered Granada. Talavera's in

39 On Rabbi Abner see Dwayne Carpenter, "Abner de Burgos, Libro de las tres creencias: The Span ish Manuscripts," Manuscripta 31 (1987), 190-97; Jonathan Leonard Hecht, "The Polemical Ex

change between Isaac Pollegar and Abner of Burgos/Alfonso of Valladolid according to Parma MS

2440 'Iggeret Teshuvat Apikoros' and 'Teshuvot la-Meharef,' " Dissertation Abstracts International

A/54/11 (May 1994), pp. 4218-19; Carlos Sainz de la Maza Vicioso, "La primera ep?stola de Alfonso

de Vallodolid," Sefarad 53 (1993), 157-70; idem, Alfonso de Valladolid: Edici?n y estudio del manu

scrito "Lat. 6423" de la Biblioteca Apost?lica Vaticana (Madrid, 1990); and Carlos del Valle Rodr?

guez and Johann Maier, Pol?mica judeo-cristiana: Estudios (Madrid, 1992). For editions of Rabbi Abner's writings see Walter Mettmann, ed. and trans., Ofrenda de Zehs (Minhat Rena Jot) und Libro

de la Ley, Abhandlungen der Rheinisch-Westf?lischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 81 (Opladen, 1990); idem, Mostrador de justicia, Abhandlungen der Rheinisch-Westf?lischen Akademie der Wis

senschaften 92, 2 vols. (Opladen, 1994-96); and idem, Tesuvot la-Meharef: Spanische Fassung, Ab

handlungen der Rheinisch-Westf?lischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 101 (Opladen, 1998). See also

Yehuda Shamir, Rabbi Moses ha-Kohen of Tordesillas and His Book ^Ezer ha-emunah: A Chapter in

the History of the Judeo-Christian Controversy, Etudes sur le Juda?sme M?di?val 7 (Leiden, 1975).

(Many thanks to Ryan Szpiech for discussing Rabbi Abner at some length with me.) 40 Federico Sangrador Ming?ela, La Iglesia de San Benito el Real de Valladolid: Restaurada y de

dicada, actualmente, al culto y veneraci?n de la Sant?sima Virgen del Carmen. Relaci?n hist?rico

descriptiva (Valladolid, 1904), pp. 44-45. 41 See above, nn. 18 and 30, and C?tedra, Serm?n, pp. 77-78. A widely disseminated Passion sermon

by Vincent Ferrer is found in El Escorial MS M.II.6, fols. 103r-110v; see Juli?n Zarco Cuevas, Ca

t?logo de los manuscritos castellanos de la Real Biblioteca de El Escorial, 3 vols. (Madrid, 1926),

2:283, and idem, "Serm?n predicado en Murcia por S. Vicente Ferrer," La Ciudad de Dios 148 (1927), 122-47.

42 The Passion meditations contained in Eiximenis's Libro de los ?ngeles evidence a different set of

priorities altogether, which I will address in a more extensive study in preparation. See BN MSS 18772

for the Castilian and 4327 for the Catalan. The tone of these meditations in part resembles the more

"loving" one recently reconstructed by Sara Lipton ("The Sweet Lean of His Head") for twelfth

century texts in which contemplation of a crucifix is de- or prescribed, but with the notable absence

of any reference to vision, visualizing, or looking, whether at a crucifix or anything else.



Preaching to the Converted 127 terest in translating the entirety of Eiximenis's lengthy text into Castilian was linked to his particular belief concerning the best way to deal with the large popu lation of Muslims now in his charge. This desire to render the complete narrative into Castilian is indicative of his views concerning the most effective tools for conversion: to quote the archbishop, "ninguno puede bien andar el camino que no sabe; ni lo puede saber si alguno no le informa del."43 Closer to the date of production of don Sancho's retablo but probably deemed useful for similar pur poses by a variety of monastic communities was a translation/adaptation of some of the Eiximenis material by Gonzalo de Ocania, also of the Jeronymite order and prior of Santa Maria de la Sisla during the middle decades of the fifteenth century.44 Although we do not have definite information about its provenance, BN MS 18772 is probably a result of those efforts. The size of the manuscripts suggests that the texts of my second group were intended for private or individual reading and study.

Similar but not identical needs dictated the production of the final group of manuscripts. Excerpts from Eiximenis's versions of the Infancy and the Passion are found in two santorales, or "flores sanctorum"-BN MSS 12688 and 780; the material is ordered according to the feast days of the liturgical year. Both are dated on paleographical grounds to the mid-fifteenth century (1440-60, and thus immediately following the first translation of Eiximenis's text). Although the con tents differ somwhat because the texts pertain to different seasons of the liturgical year, each combines the Passion and Infancy stories (usually, but not always, ac knowledging Eiximenis's authorship) with hagiographic material most often at tributed to James of Voragine. Both are large MS 12688 measures 426 x 310 mm with binding; MS 780 is 356 x 255 mm with binding-and were probably used for reading aloud, to a congregation or an assembled group of monks or both, or as material for sermons rather than for private meditation. Eiximenis's text appears to have, at least in part, an educational or didactic function. In the folios leading up to the beginning of the Passion, for example, a section is included

43 "No one can walk well a road that he does not know; nor can he know it if no one tells him of it": cited by Albert G. H?uf, "Fr. Francesc Eiximenis, O.F.M., 'De la predestinaci?n de Jesucristo,' y el consejo del Arcipreste de Talavera 'a los que de?logos mucho fundados non son,'

" Archivum Fran

ciscanum historicum 76 (1983), 239-95, at p. 248. For Talavera's edition of Eiximenis see Luis Fer

n?ndez, La Real Imprenta del Monasterio de Nuestra Se?ora del Prado, 1481-1835 (Valladolid,

1992), and Juli?n Mart?n Abad, "Apunte brev?simo sobre la imprenta incunable granadina," in An

tonio Gallego Morell, ed., La imprenta en Granada, Monogr?fica Arte y Arqueolog?a 41 (Granada,

1997), pp. 13-20. 44 Hernando de Talavera greatly esteemed Eiximenis for "estendiendo e declarando lo que non tan

estendida ni tan claramente recuentan los sanctos evangelios": see H?uf, "De la predestinaci?n de

Jesucristo," pp. 245-56, at p. 245. The fact that the text is bound with the "evangelios de todo el

a?o" sharply distinguishes it from previous uses of the material during the fifteenth century. See also

D. J. Viera, "The Presence of Francesc Eiximenis in Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Castilian Liter

ature," Hispan?fila 57 (1976), 1-5, and idem, "La obra de Francesc Eiximenis, O.F.M. (1340?

1409?), en los siglos XV al XVII," Archivo ibero-americano 39 (1979), 23-32. For Gonzalo de Oca?a see Agust?n Millares Cario, "Notas bibliogr?ficas sobre Fray Gonzalo de Oca?a, escritor del siglo XV," in Rub?n Paez Patino and Vicente P?rez Silva, eds., Homenaje a Fernando Antonio Mart?nez: Estudios

de ling??stica, filolog?a, literatura e historia cultural, Publicaciones del Instituto Caro y Cuervo 48

(Bogota, 1979), pp. 510-32.



128 Preaching to the Converted about how Mass is to be properly said (MS 18772, chap. 42, fol. 11Or). Likewise, ELiximenis insists again and again on the "clerical" legacy Christ placed on the shoulders of the apostles, interrupting meditations on the Virgin's and Christ's actions on the night of the Last Supper and the arrest with passages characterized by an overtly didactic tone, for example, "Como el Salvador fizo clerigos a los apostoles y consagro alli el su precioso cuerpo" ("How the Savior made the apos tles clergymen and consecrated there his precious body"; chap. 66, fol. 125r). Christ also preaches (chap. 78, fol. 135r) to his disciples after their final meal together, before going to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. Eiximenis includes here admonishments about the gravity of the offense committed in taking the holy sacrament in a state of mortal sin (fol. 125v), which is then-as is habitual for Eiximenis-further illustrated through an enxiemplo, or "hystoria" (fol. 125v), as well as another "exclamacion" (fol. 126r) against those who, despite the ve hement warnings just given, might still be disposed to commit such a sin.

Just such a manuscript almost certainly existed in San Benito's library, serving as the basis for sermons preached to the laity. The final folios of a fifteenth-century book of ceremonies (Liber caerimoniarum de observantia congregationis Sancti Benedicti Vallisoletani) from San Benito preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional (MS 1575) contain a dictionary of hand signs designed to facilitate communication between the monks as they went about the duties and rituals of their daily lives sub silentio. The list is not alphabetical and ranges freely from group to group of objects, persons, or concepts, all chosen because of their perceived importance to convent life. Among the categories are books, liturgical and otherwise; the list of titles includes a "Flos sanctorum" (fol. 101v), almost certainly of the sort de scribed above (it should be noted that the list makes no reference to any known Passion treatise of the sort discussed earlier). The book would have been included among those from which the brothers could choose when making their requests (fols. 33v-34r), at the chapter meeting on the Tuesday following the first Sunday of Lent, for reading material to use privately in their cells (the ultimate decision was, of course, the abbot's, who would take into consideration both the monks' preferences and his own inclinations concerning what best suited each one). Its contents would have been carefully learned in order to pass the public examination given at the end of Lent. Given its size, it seems reasonable to speculate that the Flos sanctorum was also used by the reader (lector) who read aloud each day from selected books at the end of the main mass (fol. 31v).

In general, the brothers of San Benito adhered to the strictly cloistered norms adopted by the Poor Clares of Santa Maria la Real de Tordesillas45 following that convent's reform, which took place just prior to or concomitant with their own monastery's foundation. Yet other passages of BN MS 1575 demonstrate that certain monks interacted with the laity in the context of feast-day celebrations and accompanying services. The description of ceremonies for Palm Sunday, for example, makes it clear that laypeople were habitually present (fol. 35v), and the list of terms for which hand signs are given (fol. 103r) includes one for a frater

45 See Manuel de Castro y Castro, O.F.M., "La Reforma en Castilla," Archivo ibero-americano 17

(1957), 120-73, and Cynthia Robinson, "La Orden Jer?nima y el Convento de Clarisas de Santa

Mar?a la Real de Tordesillas," Reales sitios 43 (2006), 18-33, and "Mudejar Revisited" (above, n. 8).



Preaching to the Converted 129 predicator. It also includes signs for both Jew and Muslim-the former is a com bination of the signum hominis scolaris (sign for a learned man) and the signum canis (sign for a dog). In the list the term judaeus appears in the company of such terms as literatus, scire, magister, doctor, bachalarius, scolaris, and medicus, im plying both a familiarity with Jews themselves (not surprising given the events related earlier, as well as the location of the monastery) and, perhaps more im portantly for this study, an association of them with knowledge, learning, and intellectual activity. Messages to them concerning Christian truth, in other words,

would have to be carefully crafted. As stated, the selection of Eiximenis's version of Christ's life for inclusion in

Castilian santorales was doubtless inspired by a perception of its usefulness in the process of convincing and indoctrinating converts. The translation of these pas sages into images for similar use would be a logical next step.46 In both text and images, as shall be seen, salvation is emphasized over mystical communion through pain in order to make Christianity an easier "sell" to Jewish converts or perhaps to Jews whom the brothers of San Benito wished to convert or indoctrinate. The strategies used by Eiximenis, discussed earlier, will be shown to be key to my analysis of the retablo's message. Indeed, two of its final images-the Descent into Limbo and the Mass of St. Gregory (Figs. 4 and 5)-are characterized by iconographical peculiarities that directly address either Jews or recent converts to Christianity from Judaism, arguing to them that Christ is their king and their long awaited Messiah and offering the believing (and therefore "sainted") Old Testa ment fathers as persuasive enxiemplos for their own hoped-for conversion. The remainder of this essay will examine images from Christ's Infancy, Passion, and post-Resurrection miracles in light of the texts introduced in the preceding pages.

THE INFANCY

Images from the Infancy include the Presentation in the Temple, the Birth of Christ, and the Epiphany.47 (See Fig. 1.) Both in terms of iconography and in the treatment of relationships between the protagonists of each image, they often contradict details of these events as related in the better-known Meditationes. The Presentation and the Epiphany, particularly when they are considered from the point of view of Eiximenis's version of them, emphasize the kingly, as opposed to the humbly human, aspects of Christ's incarnation, thus establishing one of the principal components of the retablo's message.

In his rendition of these events, ELiximenis begins a process of argument whose ultimate aim is to persuade his audience of the truth of the claim that Christ is in fact God's Son, highlighting in particular the acceptance of this fact by the arch angel Michael. More importantly, Eiximenis establishes the Virgin's role in hu

46 The retablo does predate the first known translation of the Vida, discussed above, by about twenty years, but it is probable that the material was known in Castile prior to its translation; it most probably could have been read by certain members of the convent's population in its original language, and oral transmission of the material would have made it familiar to the others.

47 For general discussion of all iconographie components used to portray Christ's life see Gertrud

Schiller, Iconography of Christian art, trans. Janet Seligman, 2 vols. (Greenwich, Conn., 1971-72).



130 Preaching to the Converted manity's salvation as not merely that of a loving, humble, and very human mother (and thus, as in the Meditationes, appealing to an audience on grounds of empathy and identification) but as a queenly figure possessed of high and mystical knowl edge, which will later be key to his articulation of her role in the Passion. The compiler of MS 12688, citing Eiximenis's Vida de Cristo where a certain "Gilberto ... en el sermo[n] de la natividat del Salvador" is quoted, reports that the Virgin experienced ecstatic rapture during the birth of her son (fol. 78r-v):48

... la oracion que hizo la virgen a rodillas durante ,inco horas, inmediatamente antes del parto, en la que al,o las manos [y] los ojos al ,ielo [y] subio con el coracon a los secretos [y] consola,iones celestiales [y] vido en sp[iri]tu el fructo non asimable del su parto deseable.

... the prayer that the Virgin prayed on her knees for five hours, immediately before the birth, in which she raised up her hands and eyes to the sky and went up with her heart to the celestial secrets and consolations, and saw in spirit the wondrous fruit of her most yearned-for giving birth.]

Moreover, she experienced mystical communion of souls with her son from the earliest days of her pregnancy forward, although this became much more intense, and the subjects of wordless conversation more elevated, following his birth (fol. 78v):

E el nifno abria sus ojos & ponialos enella co[n] grand dulcor. Et asy era alcada la alma dela santa virgen ala alteza delas consolaciones de aq[ue]lla ,ibdat soberana q[ue]le pares,ia q[ue]ya era bien aventurada & agena de todo dolor & pena. Et dize aqui theo filo49 que como q[ui]er q[ue]la alma santa del Salvador oviese muchas fablas co[n] la alma dela su madre santa antes que saliese del vientre emp[er]o muchas mas altas fablas & espe,iales ovo con[e]lla despu[e]s q[ue] nas,io estando ella de rrodillas delante su pesebre.

[And the child opened his eyes and directed them on her with great sweetness. And thus the soul of the holy Virgin was raised up to the consolation of that excellent city, so that she felt that she was already (dwelling) among the heavenly elect, removed from all pain and sorrow. And Theophilus says here that even though the Savior had many conversations with the soul of his holy mother before he came out of her womb, he had many more and more special ones with her after he was born, while she knelt beside his manger.]

This presentation of the Virgin's privileged relationship with her son is also re flected in the unique iconography of a small statue of the Virgin and Child that was the object of particular devotion by none other than Fernando de Antequera, pictured as being crowned by the Christ Child in don Sancho's retablo. The stand ing Virgin, cloaked in a regal gown, wearing a delicate crown and poised in the

48 If, as appears likely, the "Gilberto" referred to by the compilers is Gilbert of Poitiers, then the

sermon in question does not appear to have been the source for the treatment of Mary here. See Nikolas

M. H?ring, S.A.C., "A Christmas Sermon by Gilbert of Poitiers," Mediaeval Studies 27 (1961), 126

35. David J. Viera has discussed miracles performed by the Virgin in Eiximenis's writings: "Els miracles

de Maria en l'obra catalana de Francesc Eiximenis," in Nathanael B. Smith et al., eds., Actes del quart

col.loqui d'estudis catalans a Nord-America, Washington, D.C., 1984: Estudis en honor d'Antoni M.

Badia i Margarit (Montserrat, 1985), pp. 121-30.

491 have not, thus far, been able to identify Theophilus; see also below, p. 162.



Preaching to the Converted 131 quintessentially Gothic S-curve, the widely recognized mark of early-fifteenth century elegance, holds her son in her arms. Rather than offering him a piece of fruit, tenderly touching his cheek with hers, or otherwise displaying her mother hood, she gravely inclines her head toward his so that he may whisper into her ear. The child raises his right hand, an indication that he is speaking. The prox imity of their heads indicates that his words-his doctrina-are for her and for her only.50 Not only did the Virgin communicate mystically with her son's soul on a regular basis, but she also, soon after his birth, experienced a vision of the salvation of mankind, followed by divinely granted knowledge of the destruction that would come to the Jews as a result of their blindness to the Savior God had sent them; she had pity on them because she was descended from them (MSS 780, fol. 56v, and 12688, fol. 337v). She was then surrounded by a light, seen only by her and by Joseph.

Despite the severely damaged state of the panel on which Christ's birth is rep resented (see Fig. 1, top left-hand corner, second panel from left), it is possible to observe an iconographical detail of striking particularity, and of equally striking resonance with the narrative of Christ's birth as recounted by Eiximenis. Rather than tenderly cradling her son in her arms or, together with Joseph, contemplating him as he lies on the ground surrounded by golden rays of light, the Virgin is seated toward the foreground of the composition, alone and facing the viewer, her features composed into a grave and peaceful expression. The communion repre sented, then, is one of souls rather than of bodies, and the tone for the narrative is set: the Virgin and her son, although they perforce participate in it, are above the homely details of daily life.

In this placement of the Virgin, reference is also possibly made to the fact that, according to Eiximenis (MSS 780, fols. 52r-58r, and 12688, fol. 80r-v), at the moment the birth took place, the Virgin was kneeling in prayer. Therefore, the angels (heads of the twelve lineages of Israel) received the Savior into their arms before placing him in his mother's. Not only are the Virgin's visions-and thus her privileged status with respect to holy knowledge of the birth of the Savior and the process of world salvation that had been begun-emphasized, but Eiximenis gives great attention to the painless, effortless details of the holy birth, also taking advantage of the opportunity to portray the solicitous concern of the Virgin's Jewish neighbors.

The entire birth-in an appealing touch that Eiximenis almost certainly owed to Augustine but that was also clearly calculated to elicit sympathies from a Jewish or converso audience51-is observed attentively by St. Michael, the prince both

50 Ysabel, la Reina Cat?lica: Una mirada desde la catedral primada (Madrid, 2005), no. 293, pp.

591-93, with bibliography. 51

Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, PL 37:1497: "Despectis autem inimicis, non sic mihi tanquam bonus homo se amicus opponat, ut ipse in se spem meam jubeat collocari: Bonum est enim confidere in Domino, quam confidere in homine. Nee quisqu?s secundum quemdam modum dici potest ?ngelus

bonus, sic a me cogitetur, ut in eo confidere debeam: nemo enim bonus, nisi solus Deus; et cum videntur

adjuvare homo vel ?ngelus, cum hoc vera dilectione faciunt, ille per eos facit, qui eos pro modo eorum

bonos fecit. Bonum est ergo sperare in Dominum, quam sperare in principes. Nam et Angel? died sunt

principes, sicut in Daniele legimus, Michael princeps vester (Dan. XII, 1)"; idem, Ad fratres in eremo

commorantes, Sermon 69, PL 40:1355.



132 Preaching to the Converted of the angels and of the Synagogue, together with "los dope angeles principes de los linajes de ysrrl" ("the twelve principal angels of the lineages of Israel"; MS 780, fol. 56v). Listeners or readers are placed in a privileged position over the observers present for the occasion itself, being informed that the large crowd of witnesses assembled there did not see the angels (as they, in effect, have been allowed to) but instead began to sing (the same anthems, states Eiximenis in a didactic detail that is typical of his approach, that are sung in the church on this day). Rather than ask his readers to contemplate the humility of the scene, then, as had the author of the Meditationes possibly as much as a century earlier, Eixi menis (as do his Castilian excerpters) cleverly invokes the complicity of the au dience by allowing its members privileged access to details supposedly known only to the Virgin and Joseph, details that add, not to the domesticity, but to the majesty of the event.

Similarly, the converso writer Rabbi Abner (later known as Alfonso de Burgos), discussed earlier, emphasizes the festive nature of the occasion of Christ's birth as it was celebrated by both Muslims and Christians in order to convince the Jews to "join in," both in the celebration and in the belief that Jesus Christ was born of the womb of the Virgin Mary. In a treatise titled Las tres creencias he notes that the Muslims refer to Christmas Eve (la noche del nabidat) as "leyma taltal

meht," when "cristianos y moros fazen tan grande e tan onrrada fiesta" (Chris tians and Moors make such a great and honorable celebration). The Moors, more over, "por que ... bendizen a santa maria por esso an ellos reyes y principes y an su parte de la honrra desde mundo" (because they bless Mary, have kings and princes and their part of the honor of this world). Unlike the Jews, that is, the Moors participate in the power and glory of this world because they accept that Jesus was born of the Virgin and celebrate his birth (Las tres creencias, BN MS 9302, fol. 21r-v).

The remaining Infancy images similarly emphasize the doctrinal, as opposed to the sentimental or somatic, aspects of Christ's incarnation as a human child. In the Presentation in the Temple he exchanges solemn gazes with the aged priest, Simeon; indeed, this interchange is arguably the focus of the panel.52 This is the moment of Simeon's recognition of the Child's divinity and of the coming of the promised Messiah, Son of God. His mother, in notable contrast to the much discussed pathos of the scene'-s presentation in the famous frescoes painted by Giotto for the Arena Chapel in Padua, as well as in other, slightly later Iberian images,53 hands the child freely into Simeon's arms. This first instance of Christ's shedding of his human blood upon his circumci

52 Other Castilian Presentations are similarly "unsentimental," suggesting a theophanic rather than

empathetic interpretation of it. In an example found in a fifteenth-century book of hours today in the

Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (MS 268, fols. 48v-49r), the Christ Child sits directly atop the

altar, sustained by Simeon's, rather than his mother's, hands; Mary and Joseph kneel to the side of the

altar in prayer and adoration. 53 See Anne Derbes, "Barren Metal and the Fruitful Womb: The Program of Giotto's Arena Chapel

in Padua," Art Bulletin 80 (1998), 274-92. For a Castilian example that approaches the theme with a pathos similar to Giotto's, the scene of the Presentation in the retablo by Nicol?s Franc?s in the

Salda?a chapel at the royal convent of Poor Clares at Tordesillas, see F. J. S?nchez Cant?n, Maestre

Nicol?s Franc?s (Madrid, 1964).




sion is unanimously interpreted as a prefiguration of the Passion. Likewise, Giotto's rendition of the scene in the Arena Chapel is frequently discussed as a prefiguration of the Virgin's agony during that event. A similar interpretation was certainly intended for the Presentation in don Sancho's retablo. The Virgin's calm, grave participation in the exchange of gazes, however, as well as the Child's affectionate placing of his hand on Simeon's shoulder, indicates interpretive decisions that emphasize the willingness of all participants. Likewise, in the Epiphany-also ubiquitously interpreted as both a manifestation of Christ's divinity and a prefig uration of his human death-decisions to emphasize the doctrinal over the do mestic or empathetic have been made (Fig. 1, top left-hand corner, third panel from left). While meeting the kneeling king's gaze with authoritative confidence, the Christ Child raises a hand in a speaking or teaching gesture, similar to the one he adopts in Fernando de Antequera's statue, while the other rests-in a manner perhaps indicative of his knowledge of its symbolic potency-on the old man's gift (MS 780, fols. 116r-120v). The Virgin, again, observes the dialogue gravely; her slender hand also steadies the stem of the priceless container, perhaps an al lusion to her own participation in the significance, rather than in the pathos, of the burial forewhadowed by its contents.

THE PASSION

Images related to the Passion are the most numerous in don Sancho's retablo. Appearing are the Mocking, the Flagellation, the Road to Calvary, the Crucifixion, the Pieta, and the Entombment (Figs. 1-3). The Passion, however, along with the Trinity,54 is without a doubt the article of the Christian faith that occasioned the most discomfort among the population of Iberian conversos as well as among non-Christians, and I believe that it was Christian theologians' knowledge of this discomfort that dictated the rather particular treatment several of the scenes to be discussed in this section received in don Sancho's retablo. Rabbi Abner (Memorial de Cristo, BN MS 9302, fol. 21v), for instance-seconded by Alfonso del Ma drigal, more commonly known as "el Tostado" (d. 1455; BN MS 4202, fols. 90r 91v)-notes that neither Jews nor Muslims believe in the Passion of the Savior, and he states that this was largely because, to them, it is inconceivable that be lievers could allow their God to be so abjectly wounded or, worse still, killed: "el cual los vuestros savyos de los moros y de los judios niegan que a dios non pudiera ninguno matar ni ferir ni llagar" (whom your wise men, those of the Moors and the Jews, deny that anyone could kill or wound). He counters, however, that the "Profecta sivylla" did prophesy these events and that even she was aware "that the son of God had to be crucified on the cross" (fol. 22r). Eiximenis also demonstrates preoccupation with this problem. A group of chap

54 Harvey Harnes has analyzed in great detail the treatment of the theme of the Trinity by one of

Iberia's great polemical and "persuasionist" writers, the slightly earlier Ramon Llull. See Harvey J.

Hames, "Conversion via Ecstatic Experience in Ramon Llull's 'Llibre del gentil e dels tres savis,' "

Viator 30 (1999), 181-200; idem, The Art of Conversion: Christianity and Kabbalah in the Thirteenth

Century, Medieval Mediterranean 26 (Leiden, 2000); and, also, Jeff Diamond, "El tema de la Trinidad

en el Libro de la ley de Alfonso de Valladolid," Sefarad 57 (1997), 33-49.



134 Preaching to the Converted ters in which he sets out to convince listeners of the truths of this central tenet of Christian doctrine begins with chapter 123, "Como el Sefior maldixo a aquellos que menosprecian la su santa pasion" ("How the Lord Cursed Those Who Are Dismissive of His Holy Passion"; MS 18772, fol. 82r). Its arguments are, not surprisingly, directly aimed at Jewish listeners. This chapter is followed immedi ately by one entitled "Como los judios vinieron con conoscimiento de ihu xpo i como perdieron la dicha consciencia" ("How the Jews Initially Had Knowledge of Jesus Christ and How They Lost That Knowledge"; MS 18772, fol. 82v). This chapter is full of extensive analysis of key Old Testament passages and closes with the statement "que no tienen ninguna escusacion" (they have no excuse [for not believing]).

The necessity of Iberian Christian leaders to confront this very uncomfortable obstacle to conversion resulted in consistent avoidance, through at least the middle decades of the fifteenth century, of almost any obligation of readers, listeners, or viewers to dwell upon (less still to experience through sympathetic, or "com passionate," visualization) the most dolorous, humiliating, or gruesome aspects of the Passion. At narrative moments in which the Meditationes or St. Bridget of Sweden offers explicit evocations of the stretching of tendons, the filling of eyes with blood from a pierced brow, etc., or urges readers to place themselves at the scene of a specific injustice or humiliation, the meditation in question presents its readers with highly schematic considerations of the various meanings that might be applied to a particular event or segment of it. Moreover, two passages from MSS 12688 and 18772 contain statements that reveal, on the part of both Eixi menis and his Castilian appropriators, not only a decision not to adopt but also a decided discomfort with such meditations as those counseled by Johannes de Caulibus. From the Passion meditations ("Como deve pensar el cristiano en cristo crucificado") of MS 12688, fol. 381r:

El que quiere co[n]te[m]plar largamente las injurias [y] denuestos [?] q[ue e]l salvador rescibio lea el planto q[ue] fizo el bien ave[n]turado Stn [?] Bernardo [y] el tractado de las siete horas que fue fecho en memoria de la passion del Salvador [y] otros tractados nuevos q[ue] han seydo fechos de algunos doctores de aq[u]este tiempo [y] en ellos podra fallar materia asas larga.

[He who wishes to contemplate at length the injuries and dishonors received by the Savior, let him read the planctus made by the blessed St. Bernard and the treatise on the seven hours, which was made in memory of the Passion of the Savior, and other recent treatises that have been made by certain doctors of these times, and in them he will be able to find quite a lot of material.]

Reference is made to a sermon of "St. Cirillo,"55 followed by an admonition to Christians that they should endeavor to think as Christ did while he was on the

55 It is not clear whether this Cyril is intended to be Cyril of Jerusalem or Cyril of Alexandria; at

any rate, a consultation of works by both in the PL does not turn up an obvious source for Eiximenis's comments. Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. 315-87, bishop of Jerusalem from c. 349) would appear to be the more likely candidate, however, given his tendency?one that he shared with most writers of apoc

rypha during the first Christian centuries?to amplify, rather than diminish, the Virgin's role in all

phases of Christ's life and to regard her after Christ's death almost as a doctor of the church. See E. A.

Wallis Budge, Miscellaneous Coptic Texts in the Dialect of Upper Egypt (London, 1915; repr. New

York, 1977), and James D. Breckenridge, "'Et prima vidit': The Iconography of the Appearance of

Christ to His Mother," Art Bulletin 39 (1957), 9-32, with citation of the "so-called Discourse on

Mary Theotokos, by Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem" at p. 11 n. 6.



Preaching to the Converted 135 cross. Those who wish to engage in more lugubrious contemplations are free to consult other texts, where they will find, as MS 18772 puts it, "larga materia de contemplar y llorar los amargosos dolores y penas y pasiones de nuestro Salvador" (lengthy material in order to contemplate and weep over the bitter pains and sorrows and passions of our Savior). Eiximenis then states that he will leave this material out, both in order to maintain his treatise at a suitable length and "por tirar enojos a los oyentes"-in order not to bore (or even annoy) his listeners. Another tactic employed by Eiximenis in approaching the delicate topic of the

Passion is the development of the character of Pilate into a troubled, thoughtful, and conflicted character who potentially reflects the dilemmas experienced by many of his intended listeners. Discussions of the governor's thought processes and interchanges with Christ are particularly long and detailed (MS 18772, fols. 146r-150r), surely an indication of the store placed by the author in their power to enthrall and convince. Pilate, it is implied, wants desperately to believe, and to believe publicly, and to put a stop to the crucifixion. He, however, cowers when faced with the possibility of a Jewish revolt in the crowded capital during Passover festivities, not to mention the consequences such an event would have for his relations with his Roman superiors. In the end, he does not dare to alter the course of events.

A third tactic by which Eiximenis replaces the lengthy discussions of the physical humiliations and agonies suffered by Christ that fill other Passion meditations is that of oral argument or debate. A great deal, in fact, of Eiximenis's suggested contemplafiones on the Passion (for example, MS 18772, fols. 109v-114r) is centered on the theme of Christ's superiority as a debater and on the fearlessness and intelligence, patience, and forbearance with which he answered, again and again, his accusers' questions (MS 18772, fols. 146r-148r). Emphasis is likewise placed on Christ's powerful preaching during the days and moments leading up to his arrest in the garden,56 as well as on the doctrine he imparted to the apostles before his passing, finishing up with the authority, vested in them just prior to his ascension and reiterated at Pentecost, to do the same. This is almost certainly because one of the primary purposes Eiximenis envisioned his compilation as serv ing was that of sermon composition; this suggestion would seem to be confirmed by the format of the two Castilian santorales referenced throughout this study. Comparisons with the contemporary debates that formed the focus of Christian efforts at persuasion and conversion at the moment of the text's compilation are difficult to resist.

This emphasis on discourse also allowed Eiximenis to avert his audience's at tention from some of the more disturbing physicalities of the Passion. Instead of inciting his audience to contemplate Christ's physical pain and suffering, Eixi menis draws attention to insults visited upon the Son of God by those who tor mented him with words ("que pienses que le dezian aquellos ribaldos non es dubda que non le dixieren lo que se sigue"; "you should think about what those ribald ones said to him; no doubt they said just what follows"; MS 18772, fol. 143v)

56 As in a fragment of Passion narration, almost certainly of local Iberian (Castilian) production and

authorship, in BN MS 9567 (fifteenth century), which I am analyzing for another aspect of this project.




and to Christ's reaction of patience, humility, and pleasure at the sacrifice he made for the salvation of humankind, even for those who tormented him ("deves pensar en el rreverendo senor quando oye aquestas palabras con quanta paciencia y hu mildad las sofria, ofresciendo siempre la su temporal vida con muy grant plazer"; "you must think about the reverend lord when he heard these words, with what patience and humility he stood them, always offering his earthly life with great pleasure"). Expanding considerably on the sparse details given by the Gospels, Eiximenis examines in great detail the terms Christ was asked to explain during the earlier stages of his interrogation. If he is called "Christ," his Jewish interro gators will infer that he is, in effect, claiming to be the "anointed one," and there fore a "king," blasphemous assertions that are punishable by death. The same result would be produced by a claim to be the Son of God. In a departure from the Gospel version of these events (all but Luke place emphasis on Christ's reluc tance to speak and the terseness of the responses he did give), when asked whether he is or is not the Son of God, Christ-fully aware of the catch-22 quality of the questions-responds boldly that if he answers in the affirmative, they will sentence him to death, and if he denies their accusations, they will still not set him free. Therefore his official answer will be that they will only know the truth following his death and resurrection (fol. 146v).

At one point (fols. 141v-142v) Cayfas, now annoyed because the "trial" is not going as planned, cuts to the chase and asks, again and angrily, if he is the Son of God. There have been problems getting witnesses together willing to testify as the Jewish authorities want (a variation on the "false witnesses" mentioned in the Gospel accounts), but once Christ answers in the affirmative to this question, they have all they need. Again, the emphasis is decidedly different from the Medita tiones, in that readers are asked to consider exchanges of words rather than physi cal abuse. Cayfas, following Christ's response to his trick question, triumphantly announces that there is no longer any need to search for witnesses and that the court can proceed with a death sentence. The Jews then begin to beat and taunt Christ in the cruelest of manners, before throwing him to the ground and kicking him and then tying him to a column, where he will pass the night as is customary for prisoners condemned to death. Although the Jewish authorities are under the impression that they have won

the verbal battle, Eiximenis nevertheless, and again taking considerable liberty with the biblical account, assures his readers that this is not the case: Christ will triumph-indeed he already has, not because of his physical sufferings, but be cause of the superiority of his doctrina. All of these atrocities were perpetrated on the Son of God's body because the Jewish leaders, quite simply, did not understand it ("porque no entendian lo que decia"; MS 18772, fol. 91v). This lack of under standing, in fact, and Christ's powerful preaching are given as the third and fourth reasons for the Son of God's having been put to death. More importantly, readers or listeners, thanks to the omniscient position adopted by Eiximenis's text, are given the opportunity to assume the superior posture of those who "get it," and therefore believe, and thus to separate themselves from both their damned pre decessors and others of their erstwhile community who are incapable of seeing the truth. They are also encouraged to be brave and to publicly acknowedge "what



Preaching to the Converted 137 they clearly see," this time through Eiximenis's employment of the negative ex ample of Pilate's cowardice.

Eiximenis, in fact, had already begun to move the character of Pilate toward the tragically cowardly but essentially innocent (perhaps in order to place still greater blame on the Jews) before he was even properly introduced into the context of the narrative (MS 18772, fol. 143r), noting that, according to "some doctors" ("algunos doctores"), Christ's comparatively quick death on the cross was the result of his weakened condition following the beatings he had received at Cayfas's house and the night he had spent tied to the column. Pilate, however, marveled at the rapidity with which such a strong, young man expired once on the cross; this was because Pilate, as Eiximenis states, did not know of the sufferings Christ had undergone the previous night ("porque non sabia aquello que el bendicho senor avia sofrido syn el"). Through the presentation of minute details of Pilate's interior deliberations, ELiximenis makes it clear that the tormented man wants to do what his listeners should do but lacks the courage to believe and publicly acknowledge that belief. Taking full advantage of the information offered in the Gospel ac counts, Eiximenis embellishes on Pilate's first attempt to avoid the responsibility of pronouncing judgment. At a certain moment, the beleaguered governor tells the principes de la synagoga that, since Christ has sinned against their laws, they should take him and judge him themselves. He does this, states Eiximenis, because he knows that Jewish law does not permit a death sentence, that being the unique privilege of the Roman Empire and its official representatives. This discussion of the laws of different peoples would resonate with his readers' own multicultural (and multilegal) reality (MS 18772, fols. 147v-149r).

In a further embellishment, Eiximenis then relates that Pilate took Jesus aside, both in order to avoid interference by the Pharisees and to afford himself the widest margin possible for interpreting Christ's answers in a way that would allow him to avoid his disagreeable (but foreordained) role in his death. Their conver sation is reported in detail; following it, Pilate returns to the Jews, telling them that he finds no reason to put the man to death. Pilate's wife also appears, begging him to spare Jesus's life: she fears, in the case of his death, for the life of her unborn child, as well as for her own. Finally, in a rather desperate attempt to avoid association with the shameful affair, Pilate-as is recounted in the Gos pels-sends Jesus to Herod, certain that he will probably do as the Jews ask. Eiximenis portrays Pilate justifying his action (fol. 149v) by the fact that, whereas he himself was not a native of Galilee, both Herod and Jesus were and that Herod might legitimately apply Galilean law. Jesus, however, refuses to gratify Herod's whims and perform miracles for his amusement; Herod then decides that Christ is mentally deficient and, disgusted, returns him to Pilate.

In striking contrast to the Meditationes, the Mocking (see Fig. 2, the first of the Passion scenes actually shown in the retablo) and the Flagellation (see Fig. 3) are presented by Eiximenis, not as opportunities for readers to experience Christ's sufferings for themselves through compassio and visualization, but rather as oc casions on which Christ demonstrated his stoicism and as the result of Pilate's last-ditch effort to avoid the unavoidable. By decreeing that Christ be publicly humiliated, mocked, and whipped, Pilate hoped to pacify the ire of the Jewish authorities. Although this is certainly not the first time such justification of Pilate's




actions had been offered in texts narrating Christ's life, the attention given the theme here stands in strong contrast to the summary treatment it receives in the

Meditationes. In Eiximenis's text, readers' sympathies are not invoked, nor are they requested to "look." Rather, their attention is directed repeatedly to the fact that Jesus remains stoic and regal throughout, details upon which Eiximenis en courages his readers to concentrate.

The retablo appears to echo those concerns. Christ is dressed, not in rough, tattered rags, but in a costly blue silk robe with embroidered patterns of delicate birds and vegetation, rendered in gold-wrapped thread. The most noteworthy iconographic feature of this image, however, is the transparent veil that covers Christ's head, face, and the larger part of his neck. Although clearly visible, it impedes neither Christ's vision of the viewer nor the viewer's of him. Numerous images of the Mocking depict Christ as blindfolded, certainly in response to Mark 14.65, which states that Christ's face was "covered," or Luke 22.64, where it is reported that he was "blindfolded," but the use of a transparent veil is rare. The messages conveyed by a veil, moreover, are very different from those conveyed by a blindfold.57 A blindfold is opaque, whereas a veil is transparent and would allow

57 This motif is not entirely absent from representations of the Mocking in other European contexts, but it is rare, and none?to my knowledge?is displayed in a monumental context. One example is

found in the Sactirica ystoria, a manuscript narrative of the life of Christ dating to 1334 by Paulinus

of Venice for use by Franciscans; see MacDonald et al., The Broken Body (above, n. 1), p. 47. A second

example, in which Christ's face is veiled only as far down as his eyes, is from Florence and may be

found on an arm of a historiated crucifix attributed to the workshop of Bernardo Daddi; it probably

belonged to the Church of San Donato in Polverosa. See Richard Offner et al., A Critical and Historical

Corpus of Florentine Painting, 3/5: The Fourteenth Century: Bernardo Daddi and His Circle, new ed.

(Florence, 2001), pp. 311 and 313. Neither image may be said to have been intended for viewing by a large public; one is a manuscript illustration, and thus its potential audience is by necessity a reduced

one, and the other is a very small component of a crucifix that most viewers would have engaged from a distance, and thus the veil might not even have been perceived. In an Iberian context, on the other

hand, the motif also occurs in the slightly earlier representation of the Passion from the Chapel of St.

Michael at the convent of Poor Clares at Pedralbes, in Barcelona (ca. 1343), in frescoes painted by Ferrer Bassa and workshop for private use by the convent's abbess; see Manuel Trens, Ferrer Bassa i

les pintures de Pedralbes, Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Memories de la Secci? Hist?rico-Arqueol?gica, 6 (Barcelona, 1936). A variation on it might be said to exist in a very curious rendering of the Man

of Sorrows theme, from the final years of the fifteenth century, in which the upper half of Christ's face

is covered by a cloth?opaque this time, and most probably a shroud?that has been placed over his

head atop the crown of thorns. The rough, white material is perforated by the spines of the crown,

producing, in this case, a much different impression in the viewer; the two uses of face coverings,

however, are clearly related, and all Iberian uses of the motif discussed here belong to large retablos or groups of wall paintings, which would potentially have reached a much larger audience than did

the non-Iberian examples. For the Man of Sorrows see Eloisa Wattenberg Garc?a, El arte en la ?poca del Tratado de Tor desillas: Monasterio de Prado, Valladolid, 20 de abril-30 de septembre (Valladolid,

1994), pp. 84-85, for an anonymous image of the Man of Sorrows, his eyes closed?perhaps in

death?partially wrapped in the sudarium, which covers his head and the upper part of his face

(including his eyes) after the fashion of a veil (measuring 82.5 X 54.8 cm and dated by the exhibition's curators to the final years of the fifteenth century, the painting is housed today in the Museo Regional de Donha Leonor in Beja, Portugal); a similar example (cat. no. 30) is attributed to Jan Provost and

dated to 1529. Its cataloguers believe it to have been produced in Bruges; it once belonged to the

parish church of the Magdalene in the Castilian town of Poblaci?n de Campos, and it is housed today in the Museo Diocesano of Palencia. (Many thanks to Taryn Chubb and Emily Kelley for bringing these comparanda to my attention.)




Jesus to, in effect, know the identity of his tormentors (in Luke 22.64 he is taunted by instructions to "prophesy" the identity of those who beat him). The transpar ency of the veil, then, reaffirms Christ's dignity, his divinity, and his divinely granted knowledge.

Passion texts in circulation in Castile during the first decades of the fifteenth century are fairly evenly divided in their preference for "veil" and "cloth." Eixi menis states that Christ's face was covered with a cloth (paho) in order to mock him ("por escarnio"; BN MS 14294, fol. 149v). An anonymous Passion treatise in the vernacular that claims to draw heavily on meditations attributed to St. Bernard, included in a fifteenth-century Castilian devotional miscellany (BN MS 4202, fol. 192r), prefers veil (velo).58 Likewise, Christ's face is described as "veiled" (velatus) in the Officium Passionis [Domini] maius, believed by most medieval Christians to have been authored by St. Bonaventure.59 No specifications concerning the qualities of the cloth, however, are ever offered.

The addition of the transparent veil would appear to be a decision made by the retablo's commissioner and designer, in light of the general tone of Eiximenis's text and of Eiximenis's repeated insistence on the blindness of the Jews and their refusal or inability to recognize (or to "see") the truth of Christ's words and identity. Vision is therefore, as it is in the Meditationes, central to the devotional concerns of the text in question, but it is so in ways revealing of important dif ferences between Castilian Passion devotions and those practiced elsewhere in Europe. Although Jewish blindness to God's Son's identity is, as noted by Sara Lipton, something of a cliche,60 the insistence with which Eiximenis foregrounds it is worthy of consideration. Christ, predictably, is presented by Eiximenis as the potential healer of this blindness, and the Jews' stubbornness is implicitly con trasted with the "sight" obtained by those who allowed Christ to heal them and believed. Eiximenis gives numerous accounts of such miracles throughout the events leading up to the Passion; for example, chapter 20 (MS 18772, fol. 96r), in which Jesus heals two blind men just outside Jericho; again (taken from John 9) in chapter 32 (fol. 103v); and then again on a Saturday, which angered the Pharisees greatly.

Similar themes are given emphasis by the converso Juan el Viejo de Toledo, in his Memorial de Cristo. On fol. lr of BN MS 9369 the copyist declares:

Iste libro fizo el sabio maestre juan el Viejo de Toledo que es sacado de toda la biblia a puando por todos los profetas que profetizaron como fue venido el rrey mexias que es el Nuestro Salvador Ihu Xpo y como los judios cegaron y no lo vieron ni lo quisieron

58 As in Andr?s de Ly's Tesoro de la Pasion, composed during the final years of the fifteenth century and dedicated to Ferdinand and Isabel (edited by Pablo Hurus in Zaragoza, 1494; El Escorial Inc.

39.V45[1], fol. 63v), and in a contemporary, but anonymous treatise, dedicated to the same sovereigns

(El Escorial MS M.II.6, fol. 64r). All of these will be discussed in some detail in my monograph

Imag(in)ing Passions. 59 As in a fifteenth-century book of hours perhaps produced in Aragon but ultimately incorporated

into the collection of books owned by the Cistercian nuns of the convent of San Clemente in Toledo

(BN MS Res. 197). The reading immediately following the invitatorium is taken from Isaiah 53.3, which contains the phrase "quasi absconditus vultus eius" (his face, as though hidden), and prime includes the hymn "Tu qui velatus facie fuisti sol iusticie" (fol. 84r).

60 Lipton, "The Sweet Lean of His Head" (above, n. 1), pp. 1178-80.



140 Preaching to the Converted conoscer ni creer ni oy en dia lo creen por donde son perdidos y condempnados sus cuerpos y sus almas ca lo tiene bien claro en su ley mesma.

[This book was made by the wise master Juan el Viejo of Toledo, which is taken from all of the Bible and relies on all of the prophets who prophesied how the Messiah was come, who is our Savior Jesus Christ, and how the Jews were blinded and did not see him, nor did they want to recognize him, nor believe, nor do they believe it today, for which they are lost and condemned in both body and soul, for they have it right there as clear as day in their own law.]

The Errores de los judios, by the same author (BN MS 4306, fol. 2v), is introduced in an almost identical fashion. Likewise, the motifs of vision and blindness-here couched in the terms of lightness and dark-are central to Juan de Fuentesauco's arguments (BN MS 10320, fol. 27r):

... i en Isaias a los 1 x c, dize que el pueblo que andava en las tiniebras de la idolatria vio la luz que es el salvador este pueblo es el gentil. I ansi vino el senyor a dar indulgencia a este pueblo captivo i ansi a ti iudio captivo si rescibieres a aqueste revelante Salvador saldra tu anima de la captividat del Diablo.

[.. . and in Isaiah, in the fiftieth chapter, verse 10, it says that the people who walked in the darkness of idolatry saw the light that is the Savior-this people is the gentile people. And thus the Savior came to give indulgence to this captive people, and thus to you, captive Jew, if you receive this Savior and his revelation, your soul will come out of the devil's captivity.]

In the Vida (MS 18772, fol. 111r-v) Eiximenis further marvels at the Jewish community leaders' refusal, even after witnessing his preaching and miracles, to accept Christ's role in their salvation: "Et nin por aquesto non creyeron en el por que la su malicia era tan grande que los avia cegado con cora ones tan endureqidos assy como avia profetizado Isayas profecta" (and not even because of these things did they believe in him, for their malice was so great that it had blinded them with hardened hearts, just as Isaiah the prophet had foretold). Eiximenis asserts, how ever, in his eighth proposition for initiating contemplation of the Passion (fol. 11 1v), that many more actually believed than were willing to admit it publicly:

... muchos de los fariseos y de los principes de los sacerdotes conoscieron la verdad veyendo las sus obras y palabras que por derecha razon non podian impugnar con buena

conqiencia. Enpero temiendo que non fuesen echados de la sinagoga y en vergonzados por los otros mayores por esso non querrian confesar la verdad que claramente veyan.

[.. . many of the Pharisees and the princes of the priests recognized the truth, seeing his works and his words, which, with good reason, they were unable to impeach in good conscience. But, fearing that they might be thrown out of the synagogue and shamed by the other important men, for this reason they did not want to confess the truth that they clearly saw.]

This refusal to publicly accept and preach a truth of which they themselves were convinced for fear of being shamed, states Eiximenis (fol. 112r), was a sin before God. The authors of these texts, moreover, were certainly not ignorant of the fact



Preaching to the Converted 141 that allusions to God making the blind see frequently appeared in Jewish liturgical prayers.61

The retablo's particular rendition of the Mocking, combined with an audience's almost certain exposure to Eiximenis's interpretation of this segment of the Pas sion, offers viewers a choice: they must decide, given that the veil is transparent and thus permits them to do so if they will, whether or not they "see" the Son of God. They might also, as they confronted the image, remember the soliloquy Eiximenis proposes here to his readers (MS 18772, fol. 144r-v) instructing them to address the Jewish authorities themselves: "Diablos y mas que diablos!" (devils and worse than devils!). "He whom you abuse is none other than your creator, the one who must also judge you!" "O, omes danados y ciegos, abris los ojos y vees quien es aqueste senor y rrogadle que vos perdone por que el es fuente de toda vida!" (Oh, damned and blinded men, open your eyes and see who this Lord is and beg him to forgive you, for he is the fount of all life!) The Flagellation, which the devotee will have been unable to prevent (despite

the soliloquy), then follows, both in the Vida and in the retablo. Here the theme of Christ's forbearance and stoicism is further developed; Eiximenis places great emphasis on the fact that all those present were astonished at Christ's patience throughout the proceedings. It is interesting to note that neither Pilate nor the Jewish authorities are represented, in contradiction to what is almost always the case in later Iberian renditions of this theme. Rather, the scene is reduced to those who carry out Pilate's cowardly orders and to Christ, whose muscular body, fron tally positioned, dominates the composition. His head is raised, and his dignified gaze seeks that of the viewers. Again, it would appear that he is silently requesting that they choose a side-will they believe Christ's truth? As the Crucifixion is approached, Eiximenis, quoting "Ubertino" (da Casale)

in the fourth book of his life of Jesus Christ (MS 12688, fol. 353v), informs his readers that, although the Savior was in fact sad, this was because of the sins of God's people, not because of his own suffering. Though his audience is requested to consider the events surrounding the Crucifixion at some length, it is important to emphasize, yet again, Eiximenis's absolute avoidance of any evocative physical description that might incite his hearers or readers to compassio. Rather, for him, the Passion is a triumphant, even joyous occasion, and he attempts to convince his audience that the same was true for Christ. Still citing St. Cyril (MS 18772, fol. 143r), Eiximenis affirms that the Passion offers the devotee an occasion to meditate on Christ's virtues, particularly his charity and the patience that, despite the unutterable pain he will endure, will also be the cause of his joy. Christ's joy during the Crucifixion, in fact, was "incomparable" as he contemplated the beauty of his own soul, adorned with such virtues as had never before been seen in a

61 As in a late-fifteenth-century manuscript in the Bodleian Library (MS Or. 9, fol. 4r) containing the prayers of the Jewish liturgy according to the Spanish rite in Hebrew with interlinear Catalan

translation: "... A[donai], nostre deu, Rey del mon, el dant al guall entenjment per entendre entre dia et njt, alumbrant sechs, soltant encar?erats, vestjnt nuos, confortant los apremits." See A Catalogue

of Hispanic Manuscripts and Books before 1700 from the Bodleian Library and Oxford College Libraries Exhibited at the Taylor Institution 6-11 September 1962 (Oxford, 1962), no. 11, pp. 4-5; and Paul Studer, "Notice sur un ms. catalan du XVe si?cle," Romania 47 (1921), 103.



142 Preaching to the Converted human soul. Eiximenis then cites Psalm 44.14, "Omnis gloria eius filiae regis," in which David foretells Christ's glory in the Passion through the perfection of his soul, further emphasizing Christ's regal or kingly nature:

... pero con todo esso gozo virtuoso en la su santa alma quando se veya ser apostado de aquello que pasava por la obediencia del padre y por la salud del humanal linaje. Non podria sin dubda ser sin alegria aquella su santa alma quando se veya apostada de tanta muchedumbre de virtudes quantas no ovo otra criatura alguna. Ca dela su alma profetizo el profeta david en el salmo que comienza, eructavit.

.... but with all of this virtuous joy in his saintly soul when he saw himself confronted with that which he suffered for obedience to his Father and for the salvation of human kind. His saintly soul could doubtless not be without happiness when it saw itself adorned with such a multitude of virtues, such that no other creature had. For, of his soul, the Prophet David prophesied in the Psalm that begins, Eructavit.]

Eiximenis then compares the glory of Christ's soul to the beauties of the beautiful and beloved daughter of a king (MS 12688, fol. 381r)-"la gloria de la fija del rey conviene saber del alma del Salvador es de dentro en faldas doradas certada de diversos colores, conviene saber de diversidad de virtudes"-and, rather than dwelling on (or even evoking, for that matter) bodily agonies, reiterates that Christ was consoled throughout the Passion by the Holy Trinity and by the angels (MS 12688, fol. 38 1v). Readers are counseled (this is Eiximenis's rendition of St. Cyril's second point) to meditate on the "familiar colloquio" sustained by Christ's saintly soul with the Holy Trinity, with which he was united in love, throughout the crucifixion. Likewise, in excerpted contemplations authored by "San Gregorio Viceno, grande devoto contemplativo," readers' attention is turned to the comfort and consolation offered to Christ by the "principe angelical y espeqial servidor suyo," St. Michael (elsewhere, as will be remembered, described as the "Prince of the Synagogue"; MS 18772, fol. 144r). Eiximenis also, in a rhetorical gesture completely unnecessary for the already

amply convinced audience on which the author of the Meditationes could count, feels compelled to enter into the "why's" of it all: his primary emphasis, in a way that recalls much earlier interpretations of the Passion, relying heavily on St. An selm's Cur Deus homo,62 is on the ponderous debt of man's sins, which must be paid, and paid with great pain (MS 18772, fol. 84v). In consonance with his attempt to craft a "salable salvation," chapter 5 (fol. 86v) of the ninth book, rather than suggesting that devotees find mystical union in it, reminds or informs them of the immense benefits they, as earthly sinners, derive from Christ's bodily pain.

Possibly the most significant aspect of Eiximenis's treatment of the Passion, however, is the light in which the Virgin is cast. The presentation of Mary, while she is proposed (as she so often is in "Life of Christ" texts) as a "door" or gateway into readers' experience of her son's death, differs significantly from the much more typical topos of the compassio Mariae, the devotional strain that, a few decades later, appears to "win out in the end," on Iberian soil as it already had elsewhere, again probably under the influence of currents of monastic reform par

62 This piece has been recently revisited by Fulton in From Judgment to Passion, pp. 170-92.




ticular to Iberia during the latter decades of the fifteenth century.63 In the Medi tationes, for example, the Virgin never takes her gaze from her son's body for a

moment as he hangs on the cross (Castilian translation, BN MS 9560, fol. 114v), a detail that encourages the sort of visual contemplation and somatic identification fundamental to Franciscan Passion meditations in late-medieval Europe. In Eixi menis's narrative, however, she is employed in order to demonstrate to readers ways, not to share, but to transcend her son's bodily agony. Both Jesus and Mary, indeed, are accorded "exemplary" roles-through emphasis on Jesus's divinity and on the privileges of high or mystical knowledge granted to his mother-in this process of trascendence, and readers are certainly meant to adopt similar attitudes.64 During his fervent prayers Jesus receives a vision of the entire Passion and,

although he sweats drops of blood in his anguish, is comforted by St. Michael (MS 18772, fol. 121r-v). When he rises to wake his disciples, he is strong in his assurance that all will happen as God has decreed; in that moment he knows that the soldiers, accompanied by Judas, are approaching. Prior to this, Jesus's friends have begged him not to go to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, fearing the worst (MS 18772, chap. 59, fol. 120v). In contrast to the tone taken in the Meditationes

with this scene, however, it is not Eiximenis's intention to evoke the reader's or hearer's compassion for any of the characters. Rather, he refers to Lazarus, who, having experienced death and resurrection, was now in a position similar to the Virgin's, in that he was privy to the higher truths surrounding the events that were to take place. Only Lazarus and the Virgin, states Eiximenis, showed no sorrow; his sisters and the other holy women who were present wept bitterly. The Medi tationes, in contrast, presents the Virgin as, together with the other holy women

Mary Magdalene in particular-sobbing and begging her son not to make the journey to Jerusalem that night (Castilian translation, MS 9560, fol. 94v).

631 do not, of course, intend to suggest that these two uses of Mary as devotional/contemplative

example were either entirely separate or mutually exclusive?indeed, a very early example of visual

representation of the compassio theme, probably dating to the end of the twelfth century, is found at

the Catedral Vieja in Salamanca, and Ramon Llull's thirteenth-century Planctus Mariae demonstrates the importance of the theme in the liturgical culture of Iberia. It is important to note also, however, that in Eiximenis's narrative both strains (the joyful or ecstatic and the pathetic) are to be found. As

the fifteenth century progressed, the idea of Mary as an example for the pain that the devotees should

feel as they confront the Crucifixion arguably prevailed over the material to be treated in the following

paragraphs. 64 This tendency of Passion interpretation was already present in Castile before the importation and

translation of Eiximenis's writings. In a Biblia moralizada (BN MS 10232), dating to the final decades

of the fourteenth century, probably produced for Queen Juana Manuel or her son in the context of a

Jeronymite reform of Santa Maria la Real de Tordesillas, verses narrating the Passion are explicated

(esp. fols. 199r-202v). When discussing those who weep over the Savior's fate as he bears his cross

toward Calvary, the anonymous author comments, in a tone that it is difficult to avoid terming matter

of-fact, "los que lloran a Jesu Cristo en via cruces s(ignifican) los que lloran los efectos y no las causas

de la iglesia corrupta." A further cry from the affective nature of more familiar Franciscan piety would

be difficult to find. Likewise, the Last Supper is handled in a manner that suggests that the "interior"

or "hidden" sense of the verse, rather than its immediate narrative significance, was of interest: the

cen?culo signifies "aquel que transciende la sup(er)ficie del? letra por entendimiento," to be contrasted

with "aquel que anda en la letra," "(quien) faze paschua en la cosa baxa" (fol. 195r). See Robinson,

"Mudejar Revisited" (above, n. 8).




An approach similar to that of the Meditationes is adopted in a fifteenth-century manuscript, El Escorial MS b.III.3, which once belonged to the archbishop of Tarragona and which contains a set of anonymous Passion meditations; this strongly suggests that the "particularities" examined here are, by the fifteenth century, truly those of Castilian approaches to the Passion as opposed to those cultivated in the eastern regions of the Iberian Peninsula.65 This treatise was writ ten by a cleric for an unidentified female patron who, according to the author's introduction, had been insisting for some time that he compose a treatise for her; finally he has acquiesced, partly in order, himself, to do penance. On fol. Sr-v the Virgin argues with her son about the journey he wishes to make from Bethany to Jerusalem and, seeing that she will be unable to dissuade him, goes to Mary Mag dalene and requests that she ask this favor of the Savior, for he is unable to deny her anything. Mary Magdalene, however, is equally unsuccessful. Following this scene, in all renditions of the Passion narrative I have examined, the two groups part company-the holy women, together with the Virgin, repair to Lazarus's house, while the disciples accompany Christ from Bethany to Jerusalem. In Eixi menis 's version, however, great attention is given to the fact that Christ comforts them along the way, so much so that they became ecstatic on hearing his words ("arrovavanse con sus palabras"; MS 18772, fol. 121r).

In the following sections Eiximenis further cements his own particular sorts of parallels between Christ and the Virgin-not of shared pain, but of shared higher understanding of the portent and hidden significance of these events. He begins with a vision of the entire Passion visited upon the Virgin as she prays in seclusion in a small room in Lazarus's house (MS 18772, fol. 121r-v):

Dize aqui una santa contemplacion que la gloriosa luego que fue en casa de lazaro que se aparto de todas las otras santas mugeres y entro en una camara que avia acostumbrado de tener quando venia a ihrlm. Et non quiso que aquella noche entrase ninguno a ella nin le dixiese cosa ninguna mas fecha la solempnidat pascual cerro la puerta de la ca mara. Et estando sola finco los ynojos en terra teniendo las manos alados y los ojos [en?] el cielo y luego en un punto fue arrobada en espiritu y ella vio muy alcadamente todo el proceso de la preciosa muerte de ihu xpo, comencando en la cena. Et despues vido por [espejo?] todos los actos que fazian y todos aquellos que le fueron fechos fasta la su rresurrecion. Estonces comencaron en ella los muy grandes dolores que avia pro fetizado Simeon (Lucas, ii cap.). Que assy como cuchillo le devia atravesar la su sancta anima.

[Here a holy contemplation states that the glorious one then, in Lazarus's house, sepa rated from the other holy women and went into a room she used when she came to Jerusalem. That night she did not want anyone to come in to her, nor to say anything to her, but rather, once the Passover solemnities had been completed, closed the door to the room. And, alone, she fell to her knees on the ground, with her hands raised and her eyes toward the sky and then, in a second, was raptured in spirit, and she had a lofty vision of all of the process of the precious death of Jesus Christ, beginning with the Supper. And then she saw, as though in a mirror, all of the actions that were carried out

65 The Passion treatise is on fols. 147r-209r; it does not appear to be the Meditationes. Clearly there were many more versions of this material circulating than would seem to be the case in view of the

canonical status of Johannes de Caulibus's Meditationes.



Preaching to the Converted 145 and everything that happened up until the Resurrection. Then began in her the great pains and sorrows that had been foretold by Simeon (Luke 2). That just like a knife (these pains) would traverse her saintly soul.]

The Meditationes also shows the Virgin secluded in prayer on this night, as her son makes his way to Jerusalem, but the vision in which she attains higher un derstanding of the significance of the Passion is lacking-she merely demonstrates her human desires for her son to be spared (Castilian translation, MS 9560, fol. 108r-v).

The motif of the Virgin's visions prior to and during the Passion, moreover, enjoyed exclusive popularity in Iberia (I have yet to identify them in any Passion narrative composed outside the Iberian Peninsula) and appears to have circulated independently of any particular version of the Passion narrative. It is also found in the anonymous treatise written for a female patron mentioned earlier (El Es corial MS b.III.3, fol. 6r), but here the Virgin retires to pray immediately after asking the Magdalene to try to convince Christ not to set out for Jerusalem that night. Her prayers, therefore, would have been for the Magdalene's success at averting the arrest and Passion. In exchange, she is swept away ("arrebatada en el espiritu") and taken to a "great city," where she is shown the "tree of paradise" by the sainted fathers (of the Old Testament). The tree, they tell her, will not be complete until her son is upon it. They then urge her not to fear, for her son is destined to be their salvation. In the Vida (MS 18772, fols. 145v-146r), upon John's arrival at Lazarus's home, bearing the terrible news, the other holy women who were present began as one to weep and wail as though they would-and wanted to-die. The Virgin was not, at that moment, in the women's company, but she heard John's news from the room in which she was engaged in private prayer, and the pain in her heart was doubled. She then began to beg the Father for mercy, asking that he temper the lashes and torments he had decreed that their son suffer, especially since he was guilty of no crime or sin. At least, she bargains, do not oblige him to die. The reader is here advised to have particular remem brance of the Virgin's travails: her laments and sobs are especially worthy because of her state of grace. Her pain, moreover, is exemplary because it is produced, not by mere human sorrow, but by a higher understanding of the holy truths of the Passion:

... pro,edian de entendimiento altamente yluminado y de concien,ia perfecta y de muy grant sabiduria, et de amor et de zelo de rreveren,ia y muy alto acatamiento de nuestro senor dios.

[... they proceded from a lofty and illuminated understanding, and from a perfect con science, and very great wisdom, and from love and a zeal for reverence, and a very high comprehension of our Lord God.]

She is pained that God has chosen to put her son through such dishonor in order to save the world, but she is aware that it must be that way. For that reason

... los sus cordiales dolores eran mas justos y santos y las sus palabras muy virtuosas y santas. Eran templadas y muy perfectas et de grant enxiemplo a todos aquellos que la oyan. Non plega a dios que ella agitase nin dixiese palabras desordenadas nin desespe radas como fazen las mugeres del mundo.




... the pains of her heart were most just and saintly, and her words very virtuous and saintly. They were temperate and most perfect and served as a great example to all those who heard them. Let it not please God that she become agitated, nor that she pronounce disorderly or desperate words as the women of the world do.]

Such emotional displays and extremes are fine, we are told, for sermons preached to the lower classes, and this is not to disparage such meditational pieces as the Quis dabit, written by St. Bernard (MS 12688, incorporating sections of Eixi menis's Passion meditations from the Vida, fol. 384r), but here, in this context, the Virgin is offered as an example for meditation on the Passion, one who will lead readers or hearers beyond its painful aspects toward a higher understanding of its significance, something that would be indispensable in bringing recent or potential converts "to the table." Thus begins the process proposed by Eiximenis to his audience as exemplary: the Virgin attains, all at once and through divine grace and agency, a vision of the process of the Passion that causes her great pain, just as Simeon had foretold. Now, her task-and the reader's-is to overcome this pain, through entering deeply into the interior significance of it. The stage has thus been set for exemplary stoicism on the part of both mother

and son throughout the remainder of the proceso of the Passion, and therefore it is perhaps not surprising that the arrest of Christ, as recounted by Eiximenis, is offered as a sign, not of Christ's vulnerable humanity, but of his divinity. Although the arrest is not represented in don Sancho's retablo, the impression Eiximenis's rendition of it would have caused in listeners is worth bearing in mind. When the Jews, in the company of Judas, arrive to arrest him (MS 18772, fol. 139r), Christ approaches them: "como principe de las fazes de dios salioles al camino a la puerta del dicho huerto acompanyado con los dichos apostoles" (like the prince of God's armies, he went out to meet them, at the gate of the aforementioned garden, accompanied by all of the aforementioned apostles). Christ asks the company whom they seek. They respond, "Jesus of Nazareth." When Christ answers, "I am he," as stated in John 18.6, all fall as one to the ground. Here, however, Eiximenis offers his own interpretation of the very brief statement contained in the Gospel text, stating that the soldiers and Jews were overcome by the divine justice and grace of Christ's presence. Depiction of the road to Calvary, both in Eiximenis's text and in don Sancho's

retablo (Fig. 1, lower left, third panel from left), continues to elaborate these themes of stoicism, Christ's divinity, the Virgin's privileges, and their mystically bound and mirroring souls. In both text and image, the rough rope around Christ's neck described by both the Meditationes and Vida is present, but Christ also wears a costly robe. John the Evangelist is present and appears to be exchanging words with one of the soldiers, who urges Christ forward; the Virgin is nowhere to be seen (many images from elsewhere in Europe, by contrast, portray her anguish as she witnesses the terrible event). Eiximenis's version of Christ's final journey, how ever, does focus on her reaction to these events and suggests that she was present somewhere along the road to Calvary, a fact of which viewers who were familiar with Eiximenis's narrative, either because they had read it for themselves or be cause they had heard sermons based on it, would doubtless have been aware. As Christ encounters his mother, he is weakened and almost unable to continue. The



Preaching to the Converted 147 conversation, however, rather than being designed to wrench an observer's heart with pathos, is reported in order to elicit awe and wonder at their mystical love a love, it would almost seem, that existed above and beyond the pale of human suffering (MS 18772, chap. 95, fol. 155r-v):

Entonces el Salvador acatola y la dulce madre a el. Et non dixieron cosa el uno al otro. Ca los dolores eran tan grandes de cada parte que non se podian fablar cosa alguna de palabra ninles fazia menester. Ca aquellas dos altas almas se fablavan por un lenguaje

qelestial syn palavra de lengua asy acostumbrado quando solian estar antes a dos en uno.

[Then the Savior saw her, and the sweet mother him. And they said not one word to one another. For the pains were so great on both parts that they could not speak at all, nor did they need to. For those two lofty souls spoke in a celestial language, without words of the tongue, to which they had been accustomed before, when they two were together as one.]

The Savior's heart was filled with compassion for his mother, and he said-ac cording to the saintly abbot Ofrey, from whom Eiximenis claims to have excerpted these contemplations-to her, in spirit:

mucha amada y muy dulqe y cara madre rruego te que por amor de mi non te quieras asi atormentar. Ca tu sabes bien que todo lo que tu vees en nuestro presente yo avia diversas vezes in formado y qertificado.... Et sabes que esto quiere mi padre que se faga de todo en todo por la rreden&ion dela naturaleza humanal perdida. Pues madre amada piensa que pasada la ora de nona todo esto sera pasado y tu avras sentimiento de la gloria y estado glorioso.

[Much beloved and most sweet and dear mother, I beg you, for love of me, do not torment yourself thus. For well you know that all that which you see in our present I had foretold and authenticated to you many times.... And you know that my father wishes all of this to be done for the redemption of lost humankind. So, beloved mother, just think that, once the hour of none has passed, all this too will be past, and you will have feelings, and be in a state, of glory.]

He reminds her of the great joy that will also come to her upon his resurrection:

y la gloriosa con estas santas palabras rresSibio grant conorte y como de antes estoviese como medio muerta entonqes levantose en pie y siguio el su fijo fasta en la cruz.

[and the glorious one, with these saintly words, received great consolation, and just as, before, she had been half dead, then she stood up and followed her son all the way to the cross.]

It is in Eiximenis's treatment of the Crucifixion that we witness some of the most powerful points of difference with the Meditationes in terms of his interpre tation of the Virgin's role in and experience of the Passion and his implicit inten tions for the shaping of readers' own devotional attitudes. The knowledge that, in all probability, members of San Benito's congregation would have approached both the Passion and the retablo on which it was represented with Eiximenis's texts in mind, in turn, allows us to offer an explanation for yet another icono graphic particularity. In the scene at the top of the central calle of don Sancho's retablo (Fig. 1, upper register, fourth panel from left), the Virgin, as is frequent in Crucifixion iconography from at least the thirteenth century forward, swoons



148 Preaching to the Converted before the awful spectacle of her son's agonies; she must be supported by either the holy women or, in some cases, by Mary Magdalene and St. John the Evangelist. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the swoons are portrayed with increasing attention to realistic detail (one might think here of Rogier van der Weyden's famous rendition, his Descent from the Cross),66 and the Blessed Mother's anguish can readily become the viewer's own. A closer examination of don Sancho's Cru cifixion scene, however, reveals peculiarities in the Virgin's swoon: her face is tipped upward toward her son's, her head thrown back at an angle in order to leave visible her parted lips. Comparison of this image with other Iberian images reveals it to be relatively rare, and increasingly so as the fifteenth century pro gressed.67 Moreover, I have not yet found among Netherlandish devotional images (the supposed source for Spanish retablos) any comparable rendition of the Virgin beside the cross. Although the variation might be argued to be a slight one, it is one that alters the entire posture of her body, and it would thus have been per ceptible from the position from which most viewers of don Sancho's retablo, dur ing the Mass said in the monastic church of San Benito, would have seen it. Would, though, the importance given here to the distinction between the two

postures have been echoed in the minds of that audience? It is my opinion that it would. In the collection of Passion meditations entitled "Como deve pensar el cristiano en el Salvador cruqificado" (How the Christian Should Think about the Crucified Savior), found both in the Vida and in the Libro de los angeles (MS 12688, fol. 408r), appears a subsection bearing the heading "de como fue robada [y] alhada la alma de la v[ir]ge[n] bien aventurada" (how the soul of the Blessed

Virgin was swept up in rapture). It relates the manner in which the Virgin implicitly the model here upon which Christians should fashion their own medi tations-was swept up, from her mourning beside her son's cross, in mystical ecstasy to the heavens, "toda mudada en otra" (changed completely into another). She then understood the "secrets of the universe" (fol. 408r):

Fue aliviada de todo dolor [y] Ilena de grand consolacion ... fue toda mudada en otra.... E acatando al su fijo en la cruz y conosciendo los grandes secretos ... finco las rodillas [y] adorola [la cruz] con toda reverencia ... ; abraqando a la cruz... ,dijo con toda entreguedat de coracon "O arbol de vida regado de la fuente de parayso....

66 On the representation of compassio Mariae?the Virgin's redemptive powers are based almost

entirely in her sufferings?in this well-known image, based on the writings of Denis the Carthusian, see Otto von Simson, "Compassio and Co-redemptio in Rogier van der Weyden's Descent from the

Cross," Art Bulletin 35 (1953), 9-16. As shall be seen, the interpretation of the compassionate Mary theme prevalent in Iberia throughout at least the first half of the fifteenth century is at least as interested

in her powers to transcend her suffering. 67

Although the survey on which this statement is based can in no way claim to be complete, two

similar examples I have thus far found are the retablo mayor of Sta. Maria del Castillo, Fr?mista (in

which, though she swoons, the Virgin's face bears an expression of sweet repose rather than agony), and the retablo mayor of the parish church of Cruilles, painted by Lluis Borrass? and housed today in the Museu Dioces? of Gerona. It also appears in the retablo of the Epiphany painted by Jaume

Huguet and analyzed by Berg Sobr? {Behind the Altar Table [above, n. 3], p. 221, fig. 142) and, closer to don Sancho's retablo both geographically and chronologically, in a diptych from the Municipal

Museum of the Castilian town of Cu?llar, which will be discussed in my monograph Imag(in)ing Passions.




[She was relieved of all pain and filled with great consolation . .. ; she was completely changed into another.... Looking, then, at her son on the cross, and knowing great secrets, ... she fell to her knees and adored (the cross) with all reverence ... ; embracing the cross . .. , she said, with her heart completely given over, "O, Tree of Life, watered by the fountain of paradise...."]68

Moreover, having contemplated her crucified son from that privileged position, she was "aliviada de todo dolor y llena de consolaqion" (relieved of all pain and filled with consolation), so much so that she was able to return to earth and, in turn, console others present at the Savior's side. Eiximenis claims to have taken this episode from a sermon by St. Augustine, but this appears unlikely. Nothing of the sort appears in the Patrologia Latina or in published collections of his sermons. One thing can be affirmed, however: for Castilian Christians in the early fifteenth century, it is in many ways "all about Mary" -she provides both the path and the method, and one might easily imagine viewers' eyes shifting to her, rather than to her son, as they contemplated the Crucifixion, and indeed many of the scenes, of don Sancho's retablo. Mention is certainly made in Eiximenis's text of the specific details of the

Crucifixion, and the reader's attention is drawn both to Christ's pain and to that of his mother (though these sorrows are more often simply categorized as inde scribable and left at that), but this pain is presented as a pain of the heart rather than one of somatic specificity.69 Moreover, readers of the Vida are reminded that Christ made not one sound or gesture of protest throughout the entire ordeal. Rather (MS 18772, fol. 156v), he gave continuous thanks to his Father, asking him for the forgiveness of those who tormented him. Readers-girded as they would have been with the Virgin's foreknowledge both of the Resurrection and of her own triumph-would have approached the event with a very different mind-set from that which would characterize meditations colored by the Medi tationes. Even the moments of the Passion presented elsewhere as the most abject provide Eiximenis with a platform from which to direct, yet again, his audience's attention toward Christ's divinity. Such torments, he affirms, would never have been borne by a mere human and with such patience that all those present, and especially the soon-to-be converted Centurion, were amazed:

Conviene a saber que ome asy a,otado y atormentado guardase tanta paciencia y atanto

dulqor de bien querencia ,erca de los que le atormentavan y perseguian.

[That is, that a man thus whipped and tormented would remain so patient, with such sweetness and good will toward those who persecuted and tormented him.]

Similarly, the great cry emitted by Christ just before his death, "Father, Father, why hast thou forsaken me?" -taken in most cases as a gesture of despair at the prolongation of his physical sufferings beyond the limits of his patience and physi cal powers-is here presented, not as yet another possible point of union for

68 This alternative tradition of the Virgin's experience of the Passion may be traced at least as far

back as the fourteenth century in Castile; see Robinson, "Trees of Love" (above, n. 4). 69 The confinement of pain?and, indeed, images?to the interior of both the Virgin's and the dev

otee's hearts is a theme that will be taken up in much greater detail in my Imag(in)ing Passions.



150 Preaching to the Converted readers and their human God, but as further demonstration, first, of Christ's mag nanimous and unceasing efforts toward the salvation of (all) humankind (even, implicitly, the Jews) and, second, of his divinity. Christ, states Eiximenis, displayed his sorrows and pains to his Father in an effort to convince him not to delay, but to allow him to die with the knowledge that his sacrifice had not been in vain and that humankind had, in fact, been saved. The terrible shout escaped because he was tortured by his Father's delay in responding to his request (MS 18772, fols. 157v-158r):

El tercero acto que el fizo fue esperando respuesta desto y veyendo que se tardava y que el tiempo de la muerte se le acercava Iloro muy amargosamente continuando su rruego. Et veyendo que aun non avia rrespuesta dio una tan grant voz en la dicha suplicacion que dizen algunos que fue oyda en el ynfierno. En esto mostro la virtud de la su diviny dad. Ca ome que tanta sangre oviese desy derramado y tanto mal padescio y seyendo tan cercano a la muerte non podia naturalmente dar tan alta voz. Et veyendo aun que non avia rrespuesta fizo tan grant estremecimiento con todo su cuerpo que toda la cruz fizo estremecer el qual movimiento fue asy viguroso y lieno de virtud que entonces con su coracon y cuerpo poder y saber humanal que con toda su fuerca torno como de cabo a suplir a su padre que lo quisiese oyr.

[The third act he carried out was waiting for a response about this and, seeing that it was taking a long time, and that the moment of death was getting closer, he cried very bitterly, and continued his plea. At seeing that there was still no response, he emitted such a loud cry in his supplication that some say it was heard all the way to hell. In this he demonstrated the virtue of his divinity. For a man who had thus spilled so much blood and suffered so terribly, and being so close to death, never would naturally be able to cry out thus. And seeing there was still no response, he gave such a great shudder with his entire body that the entire cross shuddered along with him. That movement was so vigorous and filled with virtue that then, with his heart, his body, all of his power and human knowledge, with all of his forces, he began all over again to entreat his Father to listen to him.]

He finally obtained a response in the affirmative, and Eiximenis states-quoting a doctor whom he simply calls "el griego"-that when Christ inclined his head, it was not as a final gesture of suffering before his death but rather a gesture of thanks to his Father for finally answering his prayers for human salvation. Further underlining the point that it was not Christ's humility or his suffering, but his divinity, that convinced his Father to pardon his human children, Eiximenis states, citing "Filiberto" (fols. 158v-159r):

fue por el su padre oydo por la su rreverencia, contiene en sy grant misterio. Por quanto non dixo que fuesse oydo por la su humildad nin por los sus dolores nin por la su santidad mas por la su rreverencia.

[he was heard by his Father because of his (worthiness of) reverence, (which) contains, in itself, a great mistery. Thus, (el griego) did not say that he was heard because of his humility, or because of his agonies, nor even because of his holiness, but because of his (divine worthiness of) reverence.]

As is the case in most Passion narratives, in Eiximenis's version, all those who accompanied the Virgin are terrified when the soldiers appear to break the thieves' legs, except-again-the Virgin, whose prior knowledge of these events and of



Preaching to the Converted 151 their significance has been divinely ordained: "Como la gloriosa fuese ya certifi cada por el su fijo sobre todo este proceso que se avia de fazer por tanto el su coracon non se movia cosa por la venida de aquellos cavalleros" (since the glorious one had already been informed by her son about the entire process that had to be accomplished, and for this reason her heart was not moved at all as the soldiers approached). This is, of course, in striking contrast to the portrayal of the event in the Meditationes, where the Virgin attempts to elicit the pity both of the soldiers and of readers. Not because she is overcome with insufferable grief, but because she is aware of the divine plan for human salvation, and knows that for this plan to be carried out her son must be buried, she kneels at the foot of the cross with the other holy women and begs God to send them someone to aid in the carrying out of the burial.

The next scene included in don Sancho's retablo is the Pieta (Fig. 1, upper register, third panel from right).70 Although the scene is apocryphal, its popularity throughout Europe as an object particularly of private devotions is well attested by the mid-fourteenth century. Its origins were long thought to be found in Italy and in panel painting, with strong relations to such narrative devotional texts as the Meditationes, but recent scholarship has pointed to possible German, or at any rate northern, origins and to probable connections to poetry, prayers, and hours rather than to any specific narrative text.71 The histories and contexts of the introduction of the Pieta in both textual and visual manifestations into Castilian devotional culture have yet to be traced, and thus the comments offered here about the treatment of the theme in don Sancho's retablo are tentative and subject to revision pending further research. Joan Molina i Figueras, in the context of a study of the motif in a Catalan context, highlights its inherently polysemic qualities, and I suspect that the same will be proved true of Castilian contexts.72 The moment traditionally associated with the Piet'a immediately precedes the

burial, and in most extant versions, both visual and textual, all those present are depicted as weeping over the Savior's ravaged body. This is the case in Eiximenis's text as well, but with the very notable exception of the Virgin, who, as the title of the section indicates ("como despues de la muerte del Salvador la gloriosa fue librada de todo dolor"; MS 18772, fols. 181v-182r), had overcome her sufferings and had begun to counsel the others in doing the same-"salvo la gloriosa que era entonces alongada de toda pena y dolor de coracon por la rrazon suso dicha." (In Eiximenis's text, in contrast to most other versions of the Life of Christ I have examined, the Virgin's planh is actually made while he is still on the cross; fols. 175v-176r). The Virgin, in the representation of the Pieta on don Sancho's re

70 See Joanna E. Ziegler, Sculpture of Compassion: The Piet? and the B?guines in the Southern Low

Countries, c. 1300-c. 1600, Etudes d'Histoire de l'Art 6 (Brussels, 1992), pp. 15-43; and Joan Molina

i Figueras, "Bartolom? Bermejo, testimonio e int?rprete de la meditaci?n visual del arcediano Lluis

Despl?," in his Arte, devoci?n y poder (above, n. 3), pp. 117-46. 71

Ziegler, Sculpture of Compassion. 72 See above, n. 70. The larger part to which this study serves as something of a prelude will examine

this issue in detail. See also Cynthia Robinson, "El Retablo de Miraflores romanzado o, ?qu? significa ser un Van der Weyden en Castilla?" in Roc?o S?nchez Ameijeira, ed., G?tico y Frontera: En busca de nuevos paradigmas para el estudio del g?tico hispano (Murcia, forthcoming).




tablo, contemplates her son's dead body with a grave expression, but she does not weep.

Again, the Meditationes provides instructive points of comparison. In the Italian Franciscan text, as the grieving Virgin holds her dead son in her lap, numerous and specific details are given concerning the state of his bleeding and wounded body that a significant portion of a Castilian audience would probably have found offensive, or even repugnant. In the Vida, however, as well as on don Sancho's retablo, the physical details of Christ's suffering are indicated only by delicate and discreet traces of blood, and the Virgin's grave, calm expression contrasts sharply with the more dramatic and uncontrolled expressions of grief present on the faces of her companions. Likewise, don Sancho's retablo differs pointedly with the de tails concerning the Entombment (Fig. 1, upper register, second panel from right) related in the Meditationes: here the Virgin is shown in front of the sarcophagus, her cloak clutched close and her face clearly revealing her grief, but separated from the scene presented by the other figures clustered about her son's body as it is lowered into the tomb. In contrast, the Meditationes (Castilian translation, MS 9560, fol. 140r) specifically notes that the Virgin placed her cheek against her son's as he was laid in the tomb-such a gesture of uncontrolled grief, while doubtless successful at eliciting certain emotions in an audience, would not con cord with the measured stoicism upon which Eiximenis insists again and again as one of the most worthy virtues exhibited by the Virgin during her son's Passion.

RESURRECTION, LIMBO, AND PROPAGANDA

Despite the severely damaged state of the panel on which the Descent into Limbo is represented, one iconographic detail is immediately apparent: the tri umphant Christ, whose face, robe hem, wounded foot, and standard are visible in part, reaches out his left hand to gently grasp one of Adam's wrists, in order to guide him, not from a grotto or doorway, but from the very mouth of hell (Fig. 4).73 Adam, Eve, and two patriarchs kneel amidst flames, which also flare from the monster's nose. In this the representation of the scene differs substantially from the more standard iconography (for example, in the representation of limbo from Queen Isabel's retablo, painted several decades later by the court painter Juan de Flandes).74 Though the bodies themselves do not appear harmed or tortured (and in this differ from actual representations of hell in, for example, classic Roman esque tympana), the flames represent a clear allusion to the possibility of eternal damnation, from which Christ has rescued them. The Descent into Limbo appears to have possessed special significance for the particular devotional context of early-fifteenth-century Iberia, serving as something Eiximenis and converso writ ers agreed on as a potentially persuasive argument for conversion.75 The theme is

73 A similar treatment of the theme is found on the retablo by Nicolas Franc?s in the Chapel of the

Salda?a at Sta. Mar?a de Tordesillas; the retablo is commonly dated to the 1430s. This might possibly be explained by the traditionally close relationship that existed between the two convents.

74 On Queen Isabel's retablo see Ishikawa, The Retablo de Isabel la Cat?lica (above, n. 3). 75

Indeed, similar arguments could probably be offered for most of the treatments of this theme in

late-medieval Iberian retablo painting.




treated extensively by Eiximenis (indeed, in BN MS 4327, a preaching manual based on Eiximenis's version of the life of Christ, the scene in limbo occupies almost a third of the folios of the manuscript, and the Virgin is even present), much more so than in the Meditationes. This-in addition to the absence of a representation of either the Resurrection or the Last Judgment in don Sancho's retablo-would appear to indicate that the retablo's possessors and commissioner believed it to have particular significance for its intended audience. Eiximenis be gins his ninth book with an explanation (MS 18772, chap. 2, fol. 85r) of "Como esta salvacion honrro a los Santos Profetas" (how this salvation honored the saintly prophets). Thus, with a few strokes of his pen, he claims the Old Testament prophets beneath the rubric of Christian sainthood and proposes them as exam ples for his audience-they, too, will be "honored" by this salvation if they will only accept it. It is not at present possible to demonstrate conclusively that Eixi menis and his Castilian appropriators were aware of Kabbalistic thoughts on the "Messianic" tsaddik (the truthful or righteous one, derived from the name of the Hebrew letter tsadi, interpreted by many scholars of the Zohar as a Christological figure) descending to hell to bring up the souls of the wicked, but it is a bit difficult to believe that they would not have been.76 The scene's particular iconographic significance to the retablo is explicated, not

only in Eiximenis's Vida de Cristo, but also in the converso texts previously dis cussed, where the integral part the Descent plays in salvation, and specifically in the salvation being offered to recent or potential converts, is emphasized. Most of these treatises, as was observed earlier, were written for a public known by their authors to be informed, literate, and sophisticated. Juan de Fuentesauco, for ex ample, makes reference in the introduction to his treatise (MS 10320) to the writ ings of Aristotle and then directly addresses his listeners on that point (". . . si los leiste iudio," fol. lv). Furthermore, the copyist specifies that the ideas concerning the Word that form the basis of his treatise were brilliantly expounded by the author, "bachiller de la santa theologia," before the bishop of Cartagena, Diego de Comontres; the adelantado of Murcia, Pero Fajardo; as well as "muchos iudios letrados. 77 He includes the Descent into Limbo as one of the ten principal reasons for which the Savior came into the world in his human incarnation:

76 See Yehuda Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, trans. Arnold Schwartz, Stephanie Nekache, and Penina

Peli (Albany, N.Y., 1993), pp. 158-59. 77 On Juan de Fuentesauco's treatise and its circulation see Charles Faulhaber, Bibliography of Old

Spanish Texts, 3rd ed. (Madison, Wis., 1984), p. 130, no. 1761; Castro, Manuscritos franciscanos

(above, n. 33), pp. 448-49, no. 418; Exposici?n de la Biblioteca de los Mendoza del Infantado en el

siglo XV: Con motivo de la celebraci?n del V centenario de la muerto de don I?igo L?pez de Mendoza,

Marqu?s de Santillana, Junta T?cnica de Archivos, Bibliotecas ye Museos, Ediciones Commemorativas

del Centenario del Cuerpo Facultativo, 1858-1958, 27 (Madrid, 1958), p. 42, no. 72; Jos? Mar?a

Rocamora, Cat?logo abreviado de los manuscritos de la biblioteca del Excmo. Se?or duque de Osuna

? Infantado (Madrid, 1882), p. 32, no. 118; Mario Schiff, La biblioth?que du marquis de Santillane

(Paris, 1905), pp. 426-27, no. 69; Konrad Eubel, ed., Hierarchia catholica mediiaevi; sive, summorum

pontificum, S.R.E. cardinalium, ecclesiarum antistitum series, 2nd ed., 1 and 2 (M?nster, 1913-14), 1:168 and 2:119; and Vicente Bertr?n de Heredia, O.P., Bulario de la Universidad de Salamanca (1219

1549), Acta Salmanticensia, Historia de la Universidad, 12 (Salamanca, 1966), 1:128-29. The fact

that MS 10320, copied in the fifteenth century, originally belonged to the Marqu?s of Santillana

indicates that these texts attained distribution beyond the immediate and public context of debates



154 Preaching to the Converted E el Xo beneficio por el qual fue enviado este revelante al mundo fue por abrirlas puertas a los encerrados i presos en el reyno de abraa que se llama segun la lei de gracia el limbo aquel lugar inescio abrir el senyor por la su santidat de vida i merescamientos de lasu passion ca luego como murio fue la persona de dios con el alma al limbo i saco de alli los presos que tenia el Diablo que eran todos los santos del testamento vieio. I ansi lo havia dicho el propheta david en el psalmo xxii fablando en persona del redemptor que havia de fazer aquel beneficio singular anima humana merescido por la su passion i ansi quiso complir este misterio luego cuando murio estando el cuerpo en el sepulcro i la persona de dios con el alma descendio allimbo i comenco a dezir abrit principes vuestras puerta. I ceet alcados puertas de paraiso. I entrava el rey dela gloria....

[The tenth benefit for which this revelation (Christ) was sent to the world was so that he might open the gates for those held and imprisoned in the Kingdom of Abraham, which is called, according to the law of grace, limbo. That place the Savior was able to open because of his saintly life and because of the merits of his Passion. After his death the person of God went with its soul to limbo and took out those prisoners held by the devil, which were all of the saints of the Old Testament. And thus the Prophet David had said in Psalm 22, speaking in the person of the Redeemer, who had to carry out that most singular benefit for human souls, merited by his Passion, and thus he wished to fulfill this mystery. Later, once he had died, while his body was in the tomb, and the person of God descended into limbo with the soul, and began to say, "Open your doors, Princes, and be raised up [to the] doors of paradise." And the King of Glory entered....]

Likewise, Juan el Viejo de Toledo gives significant attention to the Descent into Limbo in both of his treatises. In the Errores de los judios he notes that the Savior's descent into the "infiernos" in order to "get his friends out (a sacar a sus amigos)" had been prophesied by David and Solomon, as well as by Cato (MS 4306, fol. 26r-v).78 In the Memorial de Cristo we read (MS 9369, fol. 27v):

... aqui vidio las profecias claras de isaias ide david como este revelante abrio las puertas del infierno a los encerrados ipresos en el seno de abraam i ansi vino del cielo a la tierra este revelante para subir los santos suios del testamento vieio i nuevo de la tierra al cielo. Esto non lo pudo fazer hombre nin angel. Ansi este revelante havia de ser la persona de dios poderosa isin error dela qual ninguno non pueda sospechar ca oiendo tu iudio sieste revelante estas cosas in quanto dios estas cosas si las pudo fazer diras que si nin las poras negar i sosegar sea la tu alma.

[.. . here were seen clearly (fulfilled) the prophecies of Isaiah and of David how this revelation (Christ) opened the doors of hell to those held prisoner there in the bosom of Abraham, and thus this revelation came from the sky to the earth in order to raise his saints of the New and Old Testaments from the earth to the sky. No man or angel could have done this. Thus this revelation must have been the powerful and sinless person of God, of which no one can suspect, for hearing this, Jew, if this revelation could do these things as God, you must say yes, nor will you be able to deny them, and let your soul be at rest.]

between Jews and recently converted Christians and could well have influenced the devotional sensi

bilities even of "old" Christians. The copyist of this manuscript (which probably dates to some time

between 1453 and 1458; see Bolet?n de la Real Academia de Historia 10 [1887], 6-7) also opined that it is useful for the convincing and conversion of heretics and Muslims (fol. 114r).

78 This tenet's importance in debate or dispute literature in Iberia may be traced back at least as far as the spurious letters from Samuel, a Jewish convert from Fez, to Rabbi ?ag in Sijilmasa (e.g., BN

MS 864, fol. 39r), referred to above in n. 29.




The importance of Eiximenis's assertion that Christ carried out the Descent to Limbo in order to demonstrate his divine nature is underlined by a comparison with the Meditationes's rationalization of the event (Castilian translation, MS 9560, fols. 125v-126r). After stating simply that, following his death, Christ de scended to hell, to the Old Testament fathers, and was with them, after which they were with him in glory, the author asserts that he did this out of humility:

Pues considera aqui con antenqion quanta fue su benignidad en desqender al ynfierrno y quanta caridad y quanta humilldad por que les pudiera enbiar un angel y hazer que aquellos sus siervos fuesen librados y fuesen presentados ante el ado el quisiese. Mas no sufriera esto su amor y su humilldad por sy mismo desqendio al ynfierrno siendo senor de todos y visytolos no como a siervos mas como amigos y alli estvo con ellos hasta el Domingo al alva.

[So consider here with attention how great was his beneficence in descending down to inferno, and how much was his charity and his humility, for he could have sent an angel to them, so that his servants might be liberated and then be presented before him any where he wished. But his love and his humility would not stand this, and he himself descended to inferno being the Lord of all, and he visited them not as servants but as friends, and there he stayed with them until Sunday at dawn.]

Indeed, the monstruous mouth from which Christ rescues "his friends" may find, if not its explanation, at the very least, additional resonances when we imagine its reception by a converso audience. These members of Castilian society would almost certainly have associated the scaly face, pointed teeth, and fiery red eyes with the Leviathan, the enormous sea beast, most often portrayed as a whale, that swallowed Jonah, only releasing him after a Christlike three days of darkness and metaphorical burial.79 The monster, as believed by many and as stated in the version of the story contained in the Zohar, would be killed by Jonah and eaten at the banquet served to righteous Jews in the afterlife. Indeed, as observed by Aryeh Wineman, the Zohar concentrates particularly on the first two of the four chapters of Jonah, thus directing readers' attention away from the story's call to repentance as it is presented in the Hebrew Bible and toward Jonah as symbolic of the human soul's triumph over death and the grave, as symbolized by the fish.80 Though the Zohar has traditionally been associated with the arcana of closed mystical circles, as demonstrated by a mention of it in the converso Juan el Viejo's Memorial de Cristo (BN MS 9369, fol. 28v), it is mentioned (el Sohar, Libro de los Grandes Secretos) as a source for knowledge of the Passion. Conversos in attendance would have doubtless also found the readings for the second day after Passion Sunday-from the Book of Jonah-particularly meaningful.81

I believe that this image, which appears in the narrative cycle of the retablo at the exact point where issues of salvation should be considered, was selected, in

791 am grateful to Emily Spratt for her initial interest in the Jonah parallels of this image, which

sent me off down the path toward links to Castile's converso community. 80

Aryeh Wineman, "The Zohar on Jonah: Radical Retelling or Tradition?" Hebrew Studies 31

(1990), 57-69. 81 As seen in a cantoral/misal from the Le?n Cathedral Archive, MS 44, fols. lr-4r. Unfortunately,

no such books survive from either San Benito or from Valladolid's cathedral, but it is probable that

the same or similar readings were used.



156 Preaching to the Converted stead of a Resurrection or Last Judgment scene, because of its precise message for its primary intended audience. The brothers of San Benito, moreover, made a choice in favor of conciliation over confrontation. The offer of Christian salvation couched in terms believed to be familiar to converso viewers exists in strong con trast to sermons written by Vincent Ferrer for Good Friday, which would almost certainly have been heard in the public squares of Valladolid, either during the Dominican preacher's visit or following it. St. Vincent's sermons were compiled and widely distributed among Dominican convents in the Iberian Peninsula at a moment almost exactly contemporary to that in which Eiximenis's Vida was being compiled.82

Though the importance of the Jonah story is most often linked to the early Christian period, it also maintained strong currency among Jews into the later Middle Ages, as demonstrated by Belzalel Narkiss.83 And its currency among Cas tilian Christians, whether "old" or recent converts, during the fifteenth century is demonstrated in the Passion treatise in El Escorial MS b.ILI.3 (fol. 6r): as the Old Testament fathers reason with the Virgin, during her vision, concerning the ne cessity of the Passion, they invoke the metaphor of Jonah in the belly of the whale for their own salvation by Christ-thus, they say, must Christ come to limbo to rescue us, and only through his dying a human death will this be possible. The promise thus made to conversos or to potential converts of salvation, not through Christ's Resurrection, but through his Descent to Limbo, would, I believe, have been unmistakable.

The post-Resurrection phase of Christ's mission of salvation is represented on don Sancho's retablo by the Ascension and Pentecost (Fig. 1, lower register, second and third panels from right). In both of these scenes, the Virgin's protagonism is striking and noteworthy (one may, again, fruitfully compare her portrayal here with the supporting role given to her in Giotto's Arena Chapel frescoes). In the retablo she is located at the center of both compositions, and the brilliant colors of her clothing, coupled with her fully frontal position, hands clasped in prayer, and upturned face, serve to single her out from the group of apostles who surround her. In the Ascension the Virgin and Sts. John and Peter are foregrounded in some thing of a triumvirate. John is present because, in addition to being Jesus's most beloved disciple, he would write the Gospel of St. John and the Book of Revela tion; Peter has certainly been chosen because of his role as the rock upon which Christ's church would be founded. The Virgin's leading role would have been interpreted by viewers as a reflection of Eiximenis's particular characterization of her doctrinal legacy and her preeminence as a repository-being so designated by her son before his ascension-of church doctrine.

Comparison with the Meditationes (Castilian translation, MS 9560, chaps. 93 94, fols. 148v-149r) is, again, illuminating. Johannes de Caulibus relates that

82 See BN MS 4283 (s. XV). The manuscript has also been published by M. Canal, O.P. (Salamanca,

1927); it was formerly in the collection of the Dominican convent of Plasencia. Contrast with Eixi

menis's approach to these topics is also offered in a Good Friday sermon written down in Valencia in

1391 (BN MS 9567). Molina, Arte, devoci?n y poder, p. 86, also notes the importance of Judgment

Day in the general context of the sermons of Vincent Ferrer. 83 Belzalel Narkiss, "The Sign of Jonah," Gesta 18 (1981), 63-76.




Christ, on the day of his ascension, appeared to the disciples (fol. 149r), along with his mother, as they partook of a meal, whereas the narratives excerpted from Eiximenis's Vida de Cristo that appear in MS 780 would, like the representations in don Sancho's retablo, appear to consider her as one of the disciples. Likewise, the conversation between the Virgin and her son is of an entirely different tenor (MS 780, fols. 169v-170r): it takes place in the presence of the assembled com pany as they partake of their meal. In one of the "contemplaciones" proposed by the author to his public, he asks, "No piensas tu que, si lo hizo San Juan en la Santa Cena, en esta comida la santa virgen hubiera posado su cabeza en el pecho de su hijo?": "Do you not think, if St. John did so at the Holy Supper, at this meal the sainted Virgin would have placed her head on her son's chest," begging him not to leave her again, before she finally accepted the divine will? The emphasis here, as has been noted so often by the Meditationes's readers, both medieval and modern, is unquestionably on the human, heart-wrenching, emotional detail.

For his version of this event (MS 780, fols. 169r-171r; MS 12688, fols. 449r 451r), Eiximenis cites "Sant Marchos," the Old Testament, Augustine, Gregory, and other "grandes contemplativos," among them the "Rabi Moysen de Egipto en su libro." Most interesting in Eiximenis's narration of this event is the section entitled "de como fablo el Salvador con la su santa madre en secreto antes que subiese al qielo" ("How the Savior Spoke with His Sainted Mother in Secret before He Ascended into Heaven"; MS 780, fols. 168r-169r; MS 12688, fols. 448r 469r). He notes, first, that Christ went up to the Mount of Olives, whence comes much oil for holy lamps and in which part of Jerusalem his disciples, as well as a group of holy women, lived. It is the same mountain as Mount Syon, where King David had his palaces and where the room in which the Last Supper had been held was found (MS 780, fol. 155v). He then declares that the Ascension was prefigured or "demonstrated" by Solomon in the Song of Songs, second chapter, where the Bridegroom (Christ) leaps over mountains and hills (MS 780, fol. 161v).

Eiximenis then proceeds to render, not Jesus, but the Virgin the true protagonist of the event. In perhaps one of his most striking deviations from the more standard treatment of the Passion narrative found in the Meditationes, Eiximenis directs his readers' devotion, not toward the Son of God, but toward his mother, as she is placed, by her son, in a position that would seem to rival St. Peter's as Christ's designated representative of the church on earth. After Jesus appeared to his dis ciples and his mother as they shared their meal, he requested that they all go up to the Mount of Olives (MS 780, fols. 167r-169r):

... e fue alla otrosy la santa Virgen con Santa Maria Magdalena y con sus hermanas y con otras santas mugeres y con otros algunos discipulos del Salvador ... e lo segundo encomendo a sant pedro y a todos los otros apostoles y discipulos ala su santa madre asy como a persona qual el mucho amava y mandoles que la oviesen en rreverencia especial asi como a espejo de toda virtud y santidat y secretaria singular de las obras de la sabiduria divinal. E que le demandasen consejo en todas las cosas. Asy como a aquella que sabia mas de lo que era de fazer y de la ... en la iglesia y dela voluntat divinal que otra persona alguna mortal....

[... and the sainted Virgin went there also, with St. Mary Magdalene and with her sisters and other saintly women and others of the Savior's disciples . . . and, second, he commended St. Peter and all of the other apostles to his saintly mother as a person



158 Preaching to the Converted whom he loved a great deal, and he ordered them to hold her in special reverence, just as a mirror of all virtues and saintliness, and as a special secretary of the works of divine wisdom. And that they should ask her advice about all things, as the one who understood the most about that which must be done and the (doctrine?) of the church, and about divine will, more than any other mortal person....]

Then Christ spoke to her and her alone, and the onlookers marveled (MS 780, fol. 168r-v):

Fablando helinando de aquesta santa ascension en una epistola que envio a Narqis Pa triarcha de Alexandria dize asy: Antes que el Salvador subiese a los qielos fablo apar tadamente conla su santa madre y le encomendo a los apostoles y a los otros fieles. Et ella derribose a sus pies con grandeza de amor y abraqolo con muchas lagrimas. Y con grand rreverenqia y devoqion. Non podia entender alguno delos que alli eran lo que dizian el uno al otro y lloravan todos con grandeza de alegria por la grand piedat que avian de aquella su madre bendita. Et todos los angeles que alli eran mayormente los principes de las ordenes celestiales fazian onrra y rreverenqia singular a aquella la su santa madre. Et eso mesmo fazian adan y todos los otros santos patriarchas y prophetas que deletavan en acatar aquella criatura tan virtuosa y notable que avia descendido del su linaje. Ca sabian que rreynaria en la gloria perdurable sobre todos ellos y sobre todos los angeles y encomendavansele con toda voluntad faziendo le honrra y rreverenqia singular. Et en especial avian alegria singular en la ver y mirar Joachim su padre y Santa Ana su madre veyendo la grant honrra y rreverenqia que fazian a su fija todos los angeles y santos patriarchas y prophetas y toda aquella santa compania.

[Helinandus, speaking of that sainted Ascension in an epistle that he sent to Narciso, patriarch of Alexandria, says the following: Before the Savior ascended to heaven, he spoke privately with his sainted mother, and commended to her the apostles and the rest of the faithful. And she fell down at his feet, with great love, and embraced him with many tears, and with great reverence and devotion. None of those there present could understand what they said to one another, and all wept with the greatness of their happiness because of the great piety that they had for that blessed mother. And all the angels who were there, particularly the princes of the celestial orders, made singular honor and reverence to her, their sainted mother. And the sainted patriarchs and proph ets, who delighted in contemplating that worthy and virtuous creature who had de scended from their lineage, did the same. For they knew that she would reign in eternal glory over them all, and over all of the angels, and they commended themselves to her with all of their will, giving to her singular honor and reverence. And Joachim, her father, and Anna, her mother, had particular joy in seeing and looking at her, seeing the great honor and reverence made to their daughter by all of the angels and saints, and saintly patriarchs and prophets, and all of that saintly company.]

Similarly, at Pentecost, as tongues of fire flamed from the heads of the apostles and the Virgin, all (fol. 182r) were pardoned of their sins, except, of course, for the Virgin (fol. 182v) because she was without sin. All are given the gifts of preach ing and prophecy, and the Virgin, again, appears at the center of the composition, the principal figure in the triumvirate (John, Peter, and Mary) left to direct and oversee the work of Christ's church on earth.

The retablo finishes with an image of the Mass of St. Gregory, a representation of the appearance of Christ to Gregory the Great out of the "flesh" of the con secrated host (Fig. 5). Though a few earlier examples of it may be cited, the image




is essentially a fifteenth-century one, with a principally northern distribution.84 The example found on don Sancho's retablo, therefore, represents an extremely precocious manifestation of it, both for Castile and for Europe in general. With many indulgences attached to it early on,85 the depiction of the Mass of St. Gregory is traditionally associated by scholars either with memoria Passionis86 or with eucharistic themes, and its placement atop the main altar of San Benito indicates that here, too, it was read in terms of the Holy Sacrament.87 This particular rendition of the scene, however, deserves a closer look. Although

the altar before which St. Gregory says mass is occupied by a chalice, in a striking departure from standard iconography, no blood spurts forth from Christ's wounds into it; the wounds, indeed, are depicted in rather understated terms. Moreover, Christ, as he rises from a sarcophagus, is represented with his eyes closed and his hands crossed in front of him-as the imago pietatis. This image thus, rather than focusing on the eucharistic significance of the blood of the Savior, suggests asso ciations with a well-known miraculous imago pietatis-also with many indul gences and also associated with St. Gregory-in the Church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome.88 Viewers are thus offered a particularly concrete way to salvation: by praying before these two holy images (that is, both the Mass of St. Gregory itself and the imago pietatis contained within it), viewers may "earn" their way toward paradise. This emphasis on indulgences, moreover, allows at tention to be decentered from the image's purportedly central theme, the Mass, a rite that was, as is well known, quite problematic for recent and potential converts

84 Michael Heinlen, "An Early Image of a Mass of St. Gregory and Devotion to the Holy Blood at

Weingarten Abbey," Gesta 37 (1998), 55-62. 85 See Schiller, Iconography (above, n. 47), 2:184-200. Images of the Mass of St. Gregory are as

sociated with indulgences all the way back to Gregory himself, and their importance is continually

emphasized, particularly as a way to lower the number of years one must spend in purgatory. Indeed, in one late example, the image is combined with a representation of souls in purgatory, who will

presumably be saved by its merits. See Christine G?ttler, "Is Seeing Believing? The Use of Evidence in

Representations of the Miraculous Mass of Saint Gregory," Germanic Review 76 (2001), 123. As will

be discussed in Imag(in)ing Passions, prayers with indulgences were introduced into Castilian devo

tions in the middle decades of the fifteenth century, sometimes accompanied by an image of the Mass

of St. Gregory, sometimes not. They would appear to be some of the earliest vehicles through which

more "standard" currents of Passion devotions were introduced, always, and?I will argue?signifi

cantly, amply rewarded with indulgences. 86 Bernhard Ridderbos, "The Man of Sorrows: Pictorial Images and Metaphorical Statements," in

Macdonald et al., eds., The Broken Body (above, n. 1), pp. 143-82. A similar argument has been

made for a much later Castilian Mass of St. Gregory by Felipe Pereda, "Cap. I. Menc?a de Mendoza

(d. 1500), mujer del I Condestable de Castilla: El significado del patronazgo femenino en la Castilla

del siglo XV," in Bego?a Alonso, Mar?a Cruz de Carlos and Felipe Pereda, eds., Patronos y coleccion

istas: Los condestables de Castilla y el arte (siglos XV-XVII), Historia y Sociedad 115 (Valladolid,

2005), pp. 9-120, esp. pp. 76-80. 87 Caroline Walker Bynum has recently suggested that the image's interest and popularity lay not so

much in its associations with the Eucharist but rather in the possibilities it offered to theologians for

the exploration of concepts such as vision of the divine: "Seeing and Seeing Beyond: The Mass of St.

Gregory in the Fifteenth Century," in Jeffrey F. Hamburger and Anne-Marie Boucher, eds., The Mind's

Eye: Art and Theological Argument in the Middle Ages (Princeton, N.J., 2006), pp. 208-40. 88 Many thanks to Sasha Wachtel for this initial observation. On the mosaic imago pietatis found

at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome and its many indulgences see Belting, The Image and Its

Public (above, n. 1), pp. 210-20.



160 Preaching to the Converted from Judaism to Christianity. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the image contains a titulus clearly inscribed with the words "iesus rex iudeorum," to which I will return. And indeed, the issue of the elements composing the Eucharist might well be a

delicate subject for converts, whether recent or potential, and the Christian clerics now responsible for insuring the well-being of their souls, for the very blood that was to wash those souls (as Christian souls) clean was, for Jewish souls, an eternal curse. In Eiximenis's version of the events leading up to Christ's death (MS 18772, fols. 150v-151r), when Christ is turned over to them to be crucified, the Jews state, addressing Pilate, "Non te cabe desto aver consqienqia ca nos cargamos sobre nos la muerte y queremos que la su sangre venga sobre nos y sobre nuestros fijos" (Don't worry about that, because we accept full responsibility for [his] death, and we want his blood to be on us and on our children). But they have, in effect, cursed themselves and prevented themselves from ever attaining salvation because the blood they shed, instead of cleansing them, as it would do if it were shed on believers, will forever blind them to the truth:

Dizen aqui los doctores que assy ha plazido a dios que les haya seydo fecho segunt sus palabras. Conviene saber que la sangre de ihu xpo esto es pecado del derramamiento de la su preqiosa sangre sea sobre ellos cegando y enduresciendo sus coracones por que vivan en error y en sus malicias fasta el fyn del mundo.

[The doctors say here that thus has it pleased God that it be done unto them according to their words. That is, that the blood of Jesus Christ, that is, the sin of the spilling of his precious blood, shall be upon them, blinding and hardening their hearts, so that they may live in error and in their malice unto the end of the world.]

Eiximenis's solution is to devote several paragraphs to a well-known Old Tes tament precedent for the Eucharist, the manna sent by the Lord to feed the Isra elites as they wandered in the desert (MS 18772, fol. 241r):

... aquella manna que era dada al pueblo judiego era del qielo, mas aqueste pan es de sobre el qielo. Aquella manna se corrompia sy era guardada fasta otro dia mas aqueste santo manjar de todo corrompimiento es ajeno y el que lo gostare rreligiosamente non podra sentir corrompimiento. Allos judios fue dada agua de la piedra y a ti cristiano es dada la sangre de ihu xpo que es cabeqa y Simiento de la iglesia.... aquellos quito la sed el agua por espacio muy breve y ati cristiano alimpia la sangre de ihu xpo para siempre. El judio bevio y ovo sed despues. Mas sy tu bevieres dignamente de aqueste bever no podras aver ya mas sed. Et aquello acaesqio al pueblo [judio] en sombra y en figura. Et aquello acaesqe a ti en verdat. E sy aquello de que tanto te maravillas es sombra de quand grand dignidat es aquesto de cuya sombra te maravillas?

[... that manna which was given to the Jews came from heaven, but this bread is from above heaven. That manna spoiled if it was kept until the next day, but this holy delicacy is above any corruption, and he who tastes of it religiously will, likewise, be unable to feel any corruption. Unto the Jews was given water from the stone, and unto you, Chris tian, is given the blood of Jesus Christ, which is the head and the cement of the church.... To the ones, the water took away their thirst for a very short time, and you, Christian, does the blood of Jesus Christ clean. The Jew drank and later was thirsty. But you, if you drink in a worthy fashion of this beverage, will never again be thirsty. And those things happened to the (Jewish) people in darkness and only in figuration. But this



Preaching to the Converted 161 which happens to you happens in truth. And if that at which you so marvel is a shadow, of what great dignity is this at whose shadow you marvel?]

A condition to their actual reception of this salvation, however, is recent or potential converts' acceptance of Christ as their king. This, certainly, is the expla nation for the titulus, mentioned earlier, in which the words "iesus rex iudeorum" are-in an iconographic twist that, to my knowledge, is entirely unique to rep resentations of the Mass of St. Gregory-spelled out completely. One of the most often repeated, and seemingly damning, accusations of Christ, according to Eixi menis, was that he had declared himself king (for example, MS 18772, fol. 89r); indeed, Eiximenis lists it as the primary reason for which he was put to death. Likewise, this was the cry sounded by the company of arms, to the tune of the trumpet, as Jesus was escorted through the streets of Jerusalem to Calvary: "to caron la trompeta a la puerta de la corte diziendo asy: Aqui ihu de Nazareth que por que se queria fazer rey sera agora colgado" (they played the trumpet at the gate of the court, saying, "Here is Jesus of Nazareth, who, because he wanted to make himself king, now will be hung [upon the cross]").

But Pilate had his own use for these claims made by Jesus and, thus, if my reading of Eiximenis is correct, might even be argued to have played a role in the conversos' potential or eventual salvation. Following the Flagellation, as a final touch of scorn and humiliation in order to satisfy the Jews' desire to see Christ discredited and dead-conceived, Eiximenis implies, by Pilate as a sure way out of having to enact the death sentence-Pilate ordered that Christ be dressed in a ratty purple robe and had him crowned with thorns ("juncos marvios"). He then put a cane, in place of a scepter, in one of Christ's hands and brought him out before the crowds, instructing his minions to mockingly adore him on bended knee. Even though he secretly pitied him, Pilate mockingly introduced the Jews to "their king," thinking-mistakenly, as it turned out-that this ought to "be enough for them." "Here is your king," he cries. "How can I crucify your king?" The Jews, however, do not appreciate the joke, and respond, "No tenemos mas rey que Cesar y como no mates a ese hombre, no eres amigo de Cesar!" (We have no king other than Ceasar, and if you don't kill this man, then you are no friend of Caesar!)

Some doctors have noted here, adds Eiximenis, that because the Jews publicly denied the Savior, their king, they would never again have either an earthly king or royal dignity. As has already been discussed, don Sancho's retablo does not present Christ in this humiliated state. Rather, the first mocking, which took place spontaneously in the house of Cayfas on the night of Christ's arrest, is presented as readers of Eiximenis's Vida or hearers of sermons based on its contents would know-in the context of Christ's fearless debates with his accusers. Therefore, the retablo "edits" Christ's humiliation and concentrates-as it has done through out-on his regal, kingly nature. Extremely important and to the point for this very particular representation of the Mass of St. Gregory, therefore, is the section of Eiximenis's narrative in which he analyzes the "alto y escondido significado" (lofty and hidden significance) of the titulus that Pilate-now supremely annoyed with the Jews because of the uncomfortable position in which they had placed him-ordered be placed above the cross (MS 18772, fols. 150v-151r):



162 Preaching to the Converted Este es Jesus de Nazareth rrey de los judios. Et dieron entonSes vozes los judios a Pilato diziendole que por cosa non pusiese rrey de los judios mas que se avia liamado rrey de los judios. Et Pilato sanudo contra ellos porque assy contra su voluntad le avian fecho cru'ificar a ihu xpo rrespondioles assy non mudare cosa de lo que dixe. Mas lo que es escripto sera assy escripto. Et tal titulo quiero que le pongan y non otro y asi se fizo de fecho y escrivieron en la cruz en griego y en ebrayco por que todo todo [sic] ome lo supiese leer.

Dize assy Teofilo que aquel santo titulo muy grant misterio contenia mas ellos non lo entendieron. Ca por especial hordenaqion de dios fue assy ordenado contra su querer de ellos. Ca contra su voluntad ihu xpo es Salvador consagrado governador y rregidor de todos los bienaventurados las quales cosas son significadas por aqueste titulo....

["This is Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews." And the Jews cried out then to Pilate, saying that for nothing in the world should he put king of the Jews, but rather that he had called himself king of the Jews. And Pilate, angry because thus, against his will, they had made him crucify Jesus Christ, responded thus: "I will not change a single thing of that which I said. Rather, that which is written will be written thus. And I want that title put there and not another one," and it was done thus, and they wrote on the cross in Greek and in Hebrew so that all men would know how to read it.

Theophilus says this: that the sainted titulus contained a very great mystery, but they did not understand it because by special ordination of God it was thus ordered against their will. For against their will Jesus Christ is Savior and consecrated governor and regent of all the saved, which are the things signified by this titulus. ...]

And the titulus's saving power must have seemed very real indeed to a large num ber of the Iberian faithful, for a fifteenth-century Dominican breviary from Aragon or Catalonia (today El Escorial MS a.III.15) affirms that those wearing or carrying the words "iesu xpristi, Ihs rex iudeorum" would never be taken captive by an infidel or die a "bad death" and, if fallen into the hands of enemies, would swiftly be rescued without incident provided they repeat the words daily (fol. 247r).89 In order to receive all the indulgences (made even more attractive by the apotropaic powers of the titulus) held temptingly out to those who pray before the retablo's final image, then, viewers (and particularly the recent converts from Judaism among them) must first agree to an unconditional acceptance of the titulus's content. The messages contained in the iconography of don Sancho's retablo and the

texts to which I believe this iconography to be related, although intended to con vince and to educate, were as much shaped by its audience's preferences and concerns as they were successful at shaping them. In short, the retablo's commis sioners, Eiximenis, and his Benedictine appropriators all appear to agree that an offer of salvation in exchange for belief or acceptance of tenets and truths, couched in terms conversos would find amenable and familiar, would get them a great deal further than would suggestions that the path toward that salvation lay through compassio, or personal re-creation and experience of Christ's humiliation and physical suffering during the Passion.

Earlier, the only explicit appeal to members of the audience contained in the

89 "Qui portara aq?estes paraules deus sorites no sera cativat ne mora amala morte si tots dies les

dira si ere en poder de sos enemichs atots escapara sens coli e sens nafra. Titulus triumphalis salvatoris

iesu xpristi. Ihs rex iudeorum miserere. Ihs autem transiens per medium illorum ibat."



Preaching to the Converted 163 sections of Eiximenis's treatise dealing with the Passion was mentioned: readers are told to imagine themselves stepping in between the Pharisees and Christ, in order to stop the Flagellation. Devotees were then instructed to imagine that the Pharisees pay them no mind and to envision themselves standing between the Pharisees and Christ, imploring them to visit the punishment and humiliation (but not, it should be noted, the Crucifixion) upon them instead, who deserve it because they are sinners, instead of upon Christ, who has committed no offense. They are then instructed to thank Christ for allowing them, in exchange for his love and salvation, to be humiliated and abused for his sake.

This is emphatically not an offer of mystical union with Christ through shared somatic sufferings; rather, it fits into what Rachel Fulton has described as an "economy of salvation," much more typical of the earlier medieval centuries in the northern parts of Europe than of the later ones.90 The devotees punish them selves before the spectacle of Christ's sufferings-a spectacle that, rather than presented as beautiful, is probably intended to be perceived as somewhat repug nant (and it should be pointed out, yet again, that the retablo's viewers are spared the visuals altogether)-and then request favors or grace from Christ in exchange for this auto-castigation. It would seem that this approach-that of soliciting prayers and belief in exchange for salvation-was thought by Eiximenis as some thing that would, potentially, "sell." Indeed, he, as would his Benedictine inter preters in their sermons based on the Vida, emphatically assures his readers of its efficacy (MS 18772, fol. 144r):

dize aqueste doctor confia tu contemplativo en aqueste lugar que despues ayas fecho lo que dicho es que le rruegues por alguna gracia para ty o para otro mayormente si es spiritual que syn dubda que sy esto continuas el te lo dara muy ayna.

[this doctor says, "Trust, Contemplative, at this point that, after you have done that which has been said, you should beg him for some grace, for yourself or for another, particularly if it is a spiritual one, and without a doubt, if you continue to do this, he will give it to you very quickly."]

Such, certainly, would have been the collective hope of Valladolid's newest Chris tians as they prepared to bargain for their salvation from their newly accepted

Messiah and king.

90 Fulton, From Judgment to Passion, pp. 177-86.

Cynthia Robinson is Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at Cornell University (e-mail: [email protected]).



preaching to the converted: valladolid's "cristianos nuevos" and the "retablo de...

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