Lazarillo de Tormes and the Purge of Purgatory in the Spanish Reformation

• In Event: Reformation in the Spanish Empire

Abstract

When charting the doctrinal debates in the Spanish Reformation, most roads lead to the University and city of Alcalá in the late 1520s and early 1530s. Distinguishing specific ingredients in the intoxicating Alcalá brew, alumbrado, Erasmian, and Protestant, detracts from the addictive flavor of the elixir that continued to be enjoyed by many leaders in the Church hierarchy all the way through Trent. In this regard, the popular Lazarillo de Tormes ridicules many aspects of popular religious practice that would be outlawed at Trent, particularly the abuse of the doctrine of Purgatory. Between the late 15th and the end of Trent in 1563 Catholic theologians shifted the concept of Purgatory from a real, fearful and painful place to a spiritual state of love and hope. My paper connects Lazarillo to the Alcalá reformers and to the Tridentine doctrine of Purgatory thereby arguing that Lazarillo served as propaganda for conciliar reform.

Author

• Dan Crews, University of Central Missouri