Chapter I: Preface

It has been the aim of the author in the following study to collect, classify, and analyze the various references made in the works of Alfonso X, el Sabio, to the beliefs and superstitions, of the Spaniard of that day, with reference to the supernatural. It is hoped that it will be possible in this way to reach a better understanding of the attitude of the Spanish people toward the supernatural in general and thus to acquire a more complete appreciation of that early period of the nation’s life.

No attempt has been made here to trace the origins of these early Spanish traditions (many of which were common thruout Europe during the Middle Ages), and the comparison of what has been found with the supernatural in the early literature of other European countries has been left for a later study.

The works of Alfonso el Sabio have been chosen because, to a large extent, they represent not only their own period but all that had gone before them, as recorded not only in Castillian but in Latin and to a greater or less degree in Arabic and Hebrew also. Alfonso gathered to his court a select group of scholars versed in these languages; and under his direction they produced or collected a representative library of works dealing with their respective subjects. It is the accessible books of this collection that have furnished the material for the present study.

The author wishes to express sincere thanks to Professor Federico de Onís of Columbia University for sympathetic encouragement and valuable suggestions thruout the entire period of study; to Professor Antonio G. Solalinde, of the _Centro de Estudios Históricos_, Madrid, for helpful suggestions and criticism of the manuscript as well as for the privilege of consulting the proof-sheets of the _Antología de Alfonso X, el Sabio_, which has recently issued from the press; to Professor Raymond Weeks, of Columbia University, for his sympathetic interpretation of the Middle Ages and for actually introducing the writer to the true spirit of that period; to his wife, thru whose timely assistance solely it has been possible to complete the study without undue delay; and especially to Professor Henry Alfred Todd, of Columbia, for his painstaking aid and expert criticism while this work was taking form and being put thru the press.

_F. C._

_Columbia University_, January, 1923.

INTRODUCTORY

The human mind is always interested in those things that it can not understand; as soon, however, as the problem has been solved it is no longer an absorbing subject of attention. When a sleight-of-hand feat has been explained we turn with renewed zest to something else and revive our former interest only to mystify or amuse some friend. The unsolved problem, on the other hand, will grip our undivided interest for an indefinite length of time; our minds will revert continually to the unelucidated trick of legerdemain until we learn how it was accomplished. And so we might continue our illustrations thru the whole range of human knowledge.

Furthermore, we are not content to limit our curiosity to the comprehension of what others have understood before us, but push our way in quest of the answer to the eternal and ever haunting _how?_ and _why?_ We climb the mountains, we crouch beneath a shelter while the storm beats, we gaze into space on a starlight night, and these compelling queries become ever more insistent. This element of inexhaustible curiosity is, and has been as far back as the existence of society can be traced, present in all human nature; the leaders of mankind have not been slow to utilize it for the attainment of their own lofty or ignoble aims. The warrior has employed it to inspire his soldiers; the priest to exalt his followers; the minstrel to entrance his auditors.

In the introduction to her Columbia doctorial dissertation, _The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction_,[1] Dr. Dorothy Scarborough has discussed in a very engaging manner the inherent need of the supernatural in fiction. In real life as well it plays a highly important part. It is a demonstrated fact that when a man faces a supreme crisis--when face to face with death--not only will he turn instinctively to the supernatural powers in that moment but all that is extraneous to his real self will disappear and the true man will stand forth revealed. What is true of the individual in this respect applies also to the race. It is in recognition of this universal truth that the following study has been undertaken, in the hope that a careful examination of the supernatural aspect of the beliefs and practices of Spain as reflected in the literature of a given period will contribute to a better understanding of the questions involved.

Naturally there is a wide difference between the method of thinking of the average person in the Middle Ages and that of the average person of to-day. In the 20th century every peculiar or remarkable phenomenon of nature is subjected to the scrutiny of scientific study, while with the medieval man it was accepted at its face value as being the manifestation of unseen powers, of gods or of devils. It would seem that consciously or otherwise they attempted to make everything appear supernatural whether they could explain it or not. We of today demand that the God of the universe should work thru well defined natural laws; they, on the other hand, expected that “el milagro sea contra natura”.[2] It is true nevertheless that the “call” of the supernatural in one form or another has continued to exert a powerful influence even down to our own time. Some of its forms of manifestation may have changed, but the belief is almost everywhere present. Instead of forecasting the future by Astrology many today seek aid in the _séance_; miraculous cures are still being sought for as of old not only in many cases abroad but also in communities nearer home--even in the city of New York, during the Novena of St. Ann; while only recently it was reported in the daily press that a young girl in a convent on the banks of the Hudson showed the marks of the _stigmata_ so prominently associated with the history of St. Francis of Assisi.

Before entering upon the study proper of the early Spanish period it will be well to review rapidly some of the important facts in the “supernatural” history of the Iberians since the time when the Goths invaded Spain.[3]

When they came they brought with them their songs and legends, which were peculiarly Germanic. The writer Jordanes, about the middle of the 6th century, states that stories of sunken cities, subterranean voices, etc., were common in the region of the Vistula, the river which separated Scythia from Germany.[4] But we find no trace of this in the early Spanish literature owing to the fact that when the Goths conquered the Iberians they did not blend readily with the people of the newly acquired territory. Nor did they, as the Romans had done, encourage the vanquished to continue their established customs and religion giving to their own traditions an opportunity, thru friendly intercourse, to become adopted by their new subjects. On the other hand, in their effort to make assimilation still more impossible they forbade intermarriage. The result of this was, to use the words of Amador de los Ríos, that

“La Iglesia, que durante el Imperio visigodo procuró desterrar del
pueblo católico las reprobadas prácticas del gentilismo,
limpiándole al propio tiempo de las torpes é inmundas aberraciones
á que le arrastraban los magos, encantadores, sortílegos y adivinos
que plagaban la nación española, vióse forzada á condenar una y
otra vez tamaños abusos, trasmitidos de edad en edad, con el
auxilio de los cantos populares.”[5]

It seems, however, that in this struggle the Church was not always successful. Often the result was a compromise in which the pagan customs were remodeled and made to conform to the requirements of the Church instead of being completely abolished. For instance, according to J. A. MacCulloch, the ancient Celtic warriors used to advance dancing and singing to the fray;[6] and É. Philipon says:

“Lorsqu’ ils marchaient au combat, les guerriers ibères entonnaient à pleine voix leur chants nationaux, leur _péans_, comme disaient les Romains.”[7]

In the early Middle Ages this custom of the ancient inhabitants of Spain still continued under the Christian domination; and into these war cries and songs had slowly crept the names of the Christian Deity and of the Christian saints.

This habit of consciously directing the minds of the soldiers to things spiritual in such a moment may have been an important factor in the development of the numerous legends of visions seen by soldiers during battle.[8]

One would naturally expect to encounter a marked Arabic influence in the early monuments of the language, considering the fact that the Moslems with all their wealth of magic and other arts peculiar to the East, entered Spain in the early years of the 8th century, but this is not the case. When the Moslems entered Spain those who were able retreated before them, but a large part of the population, unable to do this, remained under Mohammedan rule. These _mozárabes_, as the conquered Christians were called, struggled bravely to keep themselves and their children free from the heresies of their conquerors and for some time were successful, but by the 9th century the Mohammedans were rapidly instilling their teachings into their captives.[9]

A reaction against this began under Abderrahman II. The Christians, becoming obsessed with a desire to be martyrs, began rashly to expose themselves everywhere. So serious did this movement become that in 852 Abderrahman constrained the bishops to call a council, presided over by Recafredo, instructing them to condemn this zeal for martyrdom, which they did, but only in a half-hearted manner. This movement was the last serious attempt on the part of the _mozárabes_ to rebel against the teachings of the Moors. From this time on they were rapidly merged into the nation of the conquerors and it is a question whether any of them remained true to the Catholic Church at the time Spain was reclaimed by the Christians, all of which explains the lack of a very noticeable Arabic influence in the early Castillian writings.

We have therefore (at the time the early Castillian literature began to appear) a nation from which the clergy had attempted to remove everything that could not be remodeled to conform to their interpretation of Christian Scriptures--an endeavor in which they had been signally successful. At this time, so far as the vernacular was concerned, there had been little influence from the outside world (since the time of the Gothic invasion) other than that which had been imported from Rome. But this isolation was not to last long. When the Christians reconquered the cities from the Moors they made a practice of killing the men but of enslaving the women and children.[10] These women as nurses naturally told the children in their care the stories of their people. In addition to this, Paschal II, Pope from 1099-1118, issued a bull declaring sacred the war in Spain against the Moors as well as that in the Holy Land. This gradually brought into Spain Christian knights from all Europe with their traditions. Likewise, in the earlier part of the 12th century a school of clerical writers appeared in Spain who sought to win the favor of the people thru making their versions of the traditions of the Church more attractive by mixing freely sacred history and profane. They sought inspiration in the Moorish and the Classic traditions; they confused the legends of the past by transferring to them the customs of their own day.[11] It was they who sought out the mysterious legends of the East common among the Moors who lived in the South, incorporating them into their sermons and poems and mingling them with the Christian mythology. All this prepared the way for the great efflorescence of the supernatural which began with Alfonso X and continued in full sway until the 17th century.