Front cover image for From Madrid to purgatory : the art and craft of dying in sixteenth-century Spain

From Madrid to purgatory : the art and craft of dying in sixteenth-century Spain

This is the first full-length study of Spanish attitudes towards death and the afterlife during the peak years of the Counter-Reformation. It includes detailed accounts of the ways in which the 'good' deaths of King Philip II and Saint Teresa of Avila were interpreted by contemporaries.
Print Book, English, 2002
First paperback edition View all formats and editions
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002
History
xiii, 571 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm
9780521529426, 0521529425
1016233683
Prologue: death and the sun; Part I. Eager for Heaven: Death and Testamentary Discourse in Madrid, 1520–1599: 1. Wills and the history of death in Madrid; 2. Approaching the divine tribunal; 3. Relinquishing one's body; 4. Impressing God and neighbor; 5. Planning for the soul's journey; 6. Aiding the needy, aiding oneself; 7. Conclusion; Part II. The King's Dissolving Body: Philip II and the Royal Paradigm of Death: 1. King Philip and his palace of death; 2. The king's many requiems; 3. Drawing lessons from the king's death; 4. Defending the faith through ritual; 5. Death, the Spanish monarchy, and the myth of sacredness; 6. Conclusion; Part III. The Saint's Heavenly Corpse: Teresa of Avila and the Ultimate Paradigm of Death: 1. From Alba to Heaven; 2. Come sweet death, come swift dying; 3. Imperishable flesh, incomparable wonder; 4. Earthbound no longer; 5. Saint Teresa's apparitions; 6. Conclusion; Epilogue: in death as in life: from the daily rounds of Hell to the vestibule of Heaven.