Chapter 6 - The Library of Iberian Resources Online

Council of Castile recognized the gravity of this situation in a consulta of July 8, 1641, warning that
poverty was pushing monks into scandal and crime. (35)
Squeezed by a shrinking economic base and a rise in the cost of living, religious foundations had to
support a clerical population that continued to grow until the last half of the seventeenth century. A
description of a religious procession in Seville in 1579 [132] asserted that 1500 clergymen participated;
by 1635 more than 3000 religious were reported in Seville. (36) A list of religious foundations in Seville
and its nearby countryside in 1650 included 48 monasteries, 28 convents, 23 hospitales, and 9
hermitages. (37) The growing clerical population led to economic strain, less effective discipline, and a
decrease in moral and intellectual quality. A clerical association with crime, therefore, was not
surprising.
Perhaps the most scandalous crime associated with monks and priests and isolated religious houses was
pecado nefando, or sodomy. The Jesuit Pedro de León wrote that this was a serious problem among
both religious and secular clergy. One Jesuit told him that women posed no problem for his brothers
because they had many young male students and novices with whom they could sin. He mentioned one
cleric who was penanced in a private auto de fé by the Inquisition for soliciting young boys in
confession, but several other clergymen were "relaxed" (the euphemism for being handed over) to the
secular authorities, who burned them for their crimes. (38)
The example of the Jeronomite Monastery of San Isidro del Campo suggests the problems of
controlling a religious house. Located about two miles outside the city, this monastery had both
spiritual and temporal jurisdiction over the village of Santiponce, site of the ancient Roman city of
Italica. Noted in the sixteenth century for its rich endowment, the monastery had several powerful