El clero catedralicio en la España moderna: los miembros del cabildo de la catedral de Córdoba (1475-1808)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate a group that was an important part of local elites in the Hispanic Monarchy: that of the members of a Cathedral Chapter. It was conducted through the analysis of the specific case of Córdoba, however, the purpose was the achievement of extrapolative results. A wide chronological approach was required for wide-ranging conclusions within the framework of the long duration of the early modern period, which is why the exam covers from the last quarter of the 15th century to the end of the Ancien Régime. A deep knowledge of international bibliography and a massive and rigorous use of the documentation from several archives were the basis of this thesis. The results revealed how the Cathedral Chapter worked as a superb machinery that channeled social mobility and legitimized it due to the constant re-creation of the same corporate image, from which each of its members and, by extension, their families benefited. Throughout the studied period, behind a façade of steadiness the sociological composition of the Cathedral Chapter evolved significantly. The institution had a clear functionality of which different groups made use of. Economic and relational capital was transformed by its institutional symbolic power: converso families, rural elites and urban mesocracy were integrated into the local aristocracy, by following a specific channel and without destabilizing the theoretical basis of a system that could hardly accept change. The role of an international market of ecclesiastical benefices established by Rome was vital: tools like resignations or coadjutories made possible a precocious instrumentalization of the Chapter institution. The interpretation of this social phenomenon as a whole has been the ultimate result of this work.