Civilizations express their unique culture through artistic forms; people transform, through beauty, the simple into the solemn, and the everyday evolves into a ritual, refined by time and collective sensibility. Some events of social, religious and political life have been celebrated in a singular way with great festivities, breaking the routine of everyday life, with the confluence of ideology, art, joy, pleasure, beliefs and feelings. Every structure of these special festivities has had in common the solemn (the rite), the artistic (the beauty), and the extraordinary (the infrequent).

The towns and cities of Navarre celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi in style, with comedies, extraordinary music, siestas in the great temples and, of course, processions in which brotherhoods and guilds participated. The judicial processes are full of denunciations for carrying the canopy poles, precedences and preferences of flags, as well as for the places of the places where the busts, reliquaries and carvings of saints were placed, and even of expenses to solemnize the festivity, on the part of the town councils, from comedies to bullfights.

The feast of the Corpus Christi is among the main ones, below the Excelentísimas (the three Easters and the Assumption). Thus we find it in the Breviary of 1332, from the time of Bishop Barbazán, considered as the oldest liturgical guide of the diocese and of the cathedral of Pamplona. Together with the Corpus Christi, the Epiphany, the Ascension, the Holy Trinity, Saint John the Baptist, the Purification, the Annunciation, the dedication of the cathedral, Saints Peter and Paul, the Crown of Christ, Saint James, Saint Augustine, the Nativity of the Virgin, Saint Michael, Saint Fermin, All Saints and Saint Martin shared that category. Regarding the classification of the feasts, it is necessary to remember that since the 13th century three types were distinguished, according to the solemnity: simple, semi-double and double, all regulated by the recitation of the official document Divine official document of the Breviary.

The current Pamplona procession has little to do with that of past centuries. The liturgy is dynamic. Although it has an immutable part, there are some norms and rites subject to change. The stripping of numerous popular elements by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities was not always well assimilated by the people. Other changes came with the development of the Eucharistic Congresses since 1881 and, above all, the Second Vatican Council. In general, the triumphal character of the parade has mutated for other contents, more in accordance with the adoration and thanksgiving towards the Eucharistic mystery.

From these lines, we will approach a part of our history, trying to arouse in those who read them curiosity and interest in issues of a common past, which can better understand our rich cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible.

The Christian people, and particularly the whole of Spain, have been celebrating, as one of those great annual solemnities, the day of Corpus Christi. Its feast was instituted by Urban IV in 1264 and came into force thanks to the Council of Vienna (1311-1312) and, shortly after, by the dispositions of John XXII. The cathedral of Pamplona was distinguished, in past centuries, by a rich ceremonial around the solemnity, and another constant, then and now, which is nothing but its slope towards charity, currently with the Day of Charity. In past centuries, the latter orientation was carried out by a confraternity of welfare function, established under the patronage of Corpus Christi, by Bishop Arnalt de Barbazán in 1317 and still operates in the basilica of San Martin.

There is no doubt that in its early introduction in the Pamplona cathedral, as in those of Calahorra or León, the Way of St. James played a very important role, unlike other peninsular territories, such as those of the Crown of Aragon, where the Papal Court of Avignon was decisive.

Among the milestones of the feast, we cannot fail to mention some dates and certain bishops who, together with the chapter, promoted its celebration. In 1388, Cardinal Martín de Zalba, before leaving for France, published, with the consent of the chapter, a "New Rule of Corpus Christi" in March 1388, which did not introduce the feast that had already been celebrated since 1320, but rather regulated its feast and Octave, if they coincided with other feasts of the liturgical year.

The 16th century would be decisive in the configuration of all the Corpus Christi celebrations in the church. We do not know who paid for the monstrance in the middle of the century, although we know the canon who had it gilded in 1579, Don León de Goñi, nephew of the famous humanist Don Remiro de Goñi, great benefactor of the Hospital of the city. In those years of the second half of the fifteenth century, the confraternity founded centuries ago by Bishop Barbazán invested part of its funds in the solemnization of the procession. The cathedral procession became the only one in the city by disposition of Bishop Bernardo de Rojas y Sandoval, in the last decade of the same century.

Since 1584, the procession was animated by the serpent or tarasca -representation of evil and vices, driven away by the King of Kings-, made at the expense of the City Council and at the initiative of Miguel Aguirre, neighbor of Estella. We cannot fail to mention who ran to position the expenses of its factory and repairs, nothing less than don Basilio de Labrit, grandson by bastard line of the last legitimate king of Navarre. The giants -representatives of the great ones of the land that praise the Eucharist-, first those of the Regiment and then those of the Cabildo, would join the procession.

The Renaissance century had not ended when the bishop don Antonio Zapata, paid for the silver templete, known by then as the silver platform, work of the distinguished silversmith Velázquez de Medrano, with a design from Escorial, making pendant in style with the main altarpiece of the cathedral, today in the parish of San Miguel, made under the sponsorship the same patron and with the design of the aforementioned silversmith, who came to be called "architect of silver", emulating the Sevillian Juan de Arfe, author of a widespread artistic treatise. The pallium was taken to the door of San José by the canons and dignitaries, and there it was taken by the aldermen in golilla costume, making position of the rods according to the order stipulated in 1423 in the Privilege of the Union. We have news of two palliums, the first made in 1598 and another in 1849, at the expense of the City Council of the city. The latter was embroidered by the Augustinian Recollect nuns of the capital of Navarre.

Under the pontificate of don Antonio Venegas y Figueroa (1606-1610), the Corpus Christi festivities reached an unprecedented splendor, in full post-Tridentine fever, becoming triumphal events. We know in detail all the celebrations of the years 1609 and 1610, highlighting the poetry contests and emblems, the sung vespers and a representation before the chapter and the bishop, by the boys or choir boys, of a sacramental auto sacramental "that although brief was mysterious. They came out in pastoral costume and occupied themselves for a while in praising their mayoral, and many in dancing and dancing in the style of the Kingdom. There were eight shepherds, richly and colorfully dressed in many shades of different colors...".

The liturgical ceremonial of the feast of the Corpus Christi is known with precision since the beginning of the XVII century. The vespers had a great solemnity of music and apparatus and that same afternoon, while a Valencian dance, interpreted by those of Aoiz, went through the streets, in the cathedral they took out the giants and the giantess, property of the chapter, until in 1780, they were suppressed by Royal Decree of Carlos III, in which the dances and gigantones were prohibited by little convenient to the "dignity and decorum" of the divine cult, ignoring its significance and the taste of the people.

The traditional route was along the streets Navarrería, Mayor, Taconera, San Antón, place del Castillo and Curia. The order of the parade was configured, with the guilds at the head, the parish crosses, the religious orders, the clergy and the chapter, followed by the palio, the preste, the bishop if he attended, the City Council and the Real committee. Throughout that processional degree program , the Blessed Sacrament stopped on three occasions, in three different altars, the first one next to San Cernin, the second one on the façade of the old bishop's palace - palace of the Condestable - and the third one in San Lorenzo.

In the centuries of the Baroque, the procession had an enormous triumphant content, rather than one of purification or adoration, which would be typical of other moments in history. It was about recreating the evangelical phrase of St. John (XVI,33) "Ego vici mundum". Triumph over evil, represented in the tarasca, the gigantillas and the cabezudos, over the great ones of the earth that came to pay him homage - the giants - and over the city, with music accompaniment, the ringing of bells, the sound of hundreds of arquebuses and with a special rendition of flags, that were extended under the step of the priests that carried the platforms with the templete.

It is evident that the procession, the sung vespers with dancing giants inside the temple, the music inside and outside the cathedral, the aromas of incense and aromatic seeds, the spectacle of rich altars in the streets, hangings, tapestries and pastries, constituted an authentic delight and spectacle for the senses, much more vulnerable than the intellect, captivating those who contemplated those festivities. To all this was added the premiere of carols dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament. We know that the chapel master was obliged to compose several carols during the year, destined to other festivities. In an advertisement printed in 1780 to provide the magisterio de capilla, among the obligations of the future maestro are specified the composition of thirty-six carols, distributed as follows: seventeen for Corpus Christi, seven for the Assumption, another seven for the calenda and matins of Christmas, three for Easter, one for St. Francis Xavier, another for the Immaculate Conception and another for the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. Regarding the lyrics of all those carols, the chapter had determined, in 1730, to watch their contents to avoid that "there was something not corresponding to the gravity of the Divine Offices".

In the same triumphal sense we must interpret the descriptions of the cathedral interior as "image or portrait of heaven", of the choir as "voluntary cage of rational birds that provoke joy and devotion and heavenly paradise" and of the performance of the singers similar to that of the "angels in concert, harmony and composure".

The sounds of the feast were inextricably linked to the liturgy and ceremonial. Music played the role of an authentic "soundtrack", emphasizing moments charged with symbols, rituals that spoke with their gestures, as well as the wordless actions of those who officiated.

Regarding the music in the processional route, we find variants according to the times. In the first half of the 17th century, in the plenary session of the Executive Council during the period of the Triumphant Counter-Reformation, the more music the better, including the minstrels. However, in the second half of the 18th century, parallel to certain enlightened reforms, some of a markedly Jansenizing character, the musical accompaniment was limited to the three carols of the altars and the chants of the clergy, and some drums together with some "whistles" or fifes, interpreting the Grenadier March, today known as the Royal March.

It is significant the repetition in the documentary sources that we have handled in the Cathedral file , of certain expressions, today in disuse, to refer to some of the acts of the festivity. Thus, in reference letter to the Blessed Sacrament, it is spoken of as "our Master" in the documents that deal with the Eucharistic reservation . The blessing of the people with the Monstrance, inside and outside the church, is described as "sanctifying the people" and the stations at the altars in the streets are referred to as "mansions".