2 March 2011

Course 

THE CATHEDRAL OF PAMPLONA. A VIEW FROM THE 21ST CENTURY

The Cathedral and the Institutions of the Kingdom

Juan José Martinena.
A.C. of the Real Academia de la Historia (Royal Academy of History)

For centuries, Pamplona Cathedral was the nucleus and soul of the life of the city and the Kingdom. In its Gothic naves the oaths of the kings and princes of the Houses of Austria and Bourbon were celebrated. The Te Deum resounded vibrantly at royal visits and the terrible Dies Irae at funerals. At conference room de la Preciosa, in the magnificent cloister, the Cortes and the Diputación once met.

The most solemn act of those held in the cathedral was that of the crown prince's oath to keep and enforce the fueros of Navarre, followed by that of the Cortes, promising him loyalty and obedience "as to the natural King and lord, heir and legitimate successor of this Kingdom". The stage for this ceremony was set up occupying the section from Wayside Cross to the chapel of San Gregorio, next to the door of the cloister. Philip II attended in person in 1592 and Philip IV in 1646.

The Diputación del Reino, prior to application to the chapter, occupied the conference room de la Preciosa with an adjoining room for the file, from 1594 to 1818. The sessions of the Cortes had been held there from time immemorial whenever they met in Pamplona, and from the aforementioned date the sessions of the Diputación also took place there, which were much more frequent and required a permanent office for administrative office.

It is therefore surprising that of the church functions formerly held in the kingdom, and which the Diputación attended with its retinue of sergeants-at-arms, buglers and timpanists, only one, that of the Desagravios, established in 1709, took place in the cathedral. The rest, since the approval by the Cortes of the board of trustees de San Francisco Javier in 1624, were held in the Jesuit church in Calle Compañía. After the expulsion of the monks decreed by Charles III in 1767, they were held in the parish of San Saturnino, then the most important of the four parishes in the city.

Both the bishops and the chapter, which maintained the rule of St. Augustine until 1860, necessarily had to relate to the different institutions of the Kingdom: the viceroy, the Royal committee, the Cortes and the Diputación. Between the 16th and 19th centuries there were times when the civil authorities clashed, on some occasions very seriously, with the ecclesiastical authorities, even within the church itself. These were times in which honours and pre-eminences, sometimes defended to extremes that today may seem improbable, gave rise to multiple and continuous conflicts.

Relations with the viceroy, generally correct and respectful, did experience some incidents, almost always over matters of protocol. One of the most serious took place in 1636, when the bishop was fined a thousand ducats for not having incensed the viceroy Marquis of Valparaíso at a pontifical celebration, to which he responded by excommunicating the viceroy, the regent and several magistrates of the Royal committee and the Royal Court. The conflict reached such magnitude that Philip IV himself had to intervene. In the 18th century, the problems returned with the famous lawsuit over the canopy.

With the Royal Court committee there was also more than one meeting, almost always over issues of conflict of jurisdiction with the ecclesiastical courts, above all over the immunity of the churches in which criminals persecuted by the justice system took refuge. But it was also due to questions of protocol. In 1829, a rather late date for these matters, subject , there was a serious incident when the chapter refused to allow the regent, who was acting as viceroy, to occupy the seat of honour at the funeral of Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony, wife of Ferdinand VII. The court fined the sub-prior one thousand pounds for the contempt, warning that it would be five thousand if the chair was not in place the next day. The chapter yielded, but appealed to the king, who disapproved of the actions of committee and ordered him to return the fine.
 

Rising of the King. Engraving 1686

Precious Door of the Cloister of Pamplona Cathedral. Villaamil

Maceros and King of Arms