Instability in the Monasteries of the Region of Rioja at the End of the Middle Ages and the Beginning of the Modern Age

Abstract

The author analyses the situation of the monasteries in the Castilian region of Rioja during the second half of the fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth century. He focuses on those aspects that prove the existence of a notorious instability in the monastic communities. In the first place he alludes to the proliferation of disputes for the access to the office of abbot. He pays particular attention to the disputes that took place during the first decades or the sixteenth century, when the confrontation between reformers and conservatives attained its highest level within the monastic communities. He alludes to the destabilizing effects of the interventions of members of the high nobility in the monasteries at this time. He proves that the conflicts between the monasteries and their vassals became more intense during the first decades of the sixteenth century. He concludes highlighting the contrasts that can be perceived in the evolution of the monasteries of Rioja, on one side, and those of other European regions that were dissolved at this time as a consequence of the Reformation, on the other side.