Sacrilegious minds, impious words. Atheism and blasphemy in Catalonia, XVI-XVIII centuries

Abstract

The article analyses the interaction between blasphemous language and atheist content expressions expressed in the current vocabulary of the popular classes in the framework of Catalonia in the XVIXVIII centuries. Through the study of judicial documents draw up by the Inquisition in Barcelona and the literature of post-tridentine catholic moral reform will expose the various interpretations that raised the issue among jurist and theologians, while losing the different sensitivities of social groups and certain professions againts blasphemy and religious disaffection. An irreligious behaviour potentially attributable to the popular reasoning logics or catholic, jewish and muslin religious traditions inheritance in the construction of popular christian blasphemous phraseology.