«Leave Everything to God, is to buy the sky: The vow of poverty, begging and care among dominican castellanos [1460- 1550]

Abstract

In the days of the reform, the Castilian Dominican convents experienced a strong increase of their patrimony, thanks to a favorable conjuncture. The superiors of those Convents considered that the possession of such goods was necessary for the maintenance of the community and subsistence of friars that were eminently intellectual. The embellishment and expansion of the convents’ areas, in turn, at a time when strict poverty was proclaimed, were due to the sacred value granted to the building. Nevertheless, those same prelates made an enormous effort to make sure that the friar was conscious that the vow of poverty turned him, in personal terms, into a poor man. On the other hand, the spirituality of the Dominicans considered the poor –who were associated with Christ– as a redemptive means, which led to the practice of alms.