La representación de los grandes prelados franciscanos a través de las crónicas de época barroca

Resum

During the Baroque period, the coexistence of a large number of religious orders within the Hispanic Monarchy caused an increasing competition between these institutes, an issue that was echoed in the publications of that time. It emerged a literature with historiographical contents, known by the generic name of chronicles, which built official histories in order to strengthen the prestige and the reputation of each institute. A wide list of works were written to tell about their glorious origins, memorable milestones and conventual foundations, adding hagiographies and edifying biographies of the saints and venerable religious from each one of these orders. Focusing on the biographies, we find out that these volumes also used to contain extensive profiles on prelates of enormous relevance in those centuries. The historical significance these figures had for the order and the service they rendered to the monarchs were considered good arguments for having their names written with golden letters in the respective chronicle. In this work we will focus on chronicles produced by the Franciscan order, analyzing the representation their authors made about those brothers who were part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, as well as the contribution of such portraits to the apologetic discourse that these compendiums helped to build and spread.