Franciscans

At the beginning of the 16th century, the foothills of Sierra Morena and its valley were experiencing a turbulent period: demographic and urban growth, a production boom, increased trade, the emergence of large landed estates and the cortijo... There was also growing seigneurial pressure and ongoing tension between the feudal nobility and the emerging modern state, poor harvests, and successive subsistence crises. In this context, there was an unprecedented rise in religious and spiritual concerns, in which neither the Church nor the Tribunal of the Holy Office, established at the end of the 15th century, would remain uninvolved. A broad…