The editors
of the
Crónica
Félix
Torres Amat de Palou
(1772-1849)
was born in Barcelona, a Catholic priest and language expert in charge
of the project. He taught philosophy, mathematics, and theology in
Tarragona, and translated the Bible for the kings of Spain into "vulgar
Castilian". After moving from Madrid to Barcelona in 1817
he became
vicario general, senator of the city, and supported the Trienio
Liberal (1820-1823). Once the monarchy was empowered again, critics accused him of being a Jansenist, a Revolutionary,
and
Freemason. When he began to
edit the
Crónica
of Pujades, he chose Pujol and Bofarull as collaborators who may
have shared his interest in Jansenism, a heretic movement within the
folds of the Church which leaned towards Calvinism. His apologetic biography of
an uncle, an open Jansenist, was put on the Index by the
Vatican, which prevented his election as Bishop
of Barcelona. After completing the Crónica, Torres
retired to the monastery San Jeroni de la Murtra near
Barcelona in 1831, where Pierre de Marca had spent his summers
to write the Marca hispanica. In spite of his questionable
faith he was ordained Bishop of Astorga in 1834 and celebrated
as obispo reformador. He also
continued the work of his late brother Ignasi, a Jesuit, on the "Memorias para
ayudar a formar un diccionario critico de los escritores catalanes
...", published in 1836. (Here is one of
his letters to Bofarull from 1824).
Albert
Pujol Gurena
(1783-1847) was from
Barcelona,
a doctor of theology and the abbot of "Discalced Augustinian Brothers"
who had reformed during the Counter-Reformation
-
but left for a
secular life in 1822. He is probably the most fascinating personage of
this trio of liberals! His friends called him Pujolito because he was
lame (cojo) and "short in stature
-
but large in talents and literary
activities" (1). He taught at Santa Anna, a College in Barcelona, and was a member
of the Academia de Ciencas y Artes
since 1820 as director of various departments while still an abbot.
He founded at the Acadèmia
de Bones Lletres a department of Spanish language, literature and history,
which students could attended for free. Pujol was also secretary of the
Casa Provincial de Caritat (Caritas), co-founder of the
Societat d'Amics del Pais,
active in economics, and presided over numerous commissions to
benefit public education. He became vice-president and rector of the
restored University of Barcelona in 1836, where he taught canon
law, and rector of the
Universitat Literària de Cervera
(1838-41). Biographers point out that he is remembered for
liberal ideas,
eloquent sermons on morality, and inspirational orations and eulogies.
Pròsper
de Bofarull
Mascaró
(1777-1859) was born in Reus, Catalonia, and director of the
Archives of the Crown
of Aragon (1814-1849), president of the Academia de Bones
Lletres de Barcelona (1822), and like Pujades, an erudite historian with a
doctorate in law.
He began his career as a lawyer in Madrid and followed the
Spanish government to the
Cádiz Cortes during the
Peninsular War, where he met his wife. He is described as a "moderate liberal and meticulous person" and
joined the commission to plan the future
Universitat Literària de Barcelona, and a group to save documents from the monasteries
Sant Cugat del Vallès and Santa Maria de Ripoll. After the latter
was secularized, its vast archives
were destroyed by fire in 1835 during the Carlist Wars, and his
work with these documents and the
Crónica inspired
him to write Los Condes de
Barcelona Vindicados, which was published in 1836 and corrects some historical errors.
He
also wrote a pro-Catalan interpretation of the
Llibre
del Repartiment del
Regne de Valéncia in 1838, and became in 1847 a Chevalier of the French Legion d'Honneur.
More research is in progress, but these erudite
Catalans
seem to have been highly qualified to edit the
complex work of Pujades. Their support of the
Crónica
reveals more about the character and humanism of Pujades than
his modern peers. Undoutedly, the editors would have addressed any
ultra-conservative views and especially the religious fanatism and
prejudism Pujades has been accused of lately, if there was any
evidence other than his flowery,
Castilian satires that emulate Cervantes!
The editors
support his difficult task of comparing the revelant chronicles of his
time, and applying his legal expertise as a judge with two doctorates,
in canon and civil law, to find the most logical conclusions, which
he explains in vol. V (Barcelona, 1829) pp. 8-9. Hence, we have to consider
what a team of German
scholars published in 2016, that "a good third" of the documents until the late 12th century about
Louis the Pious are forgeries, and that it led historians in the past to
false conclusions (see
link). This would explain why Pujades had his share of errors four
centuries ago, although
some
were corrected by the editors in footnotes. But his findings anticipated the work of the
Bollandists and the most controversial revise the legends of three
famous monasteries, which the editors did not dispute: 1. St Miquel de Cuixa
was once known as Qur'an or
Coran and
Sunifred of Urgell an iconoclast who "did not venerate the Holy Images." 2.
The Black Madonna of Montserrat may not be the virgin Mary, but the
dark-skinned
countess
Almira and wife of Sunifred. 3. St Pere de Rodes is
not built on the cave where Peter's skull and a vessel with Christ's
blood were allegedly lost, but on Roman foundations which predate and
disprove the
legend.
We
are fortunate that the editors lived right between Pujades and our era, two
hundred years either way, which makes them ideal mediators! They
obviously understood the esoteric messages of Pujades and supported his
ambiguities to facilitate our access.
Two editors
had distinguished careers after the publication of the
Crónica,
with the exception of Torres Amat perhaps. His retirement in 1831 may
have had political reasons because his nomination as
Bishop of Asturga
in 1834 reduced his influence in Barcelona. We still have to
examine how the editors were affected by the Peninsular War, the Carlist
War, and the Spanish exclaustration in 1835. These were undouptedly difficult times, which
could explain why
they announced in vol. 5 of the
Crónica a forthcoming vol. 7
with corrections, revisions and documents, which was never published and
may explain the ultra-conservative foreword by an anonymous author in
the final volume.
Notes
1. Cayetano Barraquer y Roviralta, Las Casas de Religiosos en
Cataluña, Tomo II, (Barcelona, 1906), pp. 199-204.
We
should add that the above portrait of
Félix Torres was difficult to find because most biographies recycle
a picture from his early years as Bible translator, which
doesn't quite match his image as a charismatic reformer and scholar. We found his
portrait in a digital journal from
Astorga, which features his liberal views and reveals he had a clandestine
contact in England, which financed a second edition of his Bible
translation through a Portuguese bank. It also informs us that he lost
his beard and suffered from a serious skin disease.
GRAILGATE
