“Cuestión moral: si el chocolate quebranta el ayuno eclesiástico” (“The question of morality: does chocolate violate church fasting ”) - 1636 book by the Spanish historian about the role of chocolate drinks in 17th century European society [1] .
| Cuestión moral: si el chocolate quebranta el ayuno eclesiástico | |
|---|---|
| Qvestion Moral. Si el chocolate quebranta el ayuno eclesiástico | |
 Cuestión moral. Si el chocolate quebranta el ayuno eclesiástico, Madrid, 1636 | |
| Author | |
| Original language | Spanish |
| Original published | 1636 |
History
The book was written in the 17th century, when a chocolate drink became very popular in Spain . Drinking a chocolate drink was widespread in the Mexican religious , and later the highest social strata of European society. The polemic of the church authorities about the alleged stimulating effect of the drink led to the prohibition of its use in churches in 1681 [1] .
Contents
The book examines the temptations, fantasies and fears associated with the chocolate drink that made a splash in Madrid at the beginning of the 17th century. The author considers various views on the object of desire - chocolate - including the opinions of theologians and moralists who have never tasted this drink. This collection of opinions, often opposed and therefore controversial, is the value of the book [1] .
According to the Mexican historian Antonio Rubial García ( Spanish Antonio Rubial García ), the consumption of chocolate occurred against the backdrop of a polemic between those who perceived things brought from America as “decadent, disgusting, imperfect” and those who defended their dignity and beauty [2] .
The book indicates that the chocolate drink was invented by pre-Hispanic indigenous peoples of America and used in rituals that were carried out exclusively by nobles and priests. When the Spaniards adopted the chocolate drink, they modified it by adding products such as sugar , vanilla , and cinnamon to the recipe, and also expanded its scope to all social strata [2] .
The use of chocolate became a mechanism of socialization and a symbol of festivity, provoking a ban on it in Carmelite monasteries, in which it was considered a violation of the statutes of monastic life [2] . Mexican historian M. Mercè Gras Casanova argues that the chocolate drink was considered so unusual and exquisite that religious authorities considered its consumption as sin because it was "the antithesis of the rigor and asceticism that any good Christian should have" [3] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 Cuestión moral: Si el chocolate quebranta el ayuno eclesiástico: [] . - Mexico: Centro de Estudios de Historia de México Carso, 2015 .-- P. 18.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Rubial García, Antonio. Antonio de León Pinelo. Cuestión moral, si el chocolate quebranta el ayuno eclesiástico (Spanish) // Estudios de Historia Novohispana. - Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas UNAM, 1995. - January.
- ↑ Gras Casanovas, M. Mercè. Una peligrosa tentación. La controversia religiosa sobre el chocolate en la España de los siglos XVI al XIX (Spanish) // Historia y Sociedad. - National University of Colombia, Medellin, 2002. - March.