The constitutions of the synods convened by bishop of Ourense Don Juan de San Clemente (1578-1587)

Abstract

The synodic history of Ourense has had in Canon Duro Peña its main historian who in the Synodicon hispanum published the text and information of the oldest Synods. Of the bishop Don Juan de San Clemente (1578-1587) who would later become archbishop of Santiago, the synod texts of the 5 Synods that he met in Ourense were not known, they were not printed but sent to be copied in the Visiting books of the Parishes, but The books that are preserved from the 16th century are rare, so they have been unknown. We have located in different parishes the mandates of the Synods held in the years 1579, 1582, 1583, 1584 and 1586, which in their determinations add a norm of reforms and behaviors that in other cases would be the result of a single synod. Being unpublished, they enrich this history a lot and are of great interest to better understand the religious life of the Diocese of Ourense at a very particular moment such as the post-council of Trent.