El deán burgalés Calderón de la Barca (1704-1773). Un modelo de clérigo en el Setecientos

Abstract

The life cycle of don Alonso Calderón de la Barca, former dean of the Chapter Cathedral of Burgos between 1743 and 1773, allows, in my view, a critical analysis of the multiple situations of patrimonialization, commodification and negotiating church benefits in the Old Regime. His biography, prosopography as an experimental study, dive us into the idiosyncrasies, pathological tendencies and events, ordinary or traumatic, of a midsize Cathedral, located a pre-industrial city impoverished from their golden era, and a Chapter struggling to maintain its economic expectations and their autonomy from Rome and Madrid. The deanery of Calderón de la Barca was neither bland nor exceptional, but rather the realization of the common custom in cathedrals of the modern age but with a touch of acidity, caused by desires, plots and frustrations of someone who misused his power without ever getting, however, which was the main objective of his existence, the bishopric.