Corpus Christi procession

What Alexandre Herculano wrote in O Monge de Cister about the Corpus Christi procession in the Middle Ages applies in large part to Madeira. Here too, as old documents show, the festival had a burlesque character unbefitting religious ceremonies.

The Archive of the Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal) of Funchal records a ‘regimento e ordenança’ (regulations and ordinance) dated 1483, which laid down the order in which the various guilds obliged to take part in the procession were to walk.

According to this document, the crossbowmen with their crossbows were to lead the cortège, followed by the almuinheiros (market gardeners) with their almuinhas, and then the town criers, the day labourers or pack-saddle makers, the muleteers, the butchers with their emperor and king, the weavers, the furriers with the gato paúl, the potters, tile makers and glassmakers, the grocers, spice merchants and apothecaries, the harness makers, the shoemakers and tailors, the ropemakers, the fishermen, the masons and carpenters with the engenhos, the vine growers and coopers with the tower, the armourers and barbers with the Sagittarius, the carriers and candle makers, the brokers, the bell-founders, the sugar masters, the notaries and the merchants.

The ‘Resposta do Duque a alguns apontamentos’ (the Duke’s reply to certain points), also of 1483 and recorded in the same Archive, ordered that the merchants should walk with torches in the Corpus Christi procession ‘ante a gayolla’ (before the cage), and that the merchants, notaries and other craftsmen should accompany the procession with candles and banners, likewise placing themselves in front of the ‘gayolla’, under penalty of a fine of one mark of silver (marco de prata, c. 230 g of silver). The same fine applied to ‘as mulheres dos privilegiados que são regateiras’ (the wives of privileged men who are market hawkers) if they failed to accompany the ‘procissões regias’ (royal processions).

There is an order of 1468 requiring ‘those of the village (lugar, settlement rank below a town) of Câmara de Lobos (‘seals’ den’) to come with their trades to the Corpus Christi procession’, and in 1502 it was ordered that in the towns the procession should be held ‘on the Sunday after the day itself’. We read in ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) that at the church of Lançarote Teixeira, son of Tristão Vaz Teixeira, ‘sixty knights of the golden spurs, very finely turned out’ used to gather in Machico, and that ‘when St John’s Day or Corpus Christi came round, there were so many horsemen for cane games (jogos de canas, equestrian tournament with thrown canes) and skirmishes that it looked more like an army in the field than a festive holiday.’

So many ridiculous and perhaps even indecent acts were committed, both here and in Portugal, when the Corpus Christi procession took place that in 1565 a royal decree (alvará régio) was issued, recorded in the Archive of the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal), ordering that no profane things or masks be allowed in churches and processions, under penalty of a fine of 1,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis), or of penal exile (degredo) for a repeat offence.

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In the Corpus Christi procession held in Funchal in 1603,’ says Senhor Fortunato de Almeida in volume 3 of his História da Igreja em Portugal, ‘there were disorders and scandals, because the vicar-general left the place that belonged to him in order to walk in the procession with his officers, watching whether anything indecent was being done in it. When the bishop brought these events to the king’s attention so that measures might be taken for the future, the monarch decided that in processions the prelates’ vicars could concern themselves only with the government of ecclesiastical persons. If among the laity any excess were committed, or anything resulting in irreverence towards the Holy Sacrament, or towards the relics and sacred objects carried in the processions, the vicars, as the competent judges they were in law, could and should deal with such excesses and order whatever seemed fitting to them; but outside such an occasion they were not to interfere in the government of the laity, nor leave the place in which the clergy walked, even if they said they wished to do so in order to watch for and prevent such incidents.

Pantaleão de Sá e Melo, who was appointed governor-general of Madeira in 1694, imprisoned three councillors (vereadores) on the occasion of a Corpus Christi procession for ‘defending the jurisdiction of His Majesty’ in that procession. In 1725 and 1726 two councillors were imprisoned for the same reason at the bishop’s request, the arrest being carried out by Governor Francisco da Costa Freire.

What the Council called ‘defending the jurisdiction of His Majesty’ was opposing, by whatever means were within its reach, any attempt by anyone to occupy in the procession the place of honour that rightfully belonged to it.

The abuses and excesses committed by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities led the Council in 1732 to petition the Government that its members should not be liable to arrest by those authorities, but we do not know what decision this request received.

An old book of official letters and representations kept in the archive of the Funchal Municipal Council contains the account of another conflict between the Senate (senado, the municipal council) and the governor, once again over the Corpus Christi procession. We shall try to summarise that account:

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When the governor and captain-general José Correia de Sá made known his intention of walking behind the canopy, together with the knights of the habit of Christ, in the Corpus Christi procession due to take place on 21 May 1762, the Council sent the municipal procurator (procurador do concelho) to ask him “that, for the service of His Majesty, he should not seek to disturb the good harmony that ought to exist between the Senate and the governors, nor alter the legitimate custom always practised, thereby violating the regulations of the Council and the royal warrants (provisões); for on this island it had never been the custom for the knights of the Order of Christ (Ordem de Cristo) to attend the said procession, but should they wish to attend, they should walk in the body of the procession, in the place belonging to the said Order; behind the canopy, however, or holding its poles, they could not walk, both because this had never been the custom and because the place behind the canopy belonged to the Senate, and it was for the Senate alone to choose who should carry the poles of the canopy, not only because the direction of the procession belonged to the Council, but also because it had always been the unalterable custom that, by order of the Senate of the Council, the poles of the canopy were carried by those of the governing body (governança, the notables eligible for municipal office) – from the Cathedral to the College of São João Evangelista (St John the Evangelist) by the married men, and from the said College to the Sé by the unmarried men and those who had already served as councillors, bearing torches – and all this by order of the Senate”.

To this representation the governor replied ‘that he would always walk with the said knights, as he had determined’. And indeed, on the said day, 21 May, the violence prepared by that authority was carried out, and the Council found itself compelled to allow others to occupy the place of honour that rightfully belonged to it.

The Council complained to the Desembargo do Paço (the king’s supreme court of justice) of the scant consideration with which the governor had treated it and of the violence he had used against it. In reply came the royal decree (alvará) of 2 April 1763, which established that the Municipality’s place was behind the canopy, as had already been laid down by the regulations of 18 August 1508 and confirmed by a warrant of 28 February 1755. It was further ordered on the same occasion that the councillors (capitulares) should hold the poles of the canopy as far as the door of Funchal Cathedral (Sé), the honour thereafter falling to the persons of the governance (pessoas da governança, notables eligible for municipal office), chosen by the Council, as has already been said above.

In the Corpus Christi procession held in Funchal in 1801, Governor Dom José Manuel da Câmara placed himself behind the canopy and in front of the Senate, which gave rise to protests from that body. The following year the same governor had the juiz de fora (crown-appointed judge from outside the district), president of the Council, informed that he had resolved to take the first pole on the right of the canopy, next to the members of the Senate, as soon as the councillors let go of the poles, and then to follow the procession behind the canopy. In reply to this communication, the Senate once more reminded the governor of the provisions of the royal decree of 1763 already cited, adding, however, that if he wished to hold the poles with the juiz de fora he might do so, and likewise with the councillors or with the persons of the governance, since these were of the same standing as the councillors.

In the last years of the constitutional period the poles of the canopy were carried by the commanders and knights of the various orders, who were invited by the Municipal Council. The Council usually ceded to the authorities the right, which it held under old charters, to walk behind the canopy. The municipal standard, which after 1835 came to be carried by the youngest councillor (vereador), had been borne in the days of absolutism by the municipal procurator (procurador do concelho).

We do not know when the Corpus Christi procession ceased to be a burlesque ceremony – with its train of market gardeners carrying their garden produce, butchers with their emperor and king, furriers with their ‘gato paúl’, etc., etc. – and took on the decent and serious appearance proper to religious ceremonies. It may be supposed, however, that this happened at the end of the first or the beginning of the second quarter of the 18th century, after the royal letter (carta régia) of 27 May 1724, which ordered that games, dances and figures, even those representing saints, be removed from the procession, the only exceptions being the image of St George and some processional litters (andores) that the brotherhoods might wish to carry of their own accord. The royal decree (alvará) of 1565 seems not to have had the desired effect, for, as we have seen, as late as 1603 the vicar general still thought it necessary to watch whether ‘indecent things’ were being done in the Corpus Christi procession.

The persons of the governance (pessoas da governança, notables eligible for municipal office) were obliged, on pain of imprisonment, to accompany the procession. As late as June 1820, letters of notice were sent to Aires de Ornelas Cisneiros and António Venâncio de Ornelas ordering them to report to the Pico (‘peak’) fortress ‘for having failed to appear to carry the poles of the canopy’, and a warrant was later issued for their arrest for having disregarded the Council’s invitation.

The Corpus Christi procession was once accompanied by an image of St George, which is today in the building of the Funchal Municipal Museum (Museu Municipal do Funchal). The image rode on horseback and had a staff made up of members of the leading families, who joined the procession on horseback, dressed in rich costumes of velvet and silk. It was customary, a few days before the procession, for the Council to write to the market inspectors (almotacés) to make the horse-hirers lend their horses to accompany the saint, and at the beginning of the 19th century the bloodletters’ trade elected a steward (mordomo) ‘to provide the cavalry’ for the procession.

The image of St George ceased to appear in the Corpus Christi procession around 1857, and since then it has always been kept in a room of the town hall (Paços do Concelho), stored in a cupboard. It is said that when the image was placed on the horse it did not hold a proper rider’s posture, leaning now to the right, now to the left, and that it was to avoid unpleasant remarks from the public that the bishop forbade it to appear in the procession.

The image was made in Lisbon and until 1823 was entrusted to the keeping of the Guild (grémio) of the Trades, which, it seems, had nowhere to house it. It was to prevent acts of disrespect or damage to it that the Council was allowed to take charge of it, ‘not as owner, but to keep it clean and decent’. It was kept in the chapel of the town hall, at the time when the latter stood in the Largo da Sé, in the building of the since-demolished gaol. The mantle in which the image appeared in the procession, and which we ourselves saw, had been presented to it by the Municipality in 1823 (1921). All the confraternities of the municipality (concelho) took part in the Corpus Christi procession, and the rear was brought up by the available troops, both first-line and second-line troops (segunda linha, reserve militia). In our own day the troops fired three volleys after the procession returned to the Cathedral, and a 21-gun salute was also fired by the Fort of Nossa Senhora da Conceição do Ilhéu (Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Fort of the Islet) as the Blessed Sacrament left the church.

An interesting article by a learned priest of this island, published in the review A Esperança of 15 March 1923, states that in 1578 the inhabitants and the sugar masters and refiners of the town (vila) of Ponta do Sol were obliged to accompany the Corpus Christi procession held there, carrying torches of their own and sugar canes in their hands, and that the farmers were also obliged to join the procession, bearing ears of grain, vine branches, garlands and sugar canes. At the Corpus Christi festivities held in the same town in 1599, the stewards appeared with their ‘folgares’, which, as can be gathered from a document of 1610, were ‘a sword dance with its music, of seven dancers.’

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There was never an image of St George in the town of Ponta do Sol. The warlike saint was represented in the same procession by a master blacksmith, mounted on a horse, with two squires at his side, likewise of flesh and blood;

On the subject of ‘saints of flesh and blood’, we may add that there are still people who remember seeing, at religious festivities held in the countryside, St John the Baptist and St Mary Magdalene represented by a boy and a girl dressed in costumes suited to the parts they had to play.