Resumen de Holy Folly and Simplicitas during the Counter-Reformation
The play studied is Lope de Vega’s El rústico del cielo, whose protagonist is the discalced Carmelite Fr. Francisco del Niño Jesús. Aragüés analyses this work in the context of other similar writings by the playwright and the general context of the theme of holy folly and sacred simplicity in the Counter-Reformation, during which the concepts of humility and obedience acquired new connotations due to the religious controversies. After reviewing the texts that the playwright dedicates to holy fools and holy simpletons, Aragüés delves into the most significant features of El rústico del cielo, which concern the plot and the characterisation of the protagonist, whom Lope met personally. Lope accentuates the rusticity of the character and opposes it to the vanity of wisdom, represented by the university students of Alcalá and the allegorical characters of Pride and the Demon. The reading that Aragüés offers us, and its connection with other works on the same subject, shows that such texts are a counter-reformist promotion of the virtues of obedience, self-denial and self-humiliation, and the acceptance of the mysteries of faith, that is, a reaffirmation of a tradition that goes back to the story of the Passion and Paul’s own reflections on the “folly of the cross”.
