Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/75

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BULL-FIGHT


51


BULL-FIGHT


tine Theiner for various countries under the general heading of "Vetera Monumenta".

With regard to the early centuries, where no origi- nals of official copies exist to which we can make appeal, the task of distinguishing genuine from spurious papal letters becomes exceedingly delicate. The collection of Dom Coustant, "Epistola; Ro- manorum Pontificum" (Paris, 1721), is of the high- est value, but the compiler only lived to carry nis work down to the year 440, and A. Thiele, who con- tinued it, brought it no further than 553. Some further help has been furnished by Hampe, regard- ing the papal letters to Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, and by Hirsch-Oerenth for Sergius II. For practical purposes the chief court of appeal for an opinion on all early papal documents is the "Regesta Pontificum Romanorum" of Jaffe, much improved in its second edition by its editors, Wattcnbach, Ewald, Kaltenbrunner, and Lowenfeld. In this a brief synopsis is given of all existing papal docu- ments known to be in existence, from the time of Peter to that of Innocent III (1198), with indica- tions of the collections in which they have been printed and with an appendix dealing with spurious documents. This most useful work has been con- tinued by Potthast to the year 1304 (2 vols., Berlin).

It may be added that compendiums have also been published of the " Bullarium Romanum" as printed in the eighteenth century. Of these the most valuable is probably that of Guerra "Pontificiarum Constitutionum in Bullario Magno contentarum Epitome" (4 vols., Venice, 1772), which possesses a very complete and useful index. Commentaries upon the bullarium or upon large portions of it have been published by the Jesuit J. B. Scortia (Lyons, 1625), by the Dominican, M. de Gregorio (Naples, 1648), and by Cardinal Vincent Petra (Rome, 1705- 26). Finally, attention may be called to the impor- tant Bulls contained in a useful little volume recently edited by Galante "Fontes Juris Canonici" (Inns- bruck, 1906).

No long bibliography is needed for an article which is itself bibliographical. Ortolan in Dirt, de thiol, rath.. II. 1243- 55, with fuller details regarding monastic and other bullaria. See remark, page 49. col. 2, under sub-title The Luxemburg Bullarium. Geisar in KirchenUx., 11, 1479-82; I'itra, Anna- lecta SoUsmenaia Noviasima (Frascati, 1885); Phillips, Kirrhenrecht (Ratisbon, 1845), IV, 483 sqq.; Wernz, Jus Decretalium (Rome, 1905), 1, 379.

Herbert Thurston.

Bull-Fight, The Spanish. — Neither the English term nor the German (Sliergcjccht) used to designate this popular diversion of the Spaniards, can be said to express adequately the essential idea of the Spanish corrida de toros.

Great has been the discussion as to the origin of this spectacle. Some attribute it to the Roman Circus, where men contended with wild beasts, among them wild bulls; others — Don Nicolas de Moratfn, for example — to the customs of the ancient Celti- berians. As Spain was infested by wild bulls, first necessity and afterwards sport led to this personal combat. In this opinion, indeed, is to be found what might be called the philosophic origin of the bull-fight. Man, surrounded by wild natural con- ditions, saw himself obliged to struggle with wild beasts in order to protect himself from thorn; and as the peoples naturally acclaimed as heroes those who slew in single combat these ferocious animals, so, when the necessity of protecting life had ceased, brave men still sought glory in these struggles. (In this connexion the killing of the Calydonian boar by the vEtolians, as related by Homer, the legend of Hercules and the Nemean lion, the Catalonian legend of Wilfrid slaying the Tarasque, and the Swiss legend preserved by Schiller in his "Wflliam Tell", with many others of a like nature, suggest themselves as examples.) But if, putting aside these a priori


considerations, we turn our attention to historical facts, we shall find that the Spanish bull-fight origi- nated in a Moorish custom.

To understand this better if will be necessary to distinguish between three kinds of bull-fights: (1) cdbaUerescas, (2) popular es, and (3) yladiatorias.

(1) The corridas caballerescas had their origin, without a doubt, in the usages of the Arabo-Spanish jinetes (cavaliers or mounted men-at-arms) who, to accustom themselves to the activities of war, occu- pied themselves in time of peace with exercises in the use of arms, among which exercises were fights with wild bulls; the Moorish cavaliers fought on horseback, killing the bulls with spears, thus com- bining courage with knightly address. From his- torical sources we know that the Cid Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar was the first Christian to vie with the Aral) knights in the sport of killing fierce bulls, spearing several from his horse in the 11th century, to the en- thusiastic admiration of Ferdinand I of Castile. The lawyer Francisco de Cepeda, in his "Resumpta Historial de Espana". assures us that in 1100 there were bull-fights for the public, and that in Leon there was a bull-fight on the occasion of the marriage of Dona Urraca, daughter of Alfonso VIII, to the King Don Garcia of Navarre. These corridas cdbaUerescas reached the highest degree of splendour in the reign of John II, when plazas began to be built, as we see by a story of the Marques de Villena. The marriage of John II to Dona Maria de Aragon (20 October, 141S) was celebrated by corridas in Medina del Campo. In the last epoch of the recon- quest, the intercourse, frequent in times of peace, between the Spaniards and the Moors of Granada — where bull-fights were held until the time of Boabdil

■ — resulted in an increase of valour among the Chris- tian cavaliers, and a desire to demonstrate it in this dangerous sport.

(2) From this time the bull-fight developed into a popular amusement, and became so rooted in the affections of the Spanish people that neither Isabella the Catholic, who wished to suppress it, nor Philip II, nor Charles III, dared issue an order that would prohibit it absolutely. The Emperor Charles V, although he had not been educated in Spain, killed a bull during the festivities held in Valladolid to cele- brate the birth of his son Philip. The first Bourbons were educated in France and naturally did not display much fondness for the popular corridas de toros. The corridas populares, heritage of the Mo- hammedan population, more especially in Valencia and Andalusia, differ from the caballerescas in their democratic character. Hulls not quite so ferocious are selected and are fought on foot, sometimes in an enclosure formed of wagons and planks, sometimes through the streets, in which case the bull is generally tied to a long rope. In these corridas populares the bull is not killed, but after the populace has amused itself with the bull, provoking him, and then fleeing from his attack, a tame cow is let loose and the bull follows her quietly to the pen. Generally the bull is taken to the slaughter-house and the meat used for the feasts that follow.

(3) The corridas gladiatorias are those in which the participants arc professionals, and these are the ones which have given rise among foreigners to so much criticism of this popular diversion of the Span- iards. Francisco Romero, a native of Honda, about the middle of the eighteenth century, sets forth in the " Arte Taurino (Tauromaquia) the rules which are the guiding principle of these contests. Romero invented the muhUi. a scarlet cloth laid oyer a stick, used to attract the attention of the hull, and he was the first to kill a bull on foot and face to face. His skill was inherited by his son Juan, and his grandsons, Pedro, Jos6. and Antonio. Alter this the different skilful manoeuvres (sucrtis) that give variety to the