The Inmaculate Conception, emblem of the Feminine Firmness

Abstract

The belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary provoked an enthusiasm without precedents in the Spain of the 16th and 17th centuries. This enthusiasm that dragged the peoples of any social condition, covers a specific perception of the inmaculismo translated by the society of the Golden centuries in terms(ends) of Fidelity, Loyalty and Firmness, essential values of the chivalrous ethics. The Inmaculate Conception turns this way into emblem of the Reliability / firmness, an emblem claimed by the population in general and for the nobility –including women– very especially. The defence of the inmaculismo on the part of the Spanish monarchy, owes to itself directly to the Sister's intervention Margarita de la Cruz for whom the inmaculismo was a dynastic devotion inherited from the Queen Isabel, claimed as such by the combative princess. But the defence of the Inmaculate Conception, it had also an ardent supporter in Maria de Zayas, who soldiers in the context of the Complaint of the women, claiming for the feminine public the recognition of the values of Firmness / reliability. The incident of this devotion in Zayas's narrative work, her transcription in terms(ends) of social ethics, they are an object of study and attention in this article.