From Madrid to Purgatory

This Book Reveals The Workings Of A Culture That Cherished Death And Invested Its Resources In The Pursuit Of Heaven. This Is The First Full-Length Study Of Spanish Attitudes Toward Death And The Afterlife In The Peak Years Of The Counter-Reformation. It Contains An Analysis Of The Death Rituals Requested In Hundreds Of Sixteenth-Century Madrid Testaments As Well As A Detailed Account Of The Ways In Which The Good Deaths Of King Philip Ii And Saint Teresa Of Avila Were Interpreted By Contemporaries.