The royal commission steered the Sacromonte cult toward its eventual decline

Evidence

For example, in 1609, that fateful year, a royal commission on which there served, among others, the Inquisitor-General Cardinal Bernardo de Rojas y Sandoval, Juan de Velasco, constable of Castile, not to mention Luis de Aliaga, the king’s confessor, met seven times, heard the archbishop Pedro Vaca de Castro state his case and found in favor of the relics. On the books the report was more guarded (“they did not seem to contain anything contrary to the faith”), and it called for yet more work on translations. One might indeed see this as in a way a tactful beginning of the end for the Sacromonte cult, for the pieces of lead were now being made subject to critical judgments passed outside Granada, and so, once deprived of enthusiastic local support, they were likely eventually to be rejected or at least downgraded. But since this commission did not make any recommendation against the king assuming the role of patron of the Sacromonte, the cause continued well protected and was still very much alive. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1344

Categorization

• QUESTION: How exactly did moving evaluative authority from Granada to a wider royal commission set up the cult’s decline — was this an intentional containment strategy by the crown?