The Basques have long attracted the attention of anthropologists, who are fascinated by the people's unique social customs. Historians of early modern Spain also have found much to interest them, as the Basques were intrepid fishermen, shipbuilders, and merchants as well as famous missionaries, saints, and, occasionally, witches. Until now, however, a little-known and largely forgotten feature of Basque life has eluded historical study. These were the seroras, unmarried women who served churches and rural chapels from medieval times until the institution was suppressed by the Bourbon monarchy in 1769.
In her gracefully written first book, Amanda Scott devotes an introduction, seven short chapters, and a conclusion to the history of this unique Basque institution. Scott argues convincingly that there was nothing quite like the seroras either in Spain or anywhere else. Like other lay religious women, they practiced celibacy and sometimes lived together in one house, called a seroría, but unlike others, they never became tertiaries. The seroras’ primary duty was to maintain the church or chapel attached to their seroría, but it would be a mistake to think of them as sacristans. Although their duties were similar, they were also supposed to have a superior religious calling. Yet, they clearly were nothing like Castilian beatas, whose piety and occasional religious athleticism could attract hordes of followers, raise suspicious scrutiny from the inquisitors, and inspire biographers. The seroras were emphatically tied to their natal communities, often serving a church or chapel associated with their own family. Indeed, one of the peculiarities of Basque family structure was that the institution of a single, universal heir (male or female) forced the other siblings to either emigrate or remain on their ancestral farmstead (basseria) in one large, extended family. Serving in the local church and living in the seroría might have been an attractive alternative for a woman who otherwise faced spending her life as a spinster in her family's home.
In one chapter devoted to the Catholic Reformation and local religion, Scott argues that the seroras preserved their unusual status because the bishop of Pamplona was primarily focused on reform of the lower clergy. With an agreement to submit to an examination and licensing, the institution was allowed to continue forward unchanged and little noticed. Because the seroras served for decades at a time while the priests came and went, the seroras provided continuity and ensured that norms would be followed. Far more consequential for the institution was the Bourbon reform of 1769, which Scott examines in the final chapter of the book. In an effort to streamline the Spanish church and save expenses, not without local resistance, the seroras were replaced by male sacristans and ultimately forgotten.
Scott sifted through mountains of notarial, diocesan, inquisitorial, and civil court records for information about seroras. The results are organized into three chapters, one describing seroras and their communities through testaments and other contracts, another about transgressions, primarily drawn from inquisitorial cases involving accusations of witchcraft, and a third about conflict and community, based on proceedings from civil and religious courts. Because of the sporadic nature of the documentation, observing change over time was not possible. That said, most of the cases of wills, witchcraft, or instances of conflict in the community date from the latter part of the sixteenth century through the late seventeenth century.
Scott finds that the seroras were generally well liked and did their jobs well, but as part of a community, inevitably, some seroras ran into difficulties with their neighbors, fellow seroras, and priests. Scott points out that the seroras’ unusual freedom from male supervision at times led to gender-fueled complaints about seroras having too much fun at all-night gatherings or just being too uppity for their own good.
For all its careful research into the primary sources and measured conclusions, the book comes up short in some ways. Scott's decision to examine the life of the seroras in their communities without first knowing more about the overall social and demographic picture was a strategic decision that leaves this reader puzzled. The author did not establish some basic information about the institution, such as: how many seroras were there? We learn that one “town” of eight to ten households (about 100 people at most) supported two seroras, an astonishing statistic that begs for an explanation. Diocesan licensing and visitation records would have supplied some context, but their omission is not explained.
Another concern is the author's lack of engagement with the voluminous historiography on any number of topics touched on in the course of the book. Her reluctance to do so limits her analysis. A simple example would be that Scott found that seroras were implicated in all-night parties at rural chapels and complaints about the Tridentine order that priests could not hold a mounted lady's horse by the crupper. She does not note that these were common complaints elsewhere. On a deeper level, never once does Scott ask how demographic change during this period might have impacted women's lives, perhaps forcing more women into serorías (but why not convents as well?) as marriage prospects dwindled in the seventeenth century.
In the end, The Basque Seroras is a modest monograph that describes an unusual institution that gave some women a great deal of agency in a society that otherwise limited their life choices. In her conclusion, Scott celebrates the seroras’ success in escaping Tridentine directives that restricted the freedoms of lay religious women while still managing to promote reforms involving local religion. Their most important function was to support the parish's religious life and, through their choice to either obey or ignore diocesan or royal directives, they garnered for their communities a certain amount of autonomy during a period of increasing centralization and conformity.
