Grace, sin and marriage between Mateo Alemán and Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda

Abstract

The influence of de auxilis divinae gratie, a theological dispute between Jesuits and Dominicans at the end of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, can clearly be detected in contemporary novels, such as Mateo Alemán’s Guzmán de Alfarache (1599/1604) and Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda’s apocryphal Quixote (1614). Both texts turn theological issues into fictional matter in a similar way through the use of Catholic sacraments of Marriage and Holy Orders as literary motifs and by taking sides in favour of Dominican positions.