All things have their beginning and that of the Culminum Magister Cofradia is the logical result of a concatenation of different circumstances that came together at a given moment to bring it to life.
The origin is to be found in the First World Hunting Congress that was inaugurated by King Juan Carlos I in Madrid in 1984. It consisted of two areas: an exhibition of trophies with a large section dedicated to the Spanish, set up by the ICONA, and another very interesting one that gathered almost all the hunting species of the world, work of the Congress, something that had never been seen in Spain; these exhibitions were accompanied by a commercial exhibition of the industry and the venatory trade. The other section was scientific with three symposia: “Hunting in the world” chaired by Mc Elroy, president of the SCI; “Economics and hunting”, chaired by Jean Servat, general administrator of the CIC and “Hunting and nature con- servation”, chaired by Harry Tennison, president of the Game Coin, with speakers as emblematic as the biologist Juan Antonio Valverde and Dr Robert Speegle.
The nucleus of people who organized this event and who later collaborated in the II Congress, this time launched by the Safari Club International in the United States of America (1988), thought, years later, that this initiative should not be lost and decided to continue organizing a commercial fair dedicated to hunting. The event took place in 1996, was held in Madrid and took the name of Venatoria.
As the show was successful, the organizers were encouraged to repeat it with an annual rhythm and sought to provide it with attractions for hunters to get involved in it. In the first edition, the Spanish trophies from the previous season were exhibited, which, in the opinion of the Junta Nacional de Homologación de Trofeos de Caza (National Board for the Scoring of Hunting Trophies), had reached the highest scores and this exhibition was very much appreciated, as it had been twelve years since a national exhibition had been held. Since then the show has exhibited the annual Spanish records on panels that are admired by all attendees.
In view of the success of this exhibition, it was later thought of instituting specific awards to reward the best hunting trophies that the Spanish won each season throughout the world, that is, a repetition of the work of the Junta Nacional de Homologación de Trofeos de Caza (Hunting Trophies Board) but in a foreign version.
The issue could have been very well received because, by then, the Spanish hunters had taken pleasure in knowing, with the rifle on their shoulders, other scenarios and they were the Europeans who hunted the most outside their borders.
There is no doubt that every award is prestigious for the award winners but also for the jury that awards them when it is backed by public recognition of their knowledge and fair criteria. The people who composed it were the most experienced Spanish hunters and universally accepted as such by the hunting world in our country.
Their names were as follows:
President: Enrique Zamácola Millet
Members:
José Domingo de Ampuero and Osma
Nicolás Franco Pascual del Pobil
Valentin de Madariaga Oya
Ricardo Medem Sanjuán
Juan Luis Oliva de Suelves
Ignacio Ruíz-Gallardón García de la Rasilla
Fernando Saiz Luca de Tena
Marquis of Villanueva de Valdueza
Secretary: Marquis of Laula
Very strict rules were established for their award in order to achieve the recognition that was sought and in them the valuation of each trophy was based on three very precise criteria whose importance was decreasing:
1.- Objective difficulty of the hunt.
2.- Appreciation of the species or subspecies in the hunting community.
3.- Quality of the trophy within its species or subspecies.
In short, the spirit of the awards was to distinguish the effort in the hunt more than the size of the trophy. They were required to always be legal according to the rules where they had been made and special emphasis was placed on the fact that the animals had to be wild and indigenous. To assess quality, the lists published by CIC for the European trophies, those of Boone & Crocket or SCI for the Americans, and those of RW and SCI for the rest of the world were followed.
Three categories were established: gold, silver and bronze medals for each of the following continents: Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, and Oceania was excluded because it lacked indigenous species. These medals are given to the owner of the trophy and the hunting agent.
It is curious that, years later, when the Caldesi brothers instituted an award to honour the memory of the great hunter who was their father, they established demands almost identical to those of the Venatoria Awards, which they were not aware of. This proves that, based on the same principles, the same results were achieved and both the Venatoria and Caldesi shows sought excellence and truth in their awards.
During repeated editions, the awards were presented, with general applause, to the foreign trophies won by Spaniards and a relevant fact was confirmed: the experience of the jury during that time discovered that the awards almost automatically fell on the trophies of mountain hunting; this circumstance highlighted that the world of hunting recognized mountain hunting as superior and more appreciated because it represented something like its essence.
The next step was to institute a special award for those hunters who had distinguished themselves in this strenuous practice, for those lovers of silence and solitude who dedicate themselves to the most rugged summits in the most difficult conditions, and to present them as an example for all hunting: the Culminum Magister Award had been born, that is, the “Master of the Summits”, a name that adjusted the title to the performance of the future laureates.
It was necessary to look for an emblem that would fill with its symbolism the spirit that one wanted to highlight and was found in the peregrine falcon, the maximum hunter in nature, which bi- tes in its flight at about 300 kilometers per hour and kills by percussion of its claws turning at the last moment to avoid a frontal collision that, at the speed of its flight, could be deadly for the hunter. The Sevillian artist Chiqui Díaz was commissioned to sculpt the figure of this falcon in bronze and since then this image has been the one of the award . Now it was no longer the hunting trophy that was rewarded, but the execution of a hunter.
In its declaration of principles it was said: “Hunting is an activity inherent to human nature because it is a consequence of the predatory instinct that is imprinted on humans; guided by reason it reaches its fullness with respect for prey and submitting to an ethic. This thought is purified in the harshness of the mountain because it fulfills the three pillars that make up the key to the hunt: the savagery of animals, the effort to which a demanding nature and the uncertainty of the result.
It seems time to briefly develop this philosophy: Hunting is an instinct of human nature and, while urban life has uprooted so many of the most elementary citizens of agriculture, the predatory instinct lives on deep within men and is awakened by hunting. There is no doubt that man is morphologically a predator: the frontal position of his eyes proclaims it. Predatory animals have their visual organs on the same plane in order to obtain a relief.
Vision and thus be able to evaluate the distances and make their attack effective; on the other hand, prey animals have them arran- ged laterally to cover a greater angle of vision, dominate more horizon and discover the dangers in time to flee from them at the impulse of their instinct that acts mechanically as a reflex act.
It is worth recalling here an idea put forward by Ortega y Gasset when speaking of hunting: the superior rank of the predator over the prey (if there is no longer any predation, it is a struggle); the superiority of the predator is essential but it must not be so until it excludes the eventuality of failure.
The very mechanics of hunting requires that success is the result of the maximum surrender of the superior animal, so that relaxation does not degenerate the virtues on which its survival depends. That is why the venator must sometimes impose personal limitations on himself when technological advances break down primitive inequality in his favour, thus distorting the challenge. By renouncing his superiority, the hunter voluntarily restricts his possibilities and pays homage to the game; that is the morality and, why not, the intrinsic elegance of hunting.
Accepting that the predatory instinct is natural, it must, like every instinct in man, be conditioned by his understanding, but there must be some indispensable and necessary conditions for an act of imprisonment to be considered hunting, that is to say, human activity, with a regulating intelligence and a will willing. Therefore, any persecution of prey cannot legitimately be called hunting, because man is a body but also a spirit and the soul improves and elevates instincts. In animals, instinct is a blind law that necessarily determines behavior, but in humans it is understanding and will that determine action. A rational being who accepts the challenge of overcoming with his limited forces nature, perfectly adapted to the environment of wild animals, demands precise requirements that must always be met in order for action to be considered hunting and not harvesting.
First of all, the savagery of the animals in which the essence of the hunt and the justification for death lies in the venatory, because the wild species love their freedom to such an extent that they prefer to give their lives rather than lose them; the hunter kills because it is the only way to apprehend an animal that does not accept to be captured. It is the heart of the venatorium, so any artificial intervention in wildlife must be limited to not mystifying the savagery. If the prey has lost its savagery, does not defend itself and the challenge of intelligence does not occur by defeating the physical superiority of the animal that is the axis of the hunt, this activity no longer makes sense.
A piece of game bred in captivity or previously imprisoned can- not be hunted, it will belong to a venatory species but it is not because it has already been seized. If it is returned in precarious conditions, it should not be considered hunting either, because freedom must be full or it is not freedom.
Another necessary condition is the uncertainty of the outcome. It is not just any prey that is hunted, the venator is selective and only accepts to catch the particular piece that he has set as his target and that is the one he is looking for. If the abundan- ce is great, he will limit that multitude by selecting by old age, sex or any other system that modifies the excess and individualizes his hunt, because the security, the certainty in the hunt, destroys it.
The randomness of the hunt is inextricably linked to the wild life. One way to sweeten that is the contribution of food, since the animals will concentrate in the places where they are distributed, but inevitably the latter will be reduced, since the best method of domestication of wild animals is based on providing them with food so that they lose their aggressiveness and become accustomed to depending on man.
Effort is the third condition for hunting to be worthy of a rational being, i.e. a hunter. Every human work is dignified and appreciated for its effort; what it does not cost is not valued; a hunt so easy that it does not involve moving the will to win does not deserve the name of hunting. The effort is therefore the expression of the challenge that exists between the intelligence of man and the superior physical conditions of the animal, it is the measure of the difficulty that must be overcome.
That effort of the hunter was already noted by Xenophon, five centuries before Christ: “The caçadores would not exceed the others in work, industry, diligence and care, certain is that they would not bring caça. For the wild beasts, which are his adversaries, fight for life, and every man in his habitation is of great strength: so that in vain would be the work of the chaçador but he would overcome them with greater industry and great understanding.
The three conditions mentioned above turn hunting into human activity and not just instinctive, they bring as a corollary a respect for the prey and adorn the venatoria with an ethical condition. Because the acts themselves have no moral qualification, they are indifferent, only the people who execute them are subject to judgment for their actions and if one speaks of ethics in hunting, it means that also in this activity humans must behave in a certain way.
But let us return to our award: it was endowed with a regulation with rigorous requirements, among which the essential legality of the hunts, the obligatory silvestrism of the prey and the autochthonous ones stand out; a few years of practice in the mountain to guarantee the mastery and finally also a number of different species that was fixed at twenty-five, leaving evidence that the importance of this last clause was determined as an index of the curiosity to know different mountainous systems.
The first awards were awarded in 2006 and were received by Nicolás Franco Pascual del Pobil and the Marquis of Laula. The following year, Dr. Jesús Caballero Martínez and D. José Madrazo were the winners of the award and became members of the jury.
The aforementioned members of the jury considered in 2008 that, by rewarding one or two people each year, an injustice was committed with many hunters, lovers of the mountains and regulars of all the mountain ranges of the world, who were left without reward; therefore, and in order to welcome all those who deserved it, the Fellowship Culminum Magister was instituted that did not put limits to the number of members.
The Fellowship Culminum Magister was established and the annual award was also maintained as a tribute by the institution itself to the outstanding figures of this type of hunting. However, awarded two hunters was not considered to correspond to the singular character desired for these awards, and since 2008 only one single hunter has been awarded per year. The novelty was headed by Ricardo Medem Sanjuán, and to this day, the list of the winners is beginning to bring together the best of the mountain hunting inside and outside our borders.
On October 29th, 2011, the Fellowship Culminum Magister was legally constituted as a Spanish association under the Organic Law 1/2002 of March 22nd. The people who sign that act are: Enrique Zamácola president; Ignacio Ruíz-Gallardón y García de la Rasilla, vice-president; José Madrazo, secretary; Fernando Saiz Luca de Tena, treasurer; Nicolás Franco Pascual del Pobil,board member; Marquis of Laula, board member. It was registered in the register of associations on October 10, 2012.
The fellow guilds also searched for a motto that would express the essence of hunting in the high mountains, that land of storms and blue skies, of subtle and severe cold air, of hanging meadows and impossible cliffs, where the gaze is lost in horizons that can only be conquered by a firm will. They found it in three concepts: “Silence, solitude, effort.”
The silence. In the mountains, in the great heights, silence has its own entity, you can feel it, it floods and covers everything. It is thick and communicates a touch of unreality to those limitless landscapes that are empty of noise. Nature is deserted, collected on itself, with no other rumour than wind or rain.
Solitude. Man, being sociable by nature, is alone in the mountain, the mountain is empty and he is going to be its only company. The hunter captivated by the heights is a carthusian of the mountain, only in the mountain and with the mountain.
The effort. The mountain demands a continuous effort from its lovers, the steep slopes, the difficulties of all kinds force to abandon the superfluous, even in clothing and baggage because any weight reaches an unusual importance, and that essentiality is transferred to the spirit: a monolithic man is born, who flees from the artificial because only the essential is valid and lasting.
The hunter, finally, finds in the mountain, so pure, so essential, his deep roots, the sensitive overcome by the spirit, the soul illustrating the body. This is the aura that surrounds the mountain hunt and gives it the prestige of being clad in it.
The Brotherhood Culminum Magister is governed by a Board of Directors that also is part of the Jury. Its current composition is as follows. President: Ignacio Ruiz-Gallardón García de la Rasilla; Treasurer: Fernando Saiz Luca de Tena; Archivist: Jesús Caballero Martínez; members: Juan Antonio García Alonso, Nicolás Franco Pasqual del Pobil, Marquis of Laserna and Enrique Zamácola Millet. Secretary not member of the Board: Rafael Sanchez Perez de Villaamil
The Jury is composed by the Board members plus Dr. Miguel Estade Coll.
The candidates to the fellowship must meet the following requirements:
a) Having received an express invitation from the Board of Directors, through the Secretary, to present his candidacy.
b) Fill in the application form to join the Fellowship Culminum Magister and send it before 1 of June each year to the e-mail: secretario@culminummagister.com
(c) Had hunted in the mountains of at least three continents. You have to have ambition from other landscapes, the one who hasn’t hunted in Asia is still a toddler.
(d) have obtained the first mountain trophy at least 10 years before the date of submission of the application. The fellowship is for teachers, not novices
e) Having hunted, in compliance with the legislation of each place, on open land without fences that would prevent their free movement, according to traditional behaviour and without artificial aids, 25 or more animals of different species, which must be wild, free and native, of those on the list approved by the Broterhood Culminum Magister.
The Brotherhood Culminum Magister wishes to point out that the demand for a certain number of trophies does not imply a hunting valuation, but the demonstration of passion for the mountain and the interest in knowing the different hunts offered by the different mountain systems. The Fellowship Culminum Magister values the hunting area more than the species you get.
The candidates proposed by the Board of Directors and approved by the Jury receive a diploma that accredits them as members of the Culminum Magister and a silver pin with the reproduction of the sculpture of the falcon, emblem of the Fellowship. Joining the Cofradia is a public recognition of his merits as a mountain hunter with an ethical career and, in addition, makes his candidacy for the Culminum Magister Award a lifetime one.
The Board of Directors with the Jury, appoints annually from among the fellows, the one that, in their opinion, is worthy of the Culminum Magister Award, for which it is based on the hunting trajectory, the wide and contrasted experience in mountain hunting, the literary or artistic work, the contributions to the world of hunting and the difficulty of the trophies obtained. The Award consists of a diploma and a bronze sculpture by the artist Chiqui Díaz representing a falcon, symbol of the hunter in nature. The Culminum Magister Awards pin is gold.
The Culminum Magister Award and the diplomas and pins of the Fellowship Culminum Magister are presented during the annual assembly
