Regulating the People

This study of early modern Spain uses parish records to examine the content of religious practice and belief at the parish level and the success of the Catholic Church's attempt to alter those beliefs during the Catholic Reformation. The first three chapters explore the problems encountered by episcopal Visitors to parishes in the diocese of Ourense in northwestern Spain as they attempted to enforce the ideals of the Catholic Reformation program. The last three chapters use both quantitative and qualitative sources to contrast the expectations of the Catholic Church with parishioner participation in socio-religious activities such as naming, marriage choice, and the composition of testaments. This work is particularly important to scholars of colonial Latin America as it describes the local religion that Spanish colonists brought to the New World.