God in La Mancha : religious reform and the people of Cuenca, 1500-1650

Author / Creator

Nalle, Sara Tilghman

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Summary

Even as the Protestant Reformation became a permanent feature of European religious culture, a Catholic reformation was under way in Spain. Yet social historians of the Counter Reformation have wri...

Even as the Protestant Reformation became a permanent feature of European religious culture, a Catholic reformation was under way in Spain. Yet social historians of the Counter Reformation have written little about this movement, concentrating instead on those of Germany, France, and Italy. Sara Nalle explores this long-overlooked history in God in La Mancha, a case study of religious change in the Castilian diocese of Cuenca. A prosperous, religiously conformist diocese located in the heart of Europe's most militantly Catholic monarchy, Cuenca had religious concerns that were typical of central Castilian - and even Italian - dioceses that were politically stable, religiously orthodox, and well-to-do. Throughout the sixteenth century, diocesan authorities, inquisitors, and local elites worked to retrain the clergy, catechize the laity, and enforce revitalized norms of Catholic belief and morality. Using the records of local religious courts, parishes, and notarial archives, Nalle shows in striking detail how the people and clergy of Cuenca learned to conform to the new standards of modern Catholicism. God in La Mancha will be a key book in the study of the Counter Reformation's impact on popular behavior and belief. Its conclusions regarding the movement's success will stimulate further debate about the nature of religious reform in early modern Europe.

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