Missionaries of Indians according to the First Three Councils of Lima

In the era of the conquest and colonization of Hispanic America, the church had at least two different manifestations: the Spanish church and the missional church. There was a marked difference between the two, beginning with the ethnic groups that made them up, methods of pastoral work, style of liturgy, content of catechesis, ecclesiastical laws, and, even, identities of priests destined to be chaplains of one of the two groups. Practically, from the founding moment the Catholic Church in the New World had the ability to differentiate its apostolic action according to the ethnic group that comprised it. Relatively easy was the implantation of the Spanish church in colonial cities in America. However, the founding of the new church – missional church – required the creation of a new modus operandi of its apostolic action. Such work could not be conferred on any priest or brother who felt called to undertake activities among the Indians, but on men specially selected and prepared in a different way than the secular clergy. The first three Lima Councils and their parallel Councils of México addressed this issue in several of their sessions. The article will seek to present those Indian missionaries who, although sometimes erred, knew how to carry out the mission with solid logic and apostolic courage, obeying the synod instructions.

Vom officium zum beneficium: Lokale Verwaltungsstrukturen im Johanniter-Priorat Alamania während des 13. und frühen 14. Jahrhunderts

From officium to beneficium: Local government structures in the Hospitaller Priory of Alamania during the 13th and early 14th century The paper is about the appointment of commanders for Hospitaller houses in southern Germany during the second half of the thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth century (until c. 1330). No written documents about such appointments are extant from the time and region. The names of the commanders are only known from local charters. Some commanders were changed almost annually. Others stayed on more or less for life. The Hospitaller rule, statutes and consuetudines concerning such appointments are not clear. In the fourteenth century commanders were entrusted their houses either for ten years or for life. Earlier on shorter periods are probable, five years or even only one year, until the next regional chapter. Further research should be devoted to the question whether military-religious orders started with an office whose officers was ad nutum amovibilis, and then changed to procedures known from ecclesiastical benefices held by non-religious, secular clergy for life and from fiefs held by secular knights that were also held for life.

The Salentine Group

Chapter 9 addresses a group of nomocanons produced in the Salento peninsula between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. These manuscripts stand out from the others in the book, as they were not produced for monasteries, bishops, or lay judges, but for the secular clergy and parish priests of the Salento. The chapter explores their distinctive aesthetic style and material characteristics, which are highly consistent across the group but noticeably different from those of other Italo-Greek nomocanons. It also discusses their textual content, pointing out that the manuscripts contain lengthy appendices consisting of texts that would have been of particular interest to Salentine Greek clergy of the late Middle Ages, covering subjects like clerical marriage and Lenten fasting. These were all topics on which the Greek church diverged from the Latin, and it seems that the texts were included as a way to defend the Greeks’ distinctive religious practices. The chapter also highlights a fascinating marginal abbreviation that occurs in multiple Salentine nomocanons, ‘Against the Latins’, which was used by scribes and readers to highlight canons that were felt to be especially useful in this effort.

A Gramscian Perspective on Colonial Baroque

The present study provides a comparative analysis of whitewashed stucco moldings and polychrome gilded altarpieces, major elements of the distinct decorative style that originated in colonial Goa during the period under investigation. The study’s comparative approach focuses on the combination of these materials and the entangled evolution of their decorative motifs. The article employs Antonio Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony to analyze the artistic patronage of a selected group of religious buildings that are particularly important from the perspective of their decorative program. The theory of cultural hegemony is applied to the discursive and stylistic formulations of the local secular clergy against the background of jurisdictional conflict between the Crown and the Holy See. Through this approach, this study highlights the ability of local elites to legitimize their status and assert their dominance though active consensus strategies, namely the persuasive effects of baroque architecture. The distinct quality of the Goan baroque that emerged within this process of artistic appropriation, is here interpreted in its transversal, emulative and intrinsically allusive aspects.

Franciscan Women Religious in Nineteenth-Century Belgium : Gender, Identity and Material Recovery

This article examines the revival of female Franciscan religious communities in the nineteenth-century as a platform for analyzing the mechanisms and networks behind the restoration and renewal of female convent life in Belgium. The analysis is conducted from a threefold perspective: the specific role of male and female protagonists, the struggle with old and new identities, and the material backgrounds of the revival. The diverse landscape of old and new, contemplative and apostolic, and urban and rural Franciscan convents and congregations offers an interesting platform for research. The interaction between secular clergy, lay and religious women and the male Friars Minor is examined within the context of changing political regimes, social changes, religious revival and diocesan centralization. Mechanisms of material recovery and the (re-)constructions of gendered, canonical and religious identities are used as a framework for evaluating the importance of old and new models and examining to what extent this nineteenth-century history was a genuine Franciscan revival.

Inventorying St Alban’s College Library in 1767: The Process and its Records

St Alban’s English College in Valladolid, established at the height of the Catholic Reformation for the training of English secular clergy under the rule of Spanish Jesuits, underwent an alteration in its management after the expulsion of the religious order from Spain in 1767. As part of this process, numerous valuable archival records were produced which have not, thus far, been studied. This article analyses a portion of these documents: the surviving manuscript inventories of the library. It also considers the series of governmental orders issued by the Spanish authorities as part of the process of expulsion and examines how these orders shaped the production of the library inventories. It offers an overview of the contents of the catalogues, with descriptions of some of those specific book entries that make these inventories unique. The study of these archival documents provides insight into, and understanding of, a key moment in the College history: its shift from Spanish Jesuit control to an English secular one and the difficulties that the Spanish authorities faced because of this change in the College’s national identity.

La profesión de las élites castellanas en los monasterios y conventos durante la Baja Edad Media = The Profession of the Castilian Élites in Monasteries and Convents during the Late Middle Ages

Durante la Baja Edad Media, varios miembros de las élites de poder tomaron el hábito y profesaron en algún monasterio, aunque en número inferior a las mujeres. Se analizan sus motivaciones desde un punto de vista socioeconómico –viudedad, invalidez, bastardía, vasallaje a los patronos y reajustes patrimoniales– y político –contactos previos con la corte–. Se abordan las dinámicas en la profesión de los diferentes estamentos: los oficiales y miembros del entorno de la corte, la alta nobleza y las oligarquías urbanas. Algunos de ellos hicieron carrera eclesiástica dentro de la orden a la que pertenecían o en la clerecía secular, como obispos y arzobispos; esto último, unido a que los religiosos recibieron privilegios y donaciones de la familia real y de la nobleza, dio lugar, además de aumentar las diferencias sociales entre los profesos, al surgimiento de conflictos por las dotes y los bienes donados.AbstractDuring the late Middle Ages, many male members of the political elite took the habit and were professed at a monastery, though to a much lesser extent than women. Their motivations are examined from a socioeconomic perspective (widowhood, disability, bastardy, vassalage to patrons, and changes in wealth) and from a political point of view (previous contacts with the king’s court). We will address the dynamics in the profession of the different estates: the officers and members of the court, the higher nobility and the urban oligarchies. Some of these men attained the dignity of bishop and archbishop while being in a religious order, or as members of the secular clergy. This situation, together with the fact that certain members of the clergy received privileges and donations from the royal family and the nobility, led to an increase in social differences among the clergy, and to conflicts due to dowries and donations.

Ecclesiastical Geography of Colonial Brazil

For many years Brazil was a mission land, a space for evangelization mostly occupied by non-Christian peoples and targets of the conversion work of Catholic missionaries. Furthermore, the slowness of the colonizing—and missionary—advance toward the vast sertões of Portuguese America meant that a large part of the territory remained outside the principal organizing institutions of the colonial space, among which was the diocesan church. However, by confusing the space effectively occupied by colonization with what would eventually form the extension of the territorial possessions of the Portuguese monarchy, the field was opened to mistaken perceptions about the presence and importance of the diocesan Church in colonial Brazil. Since 2000, the proliferation of studies about the episcopacy and different aspects of the structures and actions related to episcopal power has contributed to a change in the understanding of its role and relevance in the development of the Church and the Luso-American colony. Contemporary historians, more attentive to documentary sources related to diocesan administration, have sought to show that the diocesan geography of Portuguese America had greater complexity and importance than has been attributed to it by incautious researchers convinced they were aware of the limitations of the role played by secular clergy in the construction of the Church and Catholicism. Emerging out of recent 21st-century studies is a better knowledge of diocesan structures—bishoprics, ecclesiastic administrations, parishes, chapels—and the functioning of the mechanisms of pastoral vigilance and the punishment of deviants, whether they were clerics or simple believers. This demystifies the idea that the royal Padroado was a nefarious obstacle to the development of the diocesan church in Brazil and shows the importance of the study of diocesan geography not only for the understanding of the history of the Church and Catholicism but also for the development of colonial society.