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Ministros de lo sagrado sacerdotes y feligreses en el México del siglo XVIII Vol I y II
This book is an extraordinarily rich account of the social, political, cultural, and religious relationships between parish priests and their parishioners in colonial Mexico. It thus explores a wide range of issues, from competing interpretations of religious dogma and beliefs, to questions of practical ethics and daily behavior, to the texture of social and authority relations in rural communities, to how all these things changed over time and over place, and in relation to reforms instigated by the state.
858 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1996
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September 17, 2019
I realize that almost no one (if anyone at all) shares my fascination with what happened during the three centuries that Latin America endured under Spanish rule. And yet, as Hannah Gadsby would say (except wittily) I persist.
This volume examines how the church's emissaries, the village priests and friars, conducted themselves during the later part of that time in what is now central and western Mexico. Some, of course, were exemplars, ministering seriously and paying for church repairs themselves, but, of course, exemplars generate very occasional praise from the ecclesiastical bureaucracy, and are almost never mentioned in the complaints and lawsuits that provide the material for this study. Others were clearly out for profit. Some enterprising priests developed haciendas and others extorted free labor or livestock from the indigenous flock or withheld marriage and funeral services if their price could not be met. The church at various times tried to regulate fees, publishing the authorized ones, which the parishioners cited in complaints and lawsuits. But lack of services was, at times, fine with the flock, which returned to marrying and burying without sacraments. There were fights over who controlled the finances and assets of the lay brotherhoods.
Other priests took their authority (which had legal aspects) too seriously, ordering the flogging of parishioners, and entering into disputes with the indigenous officials or the local Spanish military. And they were very sensitive to slight, regularly complaining when someone didn't doff their hat when running into the priest. Some clearly despised their parishes, to the point of leaving their parishes to live in the city, while continuing to receive their benefice.
What is most disturbing, aside from the image of priests whipping parishioners, is what does not appear much in this study--again, perhaps because those who followed it led productive, unreported careers--is anything that resembles a calling.
This volume examines how the church's emissaries, the village priests and friars, conducted themselves during the later part of that time in what is now central and western Mexico. Some, of course, were exemplars, ministering seriously and paying for church repairs themselves, but, of course, exemplars generate very occasional praise from the ecclesiastical bureaucracy, and are almost never mentioned in the complaints and lawsuits that provide the material for this study. Others were clearly out for profit. Some enterprising priests developed haciendas and others extorted free labor or livestock from the indigenous flock or withheld marriage and funeral services if their price could not be met. The church at various times tried to regulate fees, publishing the authorized ones, which the parishioners cited in complaints and lawsuits. But lack of services was, at times, fine with the flock, which returned to marrying and burying without sacraments. There were fights over who controlled the finances and assets of the lay brotherhoods.
Other priests took their authority (which had legal aspects) too seriously, ordering the flogging of parishioners, and entering into disputes with the indigenous officials or the local Spanish military. And they were very sensitive to slight, regularly complaining when someone didn't doff their hat when running into the priest. Some clearly despised their parishes, to the point of leaving their parishes to live in the city, while continuing to receive their benefice.
What is most disturbing, aside from the image of priests whipping parishioners, is what does not appear much in this study--again, perhaps because those who followed it led productive, unreported careers--is anything that resembles a calling.
Displaying 1 of 1 review