This in-depth study of religious tensions in early modern Spain offers a new and enlightening perspective on the era of the Inquisition. Traditionally, the Spanish Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries has been framed as an epic battle of opposites. The followers of Erasmus were in constant discord with conservative Catholics while the humanists were diametrically opposed to the scholastics. Historian Lu Ann Homza rejects this simplistic view. In Religious Authority in the Spanish Renaissance, she presents a subtler paradigm, recovering the profound nuances in Spanish intellectual and religious history. Through analyses of Inquisition trials, biblical translations, treatises on witchcraft and tracts on the episcopate and penance, Homza illuminates the intellectual autonomy and energy of Spain's ecclesiastics.

This contribution to European historical literature provides a clear and dispassionate account of successive ecclesiastical-secular conflicts and controversies in Spain and deftly summarizes the diverse ideological and intellectual currents of the times.

A Companion to the Spanish Renaissance makes a renewed case for the inclusion of Spain within broader European Renaissance movements. Its introduction, “A Renaissance for the ‘Spanish Renaissance’?” will be sure to incite polemic across a broad spectrum of academic fields. This interdisciplinary volume combines micro- with macro-history to offer a snapshot of the best new work being done in this area. With essays on politics and government, family and daily life, religion, nobles and court culture, birth and death, intellectual currents, ethnic groups, the plastic arts, literature, popular culture, law courts, women, literacy, libraries, civic ritual, illness, money, notions of community, philosophy and law, science, colonial empire, and historiography, it offers breath-taking scope without sacrificing attention to detail. Destined to become the standard go-to resource for non-specialists, this book also contains an extensive bibliography aimed at the serious researcher. Contributors are: Beatriz de Alba-Koch, Edward Behrend-Martínez, Cristian Berco, Harald E. Braun, Susan Byrne, Bernardo Canteñs, Frederick A. de Armas, William Eamon, Stephanie Fink, Enrique García Santo-Tomás, J.A. Garrido Ardila, Marya T. Green-Mercado, Elizabeth Teresa Howe, Hilaire Kallendorf, Henry Kamen, Elizabeth A. Lehfeldt, Michael J. Levin, Ruth MacKay, Fabien Montcher, Ignacio Navarrete, Jeffrey Schrader, Lía Schwartz, Elizabeth Ashcroft Terry, and Elvira Vilches.

The Church in Colonial Latin America is a collection of essays that include classic articles and pieces based on more modern research. Containing essays that explore the Catholic Church's active social and political influence, this volume provides the background necessary for students to grasp the importance of the Catholic Church in Latin America. This text also presents a comprehensive, analytic, and descriptive history of the Church and its development during the colonial period. From the evangelization of the New World by Spanish missionaries to the active influence of the Catholic Church on Latin American culture, this book offers a complete picture of the Church in colonial Latin America. The Church in Colonial Latin America is ideal for courses in the colonial period in Latin American history, as well as courses in religion, church history, and missionary history.

A Companion to the Spanish Renaissance makes a renewed case for the inclusion of Spain within broader European Renaissance movements. This interdisciplinary volume offers a snapshot of the best new work being done in this area

Rethinking Catholicism in Renaissance Spain claims that theology and canon law were decisive for shaping ideas, debates, and decisions about key political and religious problems in Renaissance Spain. This book studies Catholic thought during the Spanish Renaissance, with the various contributors specifically exploring the ecclesiology and heresiology of the period. Today, these two subjects are considered to be strictly branches of theology, but at the time, they were also dealt with in the field of canon law. Both ecclesiology, which studied the internal structure of the Church, and heresiology, which identified theological errors, played an important role in shaping ideas, debates, and decisions concerning the major political and religious problems of the late medieval and early modern periods. In contrast to the conventional monolithic view of Spanish Catholic thought on ecclesiastical matters, the chapters in this book demonstrate that there was a wide spectrum of ideas in the field of theology and canon law. The topics analyzed include Church and Crown relations, diplomatic controversies, doctrinal debates on slavery, ecclesiological disputes in dialogue with the Council of Trent, and theories for distinguishing heresies and repressing them. This book will be essential reading for those interested in disciplines such as Church history, political history, and the history of political and legal thought.

While scholars have marvelled at how accused witches, mystical nuns, and aristocratic women understood and used their wealth, power, and authority to manipulate both men and institutions, most early modern women were not privileged by money or supernatural contacts. They led the routine and often difficult lives of peasant women and wives of soldiers and tradesmen. However, a lack of connections to the typical sources of authority did not mean that the majority of early modern women were completely disempowered. Women and Authority in Early Modern Spain explores how peasant women in Galicia in north-western Spain came to have significant social and economic authority in a region characterized by extremely high rates of male migration. Using a wide array of archival documentation, including Inquisition records, wills, dowry contracts, folklore, and court cases, Poska examines how peasant women asserted and perceived their authority within the family and the community and how the large numbers of female-headed households in the region functioned in the absence of men. From sexual norms to property aquisition, Galician peasant women consistently defied traditional expectations of women's behaviour.