The hypothesis sustains that the territorial transformations and organization of the diocesan church show a specific form of implementation of Catholic Reformation in Spanish America, and more particularly in New Spain. While the mendicants orders profited the papal decrees to create a first spatial organization to convert Amerindian populations during the sixteenth century, these pre-tridentine institutional arrangement escaped episcopal control and jurisdiction. The basic unit of these religious districts was the doctrina, an original form of ecclesiastic administration that responded to the mendicants order superior. As the episcopal consolidation took form in New Spain dioceses, some bishops took advantage of the decrees of both Trent and Mexicans Councils to assert their control of the dotrinas within their dioceses. The bishops of Spanish America pleaded that these doctrines were “secularized”, this meant to be given secular clergy so they could be administered following the decrees of the Trent Council. By analyzing the case-study of the diocese of Oaxaca, this paper analyses the limits of the administration of doctrines and the process of secularization of doctrines in the region of the Zapotec Sierra. The final objective is to better understand the implications of the reorganization of the religious districts and its implication concerning discipline and religious politics in the Amerindian communities.
This dossier explores intra-diocesan districts that although historiographically underrepresented, contributed significantly to the structuring of dioceses as intermediate levels whose interface status deserves to be examined to shed light both on Church governance and on participation in religious life. The focus is on the history of regions in terms of the creation, representation, and appropriation of these areas. The choice of a broad time frame allows scholars both to characterize continuity and change develop a comparative approach between different geographical areas in the Catholic world.
Two parish lists exist in the diocese of Autun that disclose the ecclesiastical geography of archpriests, with dues and beneficiaries mentioned. We can thus estimate the influence of the local power not only of archpriests, but also of the bishop and various monasteries. The first list, dated from about the year 1000 and known only from fragments, is especially explicit for the Charolais region, but it also demonstrates the influence of Cluny on parish life and its control over numerous churches. The second list, dated prior to 1312, bears witness to a respect for the earlier parish geography and the growth in the religious framework accompanying the demographic surge following the year 1000. It is thus possible to construct an image of the various authorities who played a role in the control of the parishes and archpriests of the Charolais region prior to the crisis of the fourteenth century, without necessarily specifically defining the distribution and use of the dues collected.
