Magistrates of the Sacred: Priests and Parishioners in Eighteenth Century Mexico by William B. Taylor

Abstract

808BOOK REVIEWS That solution was never applied, as King Louis XTV of France intended episcopal appointments as a mode of royal control and, like the Spanish monarch, opposed the erection of any more vicariates in the colonies. Although they were strange bedfellows with the GalUcan aspirations of the French crown, the interests of the religious orders in preserving their own foundations coincided with this opinion.As a result, it was not until 1850 that an episcopal see was erected in this region. Pizzorusso's well documented study supports the view that far from being a timid and passive agency, Propaganda was a creative and visionary force in baroque CathoUcism. OveraU, the author supplies a wealth of detaU and ample citations to sustain his positive view of the Holy See. The drawbacks to the book, ironicaUy, lie in its erudition.The four chapters are really more like four related but independent dissertation-type studies. No doubt European scholars are protected from the dragon of consumerism that increasingly forces academics pubUshing in EngUsh to write books with Uvely prose and the suspense of historical drama. But this book would be easier to read with a bit more dash. We also are not told enough about visionary humanist clerics like Raymond de Breton, O.P., Henri de la Borde, SJ., or Jean-Baptiste Dutertre, O.P, each ofwhom has contributed mightily to contemporary knowledge of the linguistic, cultural, and historical evolution of these multi-racial and multi-ethnic Caribbean societies . When aU is said and done, however, this is a highly specialized work of great value and an indispensable resource for future research that needs to dispel some unfortunate stereotypes of baroque Catholicism. Anthony M. Stevens Arroyo Brooklyn College Magistrates of the Sacred: Priests and Parishioners in Eighteenth Century Mexico. ByWilliam B.Taylor. (Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1996. Pp. xv, 868. $75.00.) Massive is the word which springs to mind in consideringWiUiam B.Taylor's most recent contribution to colonial Latin American historiography. It is truly as comprehensive a work on the topic as one is likely to enjoy.The fruit of many years Ui the archives, it wiU stand as a cornerstone for future research on the eighteenth-century Mexican Church.This is the first major study ofthe Bourbon Church in Mexico, since Nancy Farriss wrote in 1968. At its most basic levelTaylor's work is a view of the Bourbon reforms in Mexico .This broad range of changes which occurred in the administrative structure ofthe Spanish overseas empire is seen through the prism ofthe clergy and theU parishioners. It is a unique undertaking in which the scope and consequences of the changes are analyzed through one of the parts, rather than focusing on the part to draw conclusions about the wholeTaylor has chosen to analyze two dUferent areas in an attempt to come to grips with issues ofcommonalty. He has BOOK REVIEWS809 focused on the large archdiocese of Mexico, which stretched from Tampico in the north to Acapulco in the south, measuring some 150 mUes wide, and the diocese of Guadalajara, located in western Mexico, nearly reaching SaltiUo in the north, and widening as it flowed to the southwest. Deep withinTaylor's work he seeks to understand four seeming paradoxes of late colonial Mexico (p. 4). How could the colonial system stand for nearly four centuries without a standing army, given that it was based on a relatively rigid social system with Uttle upward mobility and much real inequaUty?Were parish priests of the late colonial world truly separate from the world and at the same time of the world?What then would lead some of these priests to fuUy back an insurgency which could bring about the loss oftheir own position ofprivUege? Last, how did anticlericaUsm develop in the region when the Church was not perceived as in decline?The seeking of answers to these questions provides the reader with a deep subtext which runs through the work. This book is divided into four large parts.The first part, consisting of three chapters, sets the stage for the study. It considers the nature of change under the Bourbon reforms, the physical geography of the two regions under consideration , and...