Religion, Power, and Politics in Colonial St. Augustine

Abstract

This book offers a lively analysis of the religious world of colonial St. Augustine, Florida, focusing on the daily rituals that defined a Catholic life, as well as on the conflicts between religious and political leaders that defined and shaped the city's social milieu. Working with documents in both Florida and Spain that correct, amplify, and qualify previous work in the field, Robert Kapitzke describes the turbulent interactions between representatives of the church and the crown. He examines inquisition cases, ecclesiastical asylum disputes, and jurisdictional battles between parish priests and their Franciscan counterparts that regularly threatened the ordered world of the colony. He also shows that, at the same time, the colonists' deeply rooted religious faith brought stability to their community, which faced destruction throughout its colonial history. This work fills an important gap in Spanish American history by presenting, in vivid detail, the dynamic religious life of the principal settlement and capital of colonial Florida.