Structures of reform : : the mercedarian order in the spanish golden age. / / by Bruce Taylor.

• Superior document: Cultures, Beliefs and Traditions: Medieval and Early Modern Peoples ; 12
• VerfasserIn: Taylor, Bruce, 1967-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, Boston ;, Koln : : Brill,, [2000]; ©2000
• Year of Publication: 2000
• Language: English
• Series: Cultures, Beliefs and Traditions: Medieval and Early Modern Peoples ; 12.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

During the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries the Mercedarian Order of friars, founded in the 1220s, underwent a period of reform from which it emerged utterly transformed. This study sets out to examine not only the context of that reform - the policies of the crown and the papacy, the condition of Catalonia and Spain at large, the circumstances prevailing within the Order and the dialogue with its past - but also to grasp the essence of monastic reform itself against this diverse background. The imposition of other than purely religious criteria onto the reform agenda alerts us to the deeper implications of monastic change in Early Modern Europe. For the Mercedarians the result by 1650 was a wholly new Order; the evolution of this process, by turns calculated and unexpected, is here explored.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements -- Note on Terms and Names -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Change and Continuity: The Order from its Origins to 1467 -- 2. New Frontiers: The Rise of Castile (1467-1561) -- 3. Reform and Government -- 4. An Order to be Reformed (1561-7) -- 5. The Path to Reform (1567-70) -- 6. The Progress of Reform (1570-5) -- 7. The Crisis of Reform (1575-93) -- 8. A New Order (1593-1648) -- Conclusion: Structures of Reform -- Appendix I. Provinces, Chapters and Officers (1420-1648) -- Appendix II. Major Visitation Campaigns (1567-85) -- Appendix III. Mercedarian Demography: Numbers of Religious and Houses -- Maps A & B. The Mercedarian Order, 1500-1650: Houses, Provinces and Ransoming Destinations -- Glossary -- Sources and Bibliography -- Index.