Presentation: Bishops and parish government in the colonial Spanish American world

Abstract

This proposes the need to study an aspect that has gone unnoticed in historiography, relatively, around the relationship of the bishops with the priests and their jurisdictions. We refer to the government of the parishes. The creation of bishoprics in the Spanish dominions in America meant governing huge territorial jurisdictions. This feature caused various problems. Consequently, the bishops tested various forms of parish organization and supervision, in order to achieve the objectives set by the conciliar regulations, or the current ecclesiastical policy. The following five articles give an account of several of these trials and some of results.