List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Note on Titles and Names; Introduction; Part One: Cities, Orders, Ministries; 1. Ordering Cities: Urban Convents and Friars, 1570-1808; 2. Distinguishing Habits: Mendicant Identities and Institutes; 3. Serving Cities: Orders and Their Urban Ministries; Part Two: Urban Catholicism; 4. Defining Religions: Mendicant Connections and Disconnections in Urban Society; 5. Loving Complaints: Orders and the Making of Urban Culture; Conclusion; List of Abbreviations; Notes; Glossary; Bibliography; Index
Summary
This book tracks New Spain's mendicant orders past their so-called golden age of missions into the ensuing centuries and demonstrates that they had equally crucial roles in what Melvin terms the "spiritual consolidation" of cities. Beginning in the late sixteenth century, cities became home to the majority of friars and to the orders' wealthiest houses, and mendicants became deeply embedded in urban social and cultural life. Friars ministered to urban residents of all races and social standings and engaged in traditional mendicant activities, serving as preachers, confessors, spiritual directo
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-355) and index