D avid R ex G alindo . To Sin No More

Reconstructing the full range of Franciscan experience in the Spanish colonial world is an enormous task. In the Americas, Franciscans maintained hundreds of colleges and convents staffed with many thousands of friars. Their activities touched virtually every human environment—from urban neighborhoods, to Indian republics, to contested frontiers. The historiography of late-colonial religious orders is complex and sometimes baffling. On one hand, historians describe a long list of forces in the eighteenth century that conspired to destroy once-thriving missionary enterprises in the Catholic Americas: the secularization of doctrinas, expulsion of the Jesuits, administrative intrusions under the Bourbon reforms, and even (according to some) the influences of “enlightened” Catholicism. On the other hand, many close studies of the Franciscan Order describe the eighteenth century as a time of new foundations, vibrant intellectual life, and renewed ardor. David Rex Galindo’s meticulous study of Franciscan colleges, To Sin No More: Franciscans and Conversion in the Hispanic World, 1683–1830, resolves these apparent contradictions and allows us see the many faces of an adaptable and thriving international organization.

Archaeology · Colonialism · Historiography · Original sin · Secularization · Sociology · Theology · Thriving · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Philosophy