The Phoenix and the Flame: Catalonia and the Counter Reformation.

Spanish Catholicism is often pictured as changeless in its reactionary character, the faith of a rural people isolated from the spiritual and ideological currents of the rest of Europe by seas, mountains, and intolerant rulers. The linguistically and culturally distinct region of Catalonia, in this view, has shown an even greater imperviousness to innovation than other parts of the peninsula. In The Phoenix and the Flame: Catalonia and the Counter Reformation, Henry Kamen argues, to the contrary, that the attempt to define and establish Catholic orthodoxy after the Council of Trent introduced new ideals of faith and culture in Catalonia, as well as in Castilian Spain, and that many of these ideals gradually took root in popular religion.

Kamen opens his discussion by focusing on the mountainous district of Mediona, an area about thirty miles from Barcelona. While the sixteenth-century Mediona of Kamen's description was Catholic, its Catholicism was marked by the informal character and concerns of a folk religion. Ritual observances and social activities were tied to the seasonal cycle of an agrarian economy. The saints, especially Saint Galderic, whose remains were held by a nearby abbey, were most often invoked as guarantors of rain.

Participation in the sacraments was rare, often limited to baptism at birth and extreme unction at death, both of which were frequently administered in the home. Marnage was neither performed in churches nor sealed by the church. Because no bishop came to the area, confirmations were virtually unknown. Even attendance at Mass was irregular, because of the limited availability of priests.

The spread of Lutheran teachings, not the beliefs and practices of country people, gave rise to the Council of Trent. Still, Philip II took up the Tridentine reforms and attempted to promote them throughout his kingdom, in areas where Protestants had little influence. Philip's support for the reforms had political as well as religious significance. By establishing royal control over the reformist movement, the Spanish king could extend his control over the peninsular church, reducing foreign, especially French, intrusion. For the Catalans, however, Kamen observes, "control from within the peninsula meant control from Castile." The royal reformation was largely a Castilian program, and efforts such as the reform of the religious orders met with frequent Catalan opposition.

Resisting the imposition of outside authority, though, is not the same as being immune to outside influence. European Catholicism has always been characterized by a tension between official, universal beliefs and rites and local, informal, traditional practices. One the one hand, religion has incorporated Catholics in a community of believers that transcends regional boundaries. On the other, it has been an expression of solidarity that helps to define individuals as members of specific communities. By standardizing the rites and liturgy of Catalonia, through instruments such as the new Roman breviary of 1568 and the new Roman missal of 1569, the Counter Reformation helped to draw believers in Mediona and other isolated locales closer to the official faith. While devotion to local saints continued, and was even fostered by the development of printing, Tridentine piety brought about a remarkable growth in the importance of the cult of the Virgin Mary.

The shift from a religion based on the community to one based on participation in universally shared sacraments was never complete. The Catalan clergy continued to represent the countryside, rather than the episcopal authority flowing from above. The efforts of the reformers to control pilgrimages and festivals, and to establish a clear distinction between secular and religious time were often frustrated by the persistence of popular practices and by the rhythms of work and leisure in an agricultural economy. But the post-Tridentine innovations enabled the church to exercise greater influence over local festivities through introducing new saints, new religious orders, and by transforming profane public space to sacred use.

Of all the universalizing movements of this era, the Inquisition was perhaps the least successful in Catalonia. The Holy Office was too closely connected to the Castilian power structure to receive Catalan acceptance or cooperation. The inquisitors found relatively few cases of heresy, in part because few existed and in part because the natives of areas like Mediona were reluctant to betray any but the resident French to the Castilian authorities.

When the reformers were not acting as agents of Castilian hegemony, they were able to initiate far-reaching changes. Marriage and sexuality were gradually redefined, bringing both under greater church control. The art of preaching received increased attention and popularity, despite the tendency of many preachers to deliver their sermons in Castilian. Missionary work, especially by new religious orders such as the Society of Jesus, helped to spread the principles of the reformers.

Catalonia's adherence to orthodoxy did not result from its isolation from all secular influences. In a detailed study of booksellers' wares, Kamen demonstrates that a wide range of books printed elsewhere in Europe were available in Barcelona, including a number of prohibited works. While the Catalans continued to be ambivalent in their attitudes toward Castile, seceding to France in 1641 and reuniting with Spain in 1654, a universal Catholicism spread steadily, apart from secular politics.

The Phoenix and the Flame provides a richly detailed description of changes in rural Catalan religion during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. At times, it is a little too detailed, so that the reader becomes lost in Kamen's erudite discussions of early modern folk practices, clerical administration, and literature. While the book provides an excellent portrait of a period and a region, it overlooks some fundamental questions about historical causation. Was the gradual adoption of sacramental Catholicism in this isolated area a result of the Counter Reformation, or were both church movement and change in popular religion results of an increasing flow of communication throughout Europe? Given that the transition from old piety to new was a slow process, coveting several centuries, why should the Counter Reformation be regarded as the beginning, or even as a crucial phase, of the change?

While these questions remain unanswered, Kamen has offered strong evidence against the old view of "fortress Spain" as the home of a reactionary Catholicism. He has provided insight into the evolution of popular religion in the peninsula, and he has cast light on everyday life in a too often forgotten corner of Europe.