To Sin No More: Franciscans and Conversion in the Hispanic World, 1683–1830 by David Rex Galindo (review)

During the last thirty years, historians, anthropologists, theologians, and scholars in other disciplines have greatly expanded our knowledge of Franciscan missions in the Iberian world. Their studies analyze not only the well-known frontier missions in the Americas and Asia but also the so-called "popular missions" that Franciscans conducted in cities and rural areas of Europe, often in preparation for their work in the overseas empire. In To Sin No More, David Rex Galindo draws on this new scholarship (his introduction provides an excellent survey of the literature), on classic studies of the Franciscan order, and, most importantly, on deep archival work on three continents in order to analyze the theory and practice of the Franciscan missionary enterprise. He argues that this enterprise "contributed to [the] globalization of the Catholic Church and shaped early modern Catholicism" (p. 289).

Rex Galindo focuses on the twenty-nine Franciscan Colleges for the Propagation of the Faith in Spain and America. The most famous of these institutions was the Colegio de la Santa Cruz in Querétaro, Mexico, from which generations of missionaries, including the recently canonized Junípero Serra, set off for missions throughout the Americas. Rex Galindo argues that the colleges "invigorated the Franciscan evangelical ministry through missionary instruction and a renovated commitment to pastoral work among both Catholic and non-Christian flocks in Spain and in its American territories and peripheries" (p. 9).

The continuity between missionary work in Europe and the Americas is a major theme of the book. The Franciscan missionary enterprise predated that of the Society of Jesus, and the two orders were sometimes at odds. Following the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish empire in 1767, the Franciscans and other orders took over the Jesuit missions, reviving and expanding the scope of the Franciscans' work, especially in the Americas.

Building on Francisco Morales's pioneering prosopographical studies of Franciscans in colonial Mexico, Rex Galindo provides an overview of the qualities of the ideal missionary. In addition to the requisite moral and physical qualities, the Franciscans, like other religious orders of the day, sought candidates who could demonstrate their purity of blood (limpieza de sangre). Whenever possible, the Franciscans excluded men who had Muslim, Jewish, native American, or African ancestors. Like Maria Elena Martinez, whose Genealogical Fictions (2008) studies the importation of limpieza statutes to colonial Mexico, Rex Galindo argues that peninsular-born Spaniards were associated with purity of blood and thus received preferential treatment in admission to the Franciscan order (p. 83).

Although no collection of documents comparable to the Jesuit Indipitae (petitions to be sent to overseas missions) exists in the Franciscan archives, Rex Galindo succeeds in reconstructing the motives that led young men to petition to be assigned to the missions. In general, candidates were more concerned with attaining their own salvation than with converting non-Catholics or with achieving martyrdom (p. 104).

Missionaries in America faced language barriers that were difficult to overcome, in part because of the diversity of native languages. Franciscans became adept at recruiting native converts to preach to indigenous peoples. Yet this strategy provoked controversy within the Franciscan community, and native collaborators encountered strict limits on the scope of their pastoral work: "most Franciscans were hesitant to recruit native people to the colegios or seminaries . . . and only in special cases did visionary religious foresee the formation of a Franciscan native clergy" (p. 162).

Rex Galindo provides a vivid account of life in the propaganda fide colleges, which "took their study programs to new levels of proficiency and commitment. . . . A stringent daily timetable included time for mental prayer, hours of study, classes, dedication to community material needs, and practical preparation for the evangelical ministry" (p. 119). Members of the colleges participated in daily meetings (conferencias) on moral theology.

Rex Galindo analyzes in...