Aguirre Salvador focuses this study on how religious confraternities, also known as sodalities, were in many ways caught between the authority of the Church and the state. In reality, these social entities occupied a nebulous legal space. Strictly speaking, they were civil associations—groups of people brought together out of their devotion. However, because they existed to channel religious sensibilities and contracted with clergy to assist them in their activities, they also fell under the jurisdiction of the Church. Aguirre Salvador, looks at these important organizations through the lens of the archiepiscopal visitations. Canon law required that the bishop or archbishop visit every parish in his territory. These visits included scrutiny of all of the ancillary organizations that the parish hosted, such as confraternities. Aguirre Salvador looks at the changes that occurred in the early eighteenth century.

The book is organized chronologically, beginning with an overview of the confraternities (hermandades or cofradías) and at associations of faith and their role in the larger society. In looking at their geographical distribution in the archdiocese, which ran more or less north-south from Tampico to Acapulco, the vast majority were concentrated in the central part surrounding Mexico City. Moreover, the period under study probably marked the point at which the number of these organizations was at its greatest, an estimated 1,336.

Aguirre Salvador systematically analyzes the reports from two archiepiscopal visitations, those of Aguiar y Seijas, archbishop from 1682-98 (visitations 1683-87), and Pérez de Lanciego y Eguilaz, archbishop from 1714-28 (visitations 1715-22). Aguiar y Seijas reported a system that was fully developed, but which had grown chaotically. As individuals embraced certain cults, confraternities were established. These went through phases of success and decline. Thus, the Archbishop Aguiar y Seijas sought to create more stability. In particular, he consolidated small outlying organizations into larger, possibly better funded ones. Later, Pérez de Lanciego discovered a better organized system, but one in which some clear tensions existed. Parishes under his direct control had varying financial stability in their confraternities, again forcing the archbishop to consolidate some of them. Parishes under the control of the religious orders greeted the prelate in many instances with hostility. This tension would play into Bourbon reforms to limit the influence of the orders.

The fourth chapter considers the subsidies demanded from the confraternities under Philip V. Some of these groups were quite wealthy. The King secured permission from the Pope to extract funds from the Church to assist the crown, particularly for the defense of the Caribbean. For this reason, additional data were collected about the size and financial stability of the groups. The first of the subsidies was demanded in the years 1703-08, the second in the years 1723-26, and a third in 1744-46. A look at the amounts collected illustrates a clear decline in the number of sodalities, from a high of 636 at the opening of the century to only 273 near mid-century. It also shows that the majority of the cofradías had little to no wealth. Less than 20 percent were able to pay the subsidy in the years 1744-46.

Last, the book considers the role of local parish priests with regard to the confraternities, building on work already done by William B. Taylor. Looking at the early eighteenth century, Aguirre Salvador bases his analysis on a report filed by the provisor of natives with the newly arrived archbishop, Rubio y Salinas. The situation was dire. Most cofradías were poor and poorly managed, and operated largely outside of the control of the local parish priest. The provisor recommended that the system be reorganized and controlled centrally. Moreover, local parish priests had a modicum of control over the finances of all the groups, thus making them less than neutral arbiters of problems when they arose.

This is a fascinating study that focuses tightly on sodalities and their rise and decline. Indeed, the book clearly documents the apogee of the institution and then marks the various steps as it falls into decline. The work focuses on the financial and regulatory side of the institution, and not on the spiritual. What Aguirre Salvador describes corresponds to what we know about the changes in religiosity and spiritual practices.

The institutions of the Baroque, such as confraternities, became less important in the spiritual lives of the faithful as the Enlightenment began to focus more on the individual experience, rather than the group. It would have been good to address this aspect of the institutions with more attention. All in all, this is a very useful study for scholars interested in the Church, state, and society in the middle span of the colonial period.