..., the loud quest of beggars for alms penetrated into the confines of the cathedral itself and upset the order and decorum of the services. 2 Complaints were also heard against the more serious depredations of groups of vagabonds wandering through the countryside in search of charity. The Bishop...

..., such as the phenomenon of what he calls Nahua “traveling alms collectors.” These were men and women who transported their locally potent, miraculous images around central New Spain (often covering remarkable distances), soliciting donations to support the maintenance of their cults back home, activities most often...

... . Illustrations. Maps. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index . xi , 240 pp. Cloth , $24.95 . Copyright 2003 by Duke University Press 2003 This edited translation of Venetian friar Ilarione da Bergamo’s memoir of his journey to New Spain, his impressions of Mexico City, and his experiences as an alms...

... of a chapel to the status of parish church meant a considerable increase of resources for the patron family in the form of first fruit offerings, alms, and donations. 34 The influx of the faithful to fulfill annual religious obligations, for saint’s day celebrations, and for Sunday mass justified...

... for Indian affairs went to inspect and discovered Mass being celebrated under a rudimentary roof of branches and mats, as well as evidence of unlicensed construction on a new stone chapel and substantial alms collecting. The vicar-general ordered the image covered with wet mats, locked the door, and had...

... edward w. osowski is a professor of history at CEGEP John Abbott College in Montreal. He is coeditor of Mexican History: A Primary Source Reader , forthcoming from Westview Press in 2009, and author of “Carriers of Saints: Traveling Alms Collectors and Nahua Gender Roles,” in Local Religion...

... , or hermandad might serve as a voluntary mutual-benefit association; such corporate bodies were also important as dispensers of charity to non-members (alms-giving, the foundation of hospitals and orphanages). In the latter half of the eighteenth century several sectors of the colonial bureaucracy came to make...

... century, only temporary military hospitals and alms or poor houses. Medical practitioners in New England initiated medical innovations such as inoculation earlier than their counterparts in New France or New Spain, but by the late eighteenth century, doctors in Mexico were as quick as those in Boston...

... of these women were single mothers who drew in alms for the confraternities. During the seventeenth century, women held leadership roles in many of the confraternities, but by the eighteenth century, men eclipsed women as leaders. As von Germeten states, “The decline in women’s leadership positions...

... clerics to the Americas (pp. 42–43). Once in the New World, clerics engaged in contraband trade in slaves, liquor, and tobacco. Religious orders in the Canary Islands, too, directly benefited from their brethren in the Americas. Traveling clerics collected alms, which they remitted (minus their expenses...

... responsibility for the physical welfare of those brothers (and their dependents) in need of alms, medical aid, provisions, clothes, and burial; third, when funds permitted, a commitment to charitable assistance for the poor and sick of the parish. With the expansion of Europe, Spaniards and Portuguese carried...

... treatment in textile workshops. In a similar vein, Edward Osowski’s chapter demonstrates how indigenous alms collectors in central New Spain used religious patronage to strengthen their communities while simultaneously reproducing their own authority. All of the case studies demonstrate the emergence...

... to settle their affairs on earth, such as payment of debts and distribution of wealth. The author does, however, reveal certain changes from past practices, such as the invoking of the Holy Family and the giving of alms to the Holy Places of Jerusalem. These are logical changes, given the times. Pizzigoni...