Address to the Younger Clergy and Laity on the Present State of Religion Book

Any book with this sentence is worth glancing at: "Flagellation was not accepted quickly everywhere." William A. Christian surveys the documentation of local parishes in the Spain that sent so many of its sailors across the ocean to propagate the faith. That migration seems not to have affected the inland towns much, persisting as they did in devotion to local images, appeals to the intervention of the Virgin and of saints, traffic in relics, and, yes, the devotion of brotherhoods to flagellation. Yet confession was infrequent, sometimes less than once a year, which is perhaps why the larger Church was so concerned about what happened in the parishes, validating and redistributing relics, and granting indulgences. Another classic of religious history: "By the end of the sixteenth century so many indulgences, real or counterfeit, were in circulation that the currency had been debased." Or course, the Church had concerns not just about questionable piety but also skepticism, as evinced by a list of the sins of the "alumbrados", the ones with light, who followed Erasmus, for believing that "exterior acts of devotion are beside the point and unnecessary,... it is wrong to dress up the image of Our Lady and take it out in the streets in procession, and that it was idolatry,... they (do) not take pains to venerate the image of Our Lord or Our Lady; that they were sticks... that one should not ask God for anything in particular, that it was unnecessary to say, 'Pray to God for me.' for God cares for everyone."