I try to get to at least two international conferences every year to present my research and learn about what other people are working on. If you are planning on being at one of these upcoming conferences and would like to discuss current research or future collaborative projects, please reach out to me!
Past conference talks
Sixteenth Century Society Conference, St. Louis (MO). October 2019.
“Victim Voices and Sexual Assault in Early Modern Spain”
(to be presented as part of a panel on Sexual Assault and Early Modern Catholicism I organized)
This paper compares victim testimony in cases of sexual assault in Inquisitorial and diocesan courts. Though often stereotyped, the Spanish Inquisition’s use of secret tribunals and its manic adherence to legal procedure made it one of the most efficient branches of the early modern Spanish bureaucracy. Ironically, this obsession with secrecy also made it one of the best venues for victims of sexual assault to be heard and to receive justice. Inquisitors took cases of solicitation (in which priests demanded sexual favors in return for absolution) very seriously since they subverted the sacrament of penance and cast doubt on the moral superiority of the Catholic Church in the face of a growing Protestant threat in Europe. In bringing priests to trial for solicitation, Inquisitors relied upon female victims for evidence and testimony, necessarily providing them a secret venue to testify about their sexual assaults ― something notably absent in contemporaneous secular or diocesan legal settings. Surveying cases of solicitation from the Archivo Histórico Nacional in Madrid, and comparing them with similar trials for sexual assault that fell outside the purview of the Inquisition, this paper examines how female victims effectively utilized the Inquisition as a platform by which to voice their grievances and bring justice against their clerical abusers. From this perspective, solicitation trials help us re-conceptualize the Inquisition as a useful arm of pre-modern justice, helping right abuses of power within the pre-modern church.
Renaissance Society of America meeting, Toronto (ON). March 2019.
“Hangry Parishioners and Near Drownings: Taking Tridentine Reform Too Far.”
The Diocese of Pamplona was diverse and geographically dispersed, and diocesan officials found that the most efficient way to enact reform was through litigation, rather than visitation and direct mandate. As parishioners presented grievances against their clergy, they also developed their own interpretation about the intentions of the Council of Trent, and frequently expressed more zealous adherence to the ideal of Catholic reform than did officials. Significantly, some alleged that Tridentine reform guaranteed them increased autonomy and power in local religious matters. These misunderstandings led to a variety of strange confrontations including parishioners who insisted on processing around for hours without eating, who arrested other parishes’ priests during mass, or who nearly drowned monks during altercations over relics. Using previously unpublished archival materials, this paper examines the ways in which localities (un)intentionally misunderstood Tridentine reform and how they employed it to promote their own interests over those of neighboring communities.
Sixteenth Century Society meeting, Albuquerque (NM). November 2018.
“St. Ignatius of Loyola, María Beltran de Loyola, and the Seroras of Azpeitia.”
Like most early modern Basque nobility, the Loyola clan patronized local churches and shrines, often staffing them with their own family members. In 1511, for example, Martín García de Oñaz (the older brother of Ignatius), appointed his illegitimate half-sister María Beltran de Loyola as serora of the church of San Miguel in Azpeitia. Unfortunately, María was completely unsuited for the semi-religious life, and abandoned her duties to leave the church and marry. This paper explores the connections between the Loyola family and these female caretakers during Ignatius’s youth and early career. Seroras were integral parts of the local religious life of the early modern Basque Country, and tracing Ignatius’s connections during his formative years to these women helps shed light on general receptivity to female spirituality that later characterized the Jesuit order.
I am currently revising this paper as a journal article.
Renaissance Society of America meeting, New Orleans (LA). March 2018.
“Pilgrim, Pastor, Pauper, Spy: The Case of Pierre de Praxelier.”
In 1629, the villagers of Sanguesa gleefully notified the bishop of Pamplona that they had captured and were holding a French spy, masquerading as a priest and pilgrim. Don Pierre de Praxelier, they informed the bishop, had a suspicious set of passes, could not explain where he came from, and would only say mass (repeatedly). Upon closer inspection, the bishop was not convinced: it was possible that Praxelier was simply a sick priest on his way to Santiago de Compostela. Set against a backdrop of “made up benefices” and fake priests the diocese of Pamplona was currently investigating, this detailed trial from the Diocesan Archive of Pamplona illuminates the surprising role localities assumed in promoting State interests during Spain’s wars with France and the tensions that existed between localities and authorities as they struggled to define what was good information and what a priest should resemble.
I am currently revising this paper as a journal article.
Renaissance Society of America meeting, Chicago (IL). March 2017.
“Tridentine Reform in the Afternoon: Bullfighting and the Navarrese Clergy.”
Residents of the diocese of Pamplona enthusiastically used the episcopal court system to press for more attentive pastoral care and seek redress for grievances with their clergy. Navarrese laity were surprisingly well-informed about the goals of reform, and frequently took a harder stance promoting certain aspects of reform than did diocesan officials. Questionable priestly recreation — especially participation in bullfights and local festivals — took a particularly prominent place in these trials. Yet with reports of priests running in the enciero, stealing prized bulls, or brawling, came a wide variety of secondary complaints regarding haphazard and ineffective pastoral care. Aware that they were the bishop’s “eyes on the ground,” parishioners combined their accusations in ways to make their agenda resonate with what they judged would draw the bishop’s attention. Accusations of priests behaving scandalously were not just catchalls for needed reform, but carefully calibrated strategies for achieving reform on local terms.
I am currently revising this paper as a journal article.