Impure Acts: Sexual and Marital Regulation in the Spanish World

Mauricio Damián Rivero

This essay analyzes the examples of sexual and marital regulation attempted by the Spanish clergy as seen in the catechisms, confession manuals (confesionarios), and ecclesiastic legislation produced in Spain and the New World. By pointing out the scriptural and dogmatic origins of these sexual and marital regulations this essay demonstrates that they were strictly based on Tridentine theology rather than on cultural conflict, as other historians have held. The essay concludes that the Spanish clergy's attempts to regulate sexual and marital practices were an application of Catholic reform's ideology on the importance of acts for salvation. It also concludes that there was significant continuity between the regulatory attempts in Spain and Spanish America, demonstrating that these ideas of morality and the significance of acts crossed the Atlantic. In so doing this essay contributes to the literature on the subject of sexual regulation by demonstrating its integral relation to the theological conflicts and changes of Catholic reform.

[WP # 00008]