In 1623, Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón, a parish priest in Atenango, Mexico, was commissioned by his archbishop to record Nahua beliefs and healing practices for the purpose of denouncing their superstitions and demonic magic. His "Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions That Today Live Among the Indians Native to This New Spain," 1629…

Under the terms of the Concordat between the Holy See and Spain, Catholic RE teachers must obtain a declaration of suitability prior to their appointment by the competent administrative authority. The bishop's authority to revoke any such statement, and the State's jurisdictional prerogative in overseeing such decisions, are matters of some…

This study focuses on two major aspects of Jesuit pedagogy in Spain that should be held in mind in order to understand Jesuit educational transformations after the Second Vatican Council: Firstly (A), the theological renewal undertaken since the end of the 1960s, mainly by the Jesuit institute "Fe y Secularidad" founded in 1967 and the…

From 1563 until the death of the last teacher in 1851, there was a prebendary in the Cathedral of the Canary Islands in charge of the education of children. In fact, it could be said that this prebendary was the only continuous secondary school teacher there was in the Canary Islands until the beginning of the nineteenth century when the High…

Many religious orders and congregations that were deported from France between 1904 and 1914 established themselves in neighbouring countries (Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Spain). One of the affected congregations was "Los Hermanos de las Escuelas Cristianas," which worked in the field of popular education. Many of its members found…

Contrary to common wisdom, the authorities of Colonial Mexico (1521-1600) were vitally concerned with the teaching of reading to the indigenous people. Alphabetic literacy was introduced in Mexico with the coming of the Franciscan friars, who brought with them many innovations and heartily set about the task of education. Some of the friars'…