The Confessor's Moral Formation. Casuistic and Spanish American Literature of the 16th Century A Significant Example: the “Confessor's and Penitent's Directory of the Third Council of Mexico” (1585)

Abstract

The article aims to expose a fundamental aspect of priestly formation in 16th century in Spanish America: the priest as the good confessor. The Third Council of Mexico (1585) was particularly concerned with this matter, not only in the decrees referring to the administration of the sacrament of penance, but also through the promulgation of a specific work, under the title “Confessor 's and penitent's directory”, a manual of moral and canonical science, of considerable length with a notable casuistic content. This article analyses the following topics: purposes of the writing, authorship, style, content, handwritten tradition of the work and presentation of some cases of conscience about the exercise of professions and trades of the time, related to justice, restitution and the most common grievances inflicted on indigenous people.