The parish was the fundamental ecclesiastical institution brought by Spain to the New World, and perhaps even the principal instrument of empire. This pioneering study traces the origins and development of the parishes of a single Central American diocese from conquest to independence. Drawing widely on Guatemalan archive sources, it presents a detailed picture of the colonial church at parish level. During the eighteenth century almost all regular parishes were secularized. This brought to an end the ecclesiastical state within a state: a republic of priests and Indians. Although the Crown...