Saint Juan de Ribera (1569–1611) is perhaps best known for reforming his see of Valencia according to the decrees of the Council of Trent, and also for supporting the expulsion of tens of thousands of the recently converted Muslims who were part of his flock. What Benjamin Ehlers has accomplished in his study of Bishop Juan de Ribera is quite remarkable, for he has not only written an exceedingly fine account of how the Tridentine reforms were carried out at ground level in one diocese, but he also managed to analyze these reforms from various perspectives and to place them in the context of their unique setting, in one of the very few dioceses in Europe that had a large population of unwilling Christian converts from Islam. At the same time, Ehlers has also placed Ribera's work in the context of the Catholic Reformation in Europe as a whole.

Historians of early modern Europe have been paying increasing attention to the role of bishops in the refashioning of early modern Catholicism. Many have also paid much attention to the relationship between the “official” religion promoted by church authorities and the so-called “popular” piety of the laity. Ehler's insightful study analyzes how it was that a bishop could foment change and renewal, and what kind of obstacles he faced. At the very same time, this work takes pains to prove—and succeeds at proving—that the oft-invoked dialectic between “official” religion and “popular” piety was really more of a symbiotic process than a dichotomy: as much a process of negotiation between the elite clergy and the common faithful as it was a well-ordered transformation based on a common blueprint. Moreover, by focusing on Valencia, one of the very few places in early modern Europe with a significant Muslim population that had been forcibly converted to Christianity, Ehlers's analysis of the failed strategies taken by Ribera reveals much about the limits of “official” reforms and the strength of “popular” convictions, and goes a long way toward proving conclusively how difficult it was for elites to force religion down anyone's throat. His analysis of Bishop Ribera's growing frustration with the Moriscos, and of the steps that he eventually took to ensure their eviction from Valencia, reveals very clearly the contours of early modern religious intolerance and the complexity of Spanish Catholic attitudes toward the relation between faith, culture, and ethnicity.

This first-rate study is solidly based on original and wide-ranging archival research, and also on printed primary sources, some long-neglected. It is also constantly engaged with the secondary literature—from the oldest to the most recent—and is not at all myopically focused on Spain, but rather constantly alert to developments in the rest of Europe. Surely, this book is destined to become required reading for all who are interested in early modern history and especially for those who have a special interest in Spain and Catholicism or in the history of Christian-Muslim relations.