In his 1855 biography of Saint Charles Borromeo, Giovanni Giussano recounted the cardinal's dismay over the persistence of profane and disruptive activities, such as gambling, within Milan's duomo. Borromeo's concerns pointed to two challenging issues in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe: how and whether to identify a space as sacred, and how to exert appropriate controls over the behavior of congregants. Jennifer DeSilva's edited collection draws upon examples from Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, England, and Latin America to explore how officials addressed these matters in a variety of contexts. The authors consider topics that range from ephemeral decorations to battles over the appropriate designations and uses of spaces. How, church leaders also asked, could a shrine, a church, an event, or a decorative scheme contribute to the experience of the sacred? At other times, desacralization challenged ecclesiastical authority. For historians, the questions expand beyond this to include explorations of the ideals expressed, contested, rebuffed, or adopted in the specific instances documented here.

In part 1, “Sacralization and Transformation,” DeSilva examines the chapel of Paris de' Grassi, endowed in early sixteenth-century Rome with the goal of restoring communal spirituality by privileging liturgical celebrations and models of appropriate clerical comportment. He hoped to strengthen the existing cult of Mary Magdalene, largely through the activities of the chapel's priest. At St. Celso and St. Giuliano, in addition to the physical outfitting of a chapel, de’ Grassi drafted a twenty-three-chapter text (fully transcribed here) outlining the personal, liturgical, financial, and communal goals for future priests. The canonization of Saints Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier became the occasion for Jesuits in the Low Countries to counter the spread of Protestantism by erecting spectacular ephemeral settings in which to celebrate the accomplishments of their leaders. Absent images, Annick Delfosse relies on the elaborate descriptions in publications of the time to reveal the strategies behind the “theaters of divine honors,” both within and without churches.

In part 2, “Spaces of Sacred Conflict and Resolution,” four essays stand out for their innovative treatments of little-known material. Emily Winerock's illuminating study of disputes over dancing in English churchyards sets the pace for bringing largely ignored material to light. Eric Nelson presents the story of the shrine of Saint Martin at Tours, a relic shrine nearly totally destroyed by Huguenots in 1563; once routed, the Catholic ministry took on the challenge of reconstructing the shrine. Over time, the narratives, liturgies, and spaces underwent specific changes, in part to present Saint Martin as newly—and again—martyred by the Huguenot destruction. Conflicts within the Catholic community constitute the issues addressed by John Hunt in his study of some of the popular practices common to the period of the sede vacante in Rome. Hunt brings to light popular attacks on the statues of deceased popes, understood as both temporal and spiritual rulers. Among the statues conserved on the Capitoline Hill and destroyed during these raucous periods was that of Paul IV, which in 1559 suffered the same punishments papal authorities afflicted on miscreants—cutting off nose, ears, and right arm; removal of the papal tiara; decapitation; and, finally, procession through the city to suffer the taunts and abuse of citizens. A second appropriation of urban space to challenge papal authority involved Rome's famous speaking statues, statue parlanti, such as the famous Pasquino in the Parione district. Finally, David Stiles studies the conflicts between Jesuit missionaries and the Spanish Crown in the South American region of Rio de la Plata, in 1750–67, including the violent destruction of the missions by the Crown in the Guarani War of 1756. Though the Jesuits were uninterested in territorial or economic expansion, to the Crown sacred communities governed by deeply Catholic principles constituted challenges to Spanish authority and, especially, the Crown's desire to exploit and control the region.

This fine collection opens debate on issues that vexed ecclesiastical authorities in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe, in ways that extend well beyond this period. Studies that include nonecclesiastical sacred spaces would further define the parameters of the sacred in these early modern settings, as would analyses of such spaces that originated in popular practices. That relatively few illustrations, plans, or maps accompany most of the texts is puzzling, as they would surely have clarified the contours of some of these highly specific and complex sites.