Veiled Threats: The Logic of Popular Catholicism in Italy

"In the two centuries following the Council of Trent (1545-63) thousands of Catholic missionaries were sent out from Europe to convert local populations throughout the world to the new tridentine orthodoxy. But at the same time, Catholic missionaries were sent into the European countryside, and there they encountered nominal Catholics who seemed as ignorant of core Catholic beliefs as any of the heathens in far-off lands. The situation seemed especially bad in southern Italy, and it became commonplace for Counter Reformation missionaries to call this area of Europe 'our Italian Indies.'" -- from the Introduction

In his acclaimed Madonnas that Maim, Michael Carroll began his systematic examination of popular Catholicism in Italy. Now, in Veiled Threats, Carroll delves more deeply into the beliefs and practices that make Italian popular Catholicism distinctive. He also explores in detail the subtle interaction that has always taken place between popular Catholicism and official Catholicism in Italy"