Church subsidy and Philip v’s politics in the Indian Church: a path to explore

Abstract

he main goal of the present paper is to demonstrate that the study of church
subsidies constitute a viable investigation line and path in order to ind out
more about church policies and the New Hispanic Church in Philip v’s era,
a period that has been little studied. In that regard, it needs to be pointed
out that in the historiography of the modern era of Spain, Philip v’s reign is
generally labelled as a “projectist” period, meaning that it welcomed the irst
attempts to carry out reforms. hese reformist tendencies need to be linked
with the events of the so-called Western Indies in the same period, as serious
attempts to change church policies can be observed here. In this sense, the
study of the introduction of church subsidies, as well as its consequences in
the New Hispanic church and clergy, can be a feasible path as it closely shows
the formulation of the irst reform plans of the Bourbons towards the Indian
Church in the irst decades of the 18th century.