Visitor and villager: Communal dynamics and the status of local religion in the diocese of Geneva -Annecy during the time of Catholic reform, 1579--1640

The results of the implementation of the decrees and canons of the Council of Trent on the parishes of Europe have yet to be explored fully by scholars. This dissertation is a study of Early Modern Catholicism in the diocese of Geneva-Annecy over the tenure of three bishops (1579--1640). Located in the Alpine region of Savoy and France, the diocese was a crossroads for the political and religious strife of the period. Using ecclesiastical visitations of the parishes, correspondence of the diocesan officials, and documents of the secular authorities, I explore the impact of Tridentine reform on the parish communities of the diocese. These documents allow me to investigate the interaction between various members of a community both religious and secular, male and female, Catholic and Protestant and how these relationships influenced the implementation of reform practices.;The study explores the efforts to convert the Protestants of the region. An analysis of the Forty Hours celebration, which was a crucial missionary activity, offers important insight into the dynamics of biconfessional communities, the role of the preaching orders in the Counter Reformation, and the level of participation by secular rulers in religious reform. The missionary activity within the diocese was a slow and often difficult process, and Catholic reformers faced opposition from both Protestants and secular authorities.;The bishops attempted to revitalize both the clergy and laity who remained loyal to Rome. The reform of both the regular and secular clergy was a central goal of the diocese, but the methods used by diocesan officials to revitalize the parish priest were in many ways quite different from those used with the religious houses. Diocesan officials went to great lengths to introduce new practices and to reform old ones within the parish structure. Yet these measures had only limited success. This study reveals how diocesan officials, monks, parish priests, and parishioners all participated in the reform process.;Religious reform was a complicated and multi-faceted process. Neither laity nor clergy blindly accepted new rules or practices imposed from above. The support of secular authority was crucial to the success of reforming efforts especially for those measures directed at the Protestant populations. The diocese lacked the manpower to provide the oversight essential to suppress practices deemed inappropriate if cooperation did not exist at the local level. Flexibility remained in the enforcement and implementation of new religious observances, and few oppressive measures were used to halt existing rituals. The religious ideals that emerged from the Council of Trent failed to overcome the local realities of a region.