A New Priest for a New Society? The Masculinity of the Priesthood in Liberal Spain

This study examines the formation of the ideal of the “good parish priest” as a means for the Catholic Church to recover its social influence in the Spain that emerged from the liberal revolutions of the early nineteenth century. It makes use of the concept of masculinity as a resource for illuminating the forms of authority and social relationships that were held to define the ideal priest. In doing so it draws on two levels of analysis. On the one hand, it considers the manuals of clerical behaviour and regulations of the seminaries, which pursued a model of priestly masculinity that was difficult to achieve in practice. On the other, it considers individual experiences and life stories, as an indispensable viewpoint from which to comprehend the identity of the Catholic clergy. By these means this article enters into a field that has been little explored by Spanish or international historiography, the contribution of religion to the formation of historic masculinities.