Martin Nesvig is assistant professor of history at the University of Miami. He is the editor of Local Religion in Colonial Mexico and Religious Culture in Modern Mexico.

"We like to think of the Spanish Inquisition as a well-oiled institution, efficiently stamping out dissent.  In a marvelously crafted study, Martin Nesvig shows the many fault lines in such an account. The shibboleths of the past give way to a nuanced narrative, painstakingly based on archival research. Nesvig demonstrates that in Mexico, the Inquisition was a rather inefficient repressive apparatus, constantly changing and constitutionally riddled by competing ideological agendas. Nesvig sheds abundant new light on the workings of (canon) law in the early modern Spanish Empire. The flexibility with which censure and the law were applied could well explain the longevity of the empire."—Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, University of Texas at Austin

Martin Nesvig is assistant professor of history at the University of Miami. He is the editor of Local Religion in Colonial Mexico and Religious Culture in Modern Mexico.

"We like to think of the Spanish Inquisition as a well-oiled institution, efficiently stamping out dissent.  In a marvelously crafted study, Martin Nesvig shows the many fault lines in such an account. The shibboleths of the past give way to a nuanced narrative, painstakingly based on archival research. Nesvig demonstrates that in Mexico, the Inquisition was a rather inefficient repressive apparatus, constantly changing and constitutionally riddled by competing ideological agendas. Nesvig sheds abundant new light on the workings of (canon) law in the early modern Spanish Empire. The flexibility with which censure and the law were applied could well explain the longevity of the empire."—Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, University of Texas at Austin

Martin Nesvig is assistant professor of history at the University of Miami. He is the editor of Local Religion in Colonial Mexico and Religious Culture in Modern Mexico.

"We like to think of the Spanish Inquisition as a well-oiled institution, efficiently stamping out dissent.  In a marvelously crafted study, Martin Nesvig shows the many fault lines in such an account. The shibboleths of the past give way to a nuanced narrative, painstakingly based on archival research. Nesvig demonstrates that in Mexico, the Inquisition was a rather inefficient repressive apparatus, constantly changing and constitutionally riddled by competing ideological agendas. Nesvig sheds abundant new light on the workings of (canon) law in the early modern Spanish Empire. The flexibility with which censure and the law were applied could well explain the longevity of the empire."—Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, University of Texas at Austin