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Andrew S. Terrell
Atlantic History to 1750

Review Essay:
Hall, David D. Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early
New England. New York: Knopf, 1989.
Schwartz, Stuart B. All Can Be Saved: Religious Tolerance and Salvation in the Iberian
Atlantic World. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.

How do historians approach the relations between clergy and laity in the early colonial

Americas? With the invention of the printing press in the mid fifteenth century came a new era

of power struggle between orthodoxy and individual interpretation. The ability to spread the

written word on such a massive scale had grand ramifications that perpetuated the spread of

popular religion, as seen in David Hall’s monograph. The human conscience, furthermore,

allowed for self interpretations and inevitable questions that would challenge the status quo of

religious affirmation and doctrine in the old and new Iberian worlds, as elaborated by Schwartz.

What we see from the two studies of religion is that no matter the core denomination, common

persons across ethnical, ideological, and geographic divides have similar curiosities and

conclusions. What is different between the two studies is how the respective church

establishments reacted to the changes in popular religion. While there are other contrasting

themes, literacy seems to be prevalent in both studies of cultural history.

At the core of both experiences in New England and Spanish America was literacy

dissemination. Clergy and laity alike were people of the written word and thus were readers.

The spread of written texts allowed for ministers to encourage their parishes to read the bible by

themselves to better understand the rhetoric in meeting halls. However, church authorities

believed they could control what was being printed and spread thus enforcing dogma and their

flagrant rhetoric. In essence, clerics of Catholic and Protestant denominations were convinced
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they could influence interpretations not only in sermons but also in daily readings away from

ministers. However, Hall shows that New Englanders actively sought not only bibles and

sermons in text, but also radical literature of portents, magic and wonder. Schwartz points out

that as many as 50% of the Iberian populations were literate during the inquisition. Even among

Spanish and Portuguese laypersons, there was a desire to know and despite the intentions of

authors and clerics, books and manuscripts were always read creatively and interpreted

individually. A striking figure Schwartz mentions was between 1559 and 1805, the Holy Office

released eleven catalogs of prohibited books that largely targeted astrology and religious topics.

Those who held doubts after learning of the mass prohibition efforts were only driven to further

contend that the truth of the matter was that Christ had died to offer salvation to everyone which

was in direct contrast to the dogma of assimilation or condemnation.

Texts sold in New England both reinforced religious zeal as hoped by church officials,

and worked to undermine its authority. This paradox allowed for individuals like Samuel Sewall

to experience worlds of wonder beyond regular and traditional understandings. Though Hall

does not deny the case of Sewall may have been different than other commoners, he also shows

that much of Sewall’s diaries were thoughts and interpretations shared among lower class

citizens. For the common man, God was found in everyday experiences in addition to

extraordinary occurrences such as comets. This enlightened view of the world was a mixed

blessing for the church. Because of the emphasis on reading by yourself, children were taught

early and in mass how to read. Clerics and laity believed the ability to read was essential for

salvation. The laity mixed interpretations of their religious readings and their secular literature

and thus came about very literal fears of condemnation in addition to inquisitive approaches of
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life. In essence, scrutinization of oneself was more assiduous than ministers preached before.

Such literal interpretations were most evident in Hall’s depiction of the Halfway

Covenant whereby younger generations were baptized in hopes of encouraging the natural

advance to full church membership later. However, as the young matured, they became very

critical of themselves to the point of being afraid of accepting communion and full membership

because of literal interpretations they read in the bible. In the end, the ability to read and create

interpretations proved to be a viable link between the clergy and laymen. Hall sought to alleviate

the approaches that split the experiences of the two groups and succeeded in doing so along the

lines of literacy and its impact on both religion and society.

Just as a push for literacy changed popular religious beliefs in New England, questions

over religious tolerance changed popular religion and society within the Iberian colonial

experiences. With this level of analysis in mind, we advance twenty years in historical theories

to Stuart Schwartz. He asserts thoughts over veracity of opposing religions and differing

denominations within Christendom were every present in Christianity. However, such

interpretations and feelings were oppressed openly for Spanish and Portuguese laity. Whereas

the New England religious establishment seemed to embrace the spread of self interpretation,

such thoughts in Catholic Spain, Portugal, and their respective colonies were seen as heretical.

The belief that all could be saved was simply too radical well into the eighteenth century. As

Schwartz points out, political stability was thought to rest on a universal creed shared between

rulers and subjects. Any deviation from this simply complicated dogma and thus was

destructive. Though Schwartz contends those who believed all could be saved in their own
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respective religious beliefs and customs were a minority, he also points out that this minority was

targeted throughout three centuries of inquisition records in Spain, Portugal, and Mexico.

Both of these studies were bottom-up approaches to an extent. Based on the sources

between the books, the older monograph by Hall may have generalized the laity as a collective

without sufficient evidence, though such a criticism does not ultimately deter from the

significance of the finished product. What we see as historians is that Hall was part of a larger

cultural history movement that gave agency to laymen. The emphasis within both studies on

literacy and its effects on a self-aware and curious people serves to connect the new and old

worlds. Particularly, that the English, Portuguese, and Spanish experiences shared problems with

popular religion and early proliferation of texts.