The Conquest of the Soul: Confession, Discipline and Public Order in Counter-Reformation Milan (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions)

Carlo and Federico Borromeo achieved fame by turning Milan into the foremost laboratory of the Italian Counter-Reformation. This monograph interprets their programme of penitential discipline as a quest to reshape Lombard society by reaching into the souls of its inhabitants. This integration of the public and private spheres had vast implications- the transformation of the clergy into a professional body, a bureaucratic-juridical turn into sacramental practice, interventions into the ritual order (notably the introduction of the confessional), and new models of discipline and "civilized" behaviour. Catholic confessionalism thus conceived had decidedly mixed outcomes. While it transformed the religious landscape forever, its deepest ambitions foundered amidst political opposition, popular resistance, and a bureaucratic accommodation.