"A major contribution to the history of sexuality in early modern Europe and to the growing literature on the vast database for social and cultural history offered by the records of the Spanish Inquisition. It is the most important contribution to the study of sexual solicitation in the confessional since H.C. Lea's Auricular Confession and Indulgences, published exactly 100 years ago."--Choice"We should be grateful to Stephen Haliczer for opening up this new avenue of research"--Sixteenth Century Journal".Haliczer has been able to reconstruct an intriguing account of the intrusion of sexual desire, and its occasional fulfillment, into the operations of the sacrament of penance in early modern Spain."--American Historical Review".this is a richly detailed and informative study of a hitherto obscure aspect of the Spanish Church during the early modern period.

the author has developed a well-argued thesis which makes an important contribution to our understanding of the problem of solicitation in the early modern Spanish Church."--The Catholic Historical Review".densely textured and rich in detail."--Kathryn Norberg,University of California, Los Angeles"A major contribution to the history of sexuality in early modern Europe and to the growing literature on the vast database for social and cultural history offered by the records of the Spanish Inquisition. It is the most important contribution to the study of sexual solicitation in the confessional since H.C. Lea's Auricular Confession and Indulgences, published exactly 100 years ago."--Choice"We should be grateful to Stephen Haliczer for opening up this new avenue of research"--Sixteenth Century Journal".

Haliczer has been able to reconstruct an intriguing account of the intrusion of sexual desire, and its occasional fulfillment, into the operations of the sacrament of penance in early modern Spain."--American Historical Review".this is a richly detailed and informative study of a hitherto obscure aspect of the Spanish Church during the early modern period.the author has developed a well-argued thesis which makes an important contribution to our understanding of the problem of solicitation in the early modern Spanish Church."--The Catholic Historical Review".densely textured and rich in detail."--Kathryn Norberg,University of California, Los Angeles"Stephen Haliczer's book makes a major contribution to the current debate in the Roman Catholic Church on sex and celibacy by placing it in a historical context that began with the repressive reforms of the Council of Trent.This book is a wonderful piece of scholarship that the specialist will find thought-provoking, yet it could be assigned to upper-level undergraduates and graduate students.

"--Church History.