[ix] This book would not have been possible without the encouragement and advice of many readers and friends, the dedication of Cuenca's archivists, and the material support I received from several sources. It is a pleasure to acknowledge their contributions here. Richard Kagan, of The Johns Hopkins University, directed the original doctoral thesis and continued to support the project long after his formal obligations to it had expired. From the first, William A. Christian, Jr. was a perceptive and enthusiastic reader of the manuscript, and his anthropological caveats have provided a welcome alternate point of view. Two other readers, William Monter and Philip Benedict, gave me especially valuable criticism and convinced me of the necessity of returning to the archives to study conquenses' pious bequests. I also thank other readers and friends who over the years have offered suggestions or generously shared their research with me: Jodi Bilinkoff, William Callahan, Carlos Eire, Paul Freedman, and J. B. Owens.

Few books are better than their sources. In that regard I have been extremely fortunate; the archives of Cuenca are among the richest in Spain. Their curators, particularly P. Dimas Pérez Ramírez, of the Archivo Diocesano de Cuenca, and P. Antonio Chacón, of the Archivo Catedralicio de Cuenca, with scant material resources and little public recognition over the years have imposed order on chaos and enabled researchers like myself to exploit this national treasure. I also thank Doña Ana Olgarra, former secretary in the Archivo Municipal, and Doña Celia Arias Rebenaque and Doña María Felicidad Esteban Lorente, assistants at the Archivo Histórico Provincial, for making their collections available to me at a time when those archives had no director. Towards the end of the doctoral phase of my investigation, I had research assistance from A. Manuel Pinedo, who also introduced me to several of the province's religious festivals and took several of the photographs that appear in this book.

Much of the research was funded by the Fulbright Hays Program and a graduate fellowship from the Johns Hopkins University. Completion of the book manuscript was made possible by a New Jersey Governor's Fellowship in the Humanities, a short-lived program which [x] has fallen victim to the state's current fiscal crisis. Yet, without the year's release from teaching that this grant provided and the generous financial cooperation of William Paterson College, I doubt that I would have been able to pull together the different strands of investigation that make up this study.

Two individuals who were involved with my formation as a historian and a Hispanist have not lived to see the completion of this book. Eleanor K. Paucker, professor of Spanish at Bryn Mawr College and director of the college's Centro de Estudios Hispánicos en Madrid, imparted to me something of her enthusiasm for all things Spanish, and for fifteen years provided a tireless sounding board for all of my impressions, projects, and endeavors in her adopted country. Don Enrique Tierno Galván, for many years a professor at the Centro and other American foreign study programs, was the first person to recognize my historical calling. Long after the change in his political fortune released him from teaching American undergraduates for a living, he continued to take a keen interest in my progress towards fulfilling his prophecy. Both would have taken great pride in seeing the publication of this book. I dedicate it to their memory and to their vision of a democratic, progressive Spain.