The Bishop’s Utopia recounts Martínez Compañón’s achievements during his eleven years (1779–1790) as bishop of Trujillo, in the viceroyalty of Peru. Born in Navarre in 1737 and trained in Aragón and Guipúzcoa, he climbed the ranks of the Church hierarchy. He was named canon of Lima’s cathedral in 1772, then bishop of Trujillo in 1779, and finally, bishop of Bogotá in 1790. He died in 1791. His post in Trujillo involved acting as an intermediary in three separate contexts—(1) between the court in Madrid and the more remote corners of the Empire, (2) between Lima’s bureaucrats and Trujillo’s mine owners and workers, and (3) between reform-bent officials and Indian parishioners clamoring for reform. In Soule’s book, Martínez Compañón’s handling of these responsibilities is a showcase for what a socially minded and culturally sensitive representative of the Spanish Crown could do in the name of common good, in the wider context...

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