ABSTRACT
Despite the importance of ceremony in the local political and social structure, historical studies of religion of rural Europe have usually tended to concentrate on identifying a 'popular religion' and exploring its relationship to the official body of belief. Yet it is only by examining ceremonial activity that we can come to see how religious life represents, albeit in symbolic terms, the various groups and divisions that exist within a community. Ceremony is closely linked to ritual, but it possesses an extraordinary ability to adapt to changing situations. It can therefore provide a unique insight into the interconnections between social structure and the system of belief.2 An analysis of changes in the ceremonial life of these local communities shows how the Counter Reformation came into conflict with preexisting ceremonial traditions as it attempted to impose new religious practices on the lay population. The eventual success of the Counter Reformation was thus not a defeat for 'popular religion' but only a stage in a far more complex process. The second part of the paper will show how these new customs and practices were exploited for the power and prestige which they offered in the rural communities - as a resource not only within local politics, but also against the new and encroaching power of the Savoy state in the early eighteenth century.
