This panel explores the various approaches employed by early modern Catholic and Protestant missionaries engaging with local communities and customs around the globe. In the “Age of Confessionalisation”, the Catholic and Protestant aim to regulate society introduced, reinforced and reified religious and secular boundaries. This also applies on a global level: in exploring and colonising new lands, Europeans attempted to impose their religious and social models. At the same time, they came into contact with other cultural and religious traditions which challenged their missiological efforts. This sparked varied strategies of dealing with the exchange on a global and local level, with outcomes such as religious hybridisation and the questioning of European categories, with local agents playing a key role. While investigating the involvement of local informants and their emic perspective in the variety of historical sources at the centre of the panel (ethnographical works, archival sources, maps, diaries, theological treaties), the speakers aim to show that the European attempt to impose dominant, centralised patterns of devotion and civilisation ended up crumbling. Panellists will explore (1) the 17th-century conceptualisation of “Indian religion” in the Open Deure composed by the Calvinist predikant Abraham Rogerius, (2) 17th-century multi confessional Ottoman Albania, and (3) the Spanish expedition in the northern area of Nueva Espana (1540-42) and its aftermath. Chair: Andrea Annese (Alma Mater-Università di Bologna) Speakers: Daniele Colonnetti (Scuola Superiore Meridionale), Influences and similarities between the Méxica mythology and the Catholics background in the Franciscan description of Marco da Nizza in the Ancient northern Mexico (1539-40). Global History, Local Agency, Circulation of Ideas and History of Religions Ben Leathley (Alma Mater-Università di Bologna), "Indian Religion" in the "Open deure tot het verborgen heydendom". Ethnography, Local Agency and the History of Idolatry Silvia Notarfonso (Università di Macerata), “Fanno festa di venerdì, come li Turchi”: Catholic missionaries tackling religious hybridisations in Ottoman Albania (first half of the 17th century)