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The problems faced by the Spanish missionaries in translating Christian concept to the native people of South America, due to the stubbornness of the local priests to learn the native language are presented.

The image of the Pentecost underwent some significant changes during the Italian Renaissance, particularly during the late sixteenth century in Rome. Traditionally, the scene had shown the descent of the Holy Spirit on the twelve Apostles and sometimes Mary, but in this period the image was expanded to include all the women and men numbered among the disciples after the Ascension: the 120 mentioned in Acts 1:15. This enlarged version of the Pentecost was related to the reform ideas and the missionary imperative of the Counter-Reformation papacy of Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572-1585). Gregory promoted this new image, which found its most eloquent expression in the church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, particularly in Jacopo Zucchi's apse frescoes commissioned by the Order of Santo Spirito in 1582, and in the chapel of the Marchesa Vittoria della Tolfa. Papal rhetoric, the liturgy of the reformed Missal of Pius V, popular preaching, and the writings of Gregory Nazianzus all contributed to the new Pentecost imagery in late Cinquecento Rome.