This presentation has been done jointly by three authors - A. Boltanski is concerned with French examples, M.-L. Copete with Spanish ones, finally A. Maldavsky with south American ones. The paper, in these three areas, lays the stress on the role played by the laity in the evangelization process. It insists on the help given by the nobility ant the elite on behalf of the Counter-Reform. This help is analyzed through instances of pious foundations, sustainment of missions, interventions within confraternities, in Europe as well as Colonial America, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.