Improved Epstein–Glaser renormalization in coordinate space I. Euclidean framework

In a series of papers, we investigate the reformulation of Epstein–Glaser renorma-lization in coordinate space, both in analytic and (Hopf) algebraic terms. This first article deals with analytical aspects. Some of the (historically good) reasons for the divorces of the Epstein–Glaser method, both from mainstream quantum field theory and the mathematical literature on distributions, are made plain; and overcome.