The Missionaries of Ocopa and Conflicts Between Church and State in Mid-Eighteenth Century Colonial Peru
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THE WILL OF GOD AND THE WILL OF THE KING: THE MISSIONARIES OF OCOPA AND CONFLICTS BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE IN MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COLONIAL PERU A Thesis Presented in partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Cameron David Jones, B.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2009 Master’s Examination Committee: Dr. Kenneth Andrien, Adviser Dr. Stephanie Smith Approved by Dr. Alcira Dueñas _______________________________ Adviser Graduate Program in History ABSTRACT This thesis uses the loss of the Ocopa jungle missions to the rebellion of Juan Santos Atahualpa (1742-1752) to examine the changing political relationship between Church and State in mid-eighteenth-century Peru. Until the eighteenth century, Church and State had been traditional partners in the governance of Spain’s American possessions. With the ascension of the Bourbon dynasty in 1700, however, this partnership between Church and State began to deteriorate. This change was due in full measure to the adoption by many royal ministers, including Manso de Velásco, of regalism, an ideology inspired by the European Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason over tradition which championed the supreme authority of the monarch in all matters of state. Regalist ministers believed that political power in the Spanish empire should be centered in the monarchy rather than shared with other politically powerful institutions, such as the Church. The regular orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, Mercedarians and later Jesuits) were particularly suspect since they answered to their leaders in Rome, and not to the king. I argue that Viceroy José Antonio Manso de Velásco, Conde de Superunda, abandoned campaigns against the Juan Santos Atahualpa rebels in 1751 because it weakened the power of the Franciscan Order in Peru. ii This conclusion challenges previous historiography which contends that Manso de Velásco ended campaigns against the Juan Santos rebels because colonial resources were overextended by the 1746 Lima Earthquake and the Lima Conspiracy and the Huarochirí Rebellion in 1750. This thesis also calls for a re-evaluation of the periodization of the Bourbon reforms in the Spanish Americas, which some scholars argue do not begin in earnest until after the Seven Years War (1756 – 1763). I contend that Manso de Velásco’s actions against the Ocopa missionaries, along with other reforms throughout Peru, indicate an early Bourbon reform period which focused primarily on clerical reforms. iii Dedicated to my wife, Carrie \ iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the Center for Latin American Studies and the Tinker Foundation for the funding they provided to do some of the research necessary for this project in Peru. While in Peru, I was grateful for the hospitality of the Oyola- Arroyo family as well as the guidance of Ana Maria Vega de Zárate in navigating the Archive of San Francisco. Throughout the process of writing this thesis, I was fortunate to have the support of several fellow graduate students, many of whom read drafts, listened to ideas, and helped me deal with the stress of graduate school. Of my fellow graduate students I would particularly like to thank Beau Brammer, Ehren Cruz, Ryan Dawkins, Michael Hale, Steve Highland, and James Weeks. While perhaps not directly involved in this project, many professors at Brigham Young University and The Ohio State University helped in my intellectual formation. I am grateful for the guidance and support of Kendall Brown, Jeffrey Shumway, Donna Guy, and Geoffrey Parker. I would like to thank my thesis committee members, Alcira Dueñas and Stephanie Smith, whose invaluable comments will help this project to grow. I am eternally grateful to my advisor Kenneth Andrien for his sage advice, gentle guidance, and incredible patience. v I am also grateful for the help and support of my parents, Ernest and Julia Jones. Most importantly I would like to thank my wife Carrie, who served as my number one editor and was always my best friend and confidant throughout the entire process. vi VITA October 9, 1981………………………...Born – San Luis Obispo, California 2004 – 2006…………………………….Teaching Assistant, Brigham Young University 2006 ……………………………………B.A. History Brigham Young University 2006-present………………………........Graduate Teaching Associate The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History Minor Fields: Latin American History, Early Modern European History, Atlantic World History vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………….ii Dedication…………………………………………………………………………….iv Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………...…v Vita ………………………………………………………………………………….vii List of Tables.………………………………………………………………………....x List of Maps...………………………………………………………………………...xi List of Figures...….…………………………………………………………………..xii List of Graphs……………………………………………………………………….xiii List of Abbreviations………………………………………………………………..xiv Chapters: 1 Introduction……………...………………………………….…………………1 2 Historiography…………………………………...............................................9 3 Early Problems with the State, 1709 - 1742....................................................13 4 The Rebellion of Juan Santos and the Viceregal Response, 1742 -1746…….26 5 Earthquake, Clergy, Conspiracy, and Rebellion, 1746 - 1751 ……………....31 6 Retreat from the Missions, 1751 - 1752……………………………...............40 7 Financial Recovery from the Lima Earthquake/Tsunami of 1746…...……...50 viii 8 Victory for the Ocopa Friars? 1752 – 1824………………………………….58 9 Conclusions……………………………………………………….................62 Bibliography…..…………………………………………………………………….67 ix LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 Payment of annual stipend to the Ocopa missionaries……………………….18 x LIST OF MAPS Map Page 1 Known sites of the Ocopa mission stations………………………………….20 2 Mapa de Lima y contornos, 1750……………………………………………42 xi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Mapa de los Mártires de Santa Rosa de Ocopa, 1746………………………47 xii LIST OF GRAPHS Graph Page 1 Finances after the Earthquake/Tsunami of 1746…………………………….51 2 Government Expenditures for the Rebuilding of Lima……………………...53 3 Military Expenditures, 1745 – 1755…………………………………………55 xiii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AGI Archivo General de Indias, Seville MRE-AL Archivo de Limites, Ministerio de Relaciones, Peru AGN Archivo General de la Nación, Peru xiv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In 1709, Franciscan friars who were later based out of the College of Santa Rosa de Ocopa near Jauja, Peru, founded the first of twenty-three mission stations in a region of the eastern Peruvian high jungle called the Montaña Central. Because of the Franciscan vow of poverty and the missionaries’ inability to collect sufficient alms to fund the mission stations, the friars depended on the crown for financial support. Crown support continued, with some significant breaks, throughout the early eighteenth century. With these funds, the Ocopa friars were successful in converting only a few thousand jungle Amerindians as they built mission stations throughout the Montaña Central over the next few decades. In 1742, however, life in the Ocopa mission stations was interrupted by the rebellion of Juan Santos Atahualpa, a highland Indian from Cuzco who claimed to be the descendent of the last Sapa Inca, Atahualpa.1 With the help of the local jungle Amerindians, Juan Santos drove the Ocopa friars from most of their mission stations in the eastern high jungle. Peru’s viceregal government reacted immediately. Over the next nine years, the viceroy sent four expeditions attempting to crush the rebellion. In 1751, however, Viceroy José Antonio Manso de Velásco, Conde de Superunda, abandoned all efforts to retake the missions. 1 Though Tupac Amaru I (executed by order viceroy Francisco Toledo in 1572) was the last Sapa Inca, Atahualpa was the last Inca to rule all of the old Inca Empire before the Spanish invasion in 1532. Since Juan Santos argued for the rebirth of the Inca Empire with himself as Sapa Inca, adding the name Atahualpa to his own was probably to emphasize the Indians return to a pre-Hispanic existence. 1 Manso de Velásco claimed he did not have the resources to continue funding the costly expeditions to put down the rebels in the Ocopa mission stations. Two of the three regions that the crown had originally agreed to fund were now overrun by rebel Amerindians, leaving the friars with only two of their original twenty-three mission stations. Outside the Ocopa mission area, three events further justified Manso de Velásco’s decision. In 1746, an earthquake leveled most of Lima, and the subsequent tsunami killed nearly all of the approximately 6,000 residents of Lima’s port, Callao. In 1750, during the unrest that followed the devastation, the viceroy uncovered an Amerindian conspiracy to overthrow the government, which heightened fears of a popular uprising in the viceregal capital. These fears were exacerbated when one of the Lima conspirators, Francisco Jiménez Inca, escaped colonial authorities and led a rebellion in the adjacent highland province of Huarochirí. In 1751, the viceroy ordered the former mission stations closed to further evangelization. Instead of sending expeditions to retake mission property, he opted to establish a chain of fortifications at the mountain passes leading to the mission stations to contain the rebel Amerindians. At the same time, Manso de Velásco reduced the annual stipend that the crown had been paying the Ocopa friars by one half. By 1751, however, the city of Lima was well on its way to recovery from the 1746 earthquake/tsunami.