Encountering the Enlightenment: Science, Religion, and Catholic Epistemologies Across the Spanish Atlantic, 1687-1813
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Encountering the Enlightenment: Science, Religion, and Catholic Epistemologies across the Spanish Atlantic, 1687-1813 by Copyright 2016 George Alan Klaeren Submitted to the graduate degree program in History and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________________ Chairperson Dr. Luis Corteguera _______________________________ Dr. Elizabeth Kuznesof _______________________________ Dr. Robert Schwaller _______________________________ Dr. Marta Vicente _______________________________ Dr. Santa Arias Date Defended: February 23, 2017 ii The Dissertation Committee for George Alan Klaeren certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Encountering the Enlightenment: Science, Religion, and Catholic Epistemologies across the Spanish Atlantic, 1687-1813 _________________________________ Chairperson Dr. Luis Corteguera Date approved: February 23, 2017 iii ABSTRACT During the eighteenth century, a wave of thought inundated the Spanish empire, introducing new knowledge in the natural sciences, religion, and philosophy, and importantly, questioning the very modes of perceiving and ascertaining this knowledge. This period of epistemic rupture in Spain and her colonies, commonly referred to as the Enlightenment, not only presented new ways of knowing, but inspired impassioned debates among leading intellectuals about the epistemology and philosophy that continued throughout the century. The previous scholarly literature has largely dismissed Spain’s intellectual activity in the eighteenth- century, arguing that its predominantly conservative and Catholic culture stifled innovation and relegated it to a peripheral and derivative position in the broader European Enlightenment. Only recently have scholars given serious attention to the conception of a widespread “Catholic Enlightenment.” This dissertation places the intellectual and religious activity of the eighteenth- century Spanish empire within this Catholic Enlightenment, specifically examining the ways in which religious intellectuals mediated and contested Enlightenment thought. It particularly highlights the works of Counter-Enlightenment thinkers who engaged eighteenth-century philosophy but ultimately rejected it. This dissertation examines the leading theological, philosophical, and scientific writings of religious intellectuals, university professors, natural philosophers, and physicians in eighteenth-century Spain, New Spain, and Peru, additionally considering personal letters, Inquisitorial evidence, and writing from the popular press of the period. In so doing, it assesses the way in which such writings contended for an epistemology which would satisfy both the new philosophies and sciences as well as the Catholic faith; showing how eighteenth-century Spaniards defined the relationship between these fields and how they conceived of the disciplines of knowledge. iv Ultimately, this dissertation argues that the work of Catholic Enlightenment and Counter- Enlightenment individuals in Spain was less radical than the philosophies adopted by French or British counterparts. The Spanish Enlightenment experience was the result of a deliberate, thoughtful, and careful negotiation between ancients and moderns and an attempt to conciliate new methods of knowledge into the existing Scholastic framework which had been held in the Spanish empire for centuries, rather than accepting a complete epistemological rupture. It demonstrates the role of conservative intellectuals in contesting epistemological hegemony in the mid-eighteenth century by proposing alternative, and at times, mutually exclusive, systems for understanding and pursuing truth. It similarly shows how these epistemological debates impacted the way that Spaniards conceived of the relationship between science and religion. This, in turn, impacts the way in which historians understand both the way that Spain related to the European community, especially France, during the eighteenth century, as well as the way that various religious groups encountered the Enlightenment movement. v In memory of Gertrude Mary Franke Devanny vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not exist without the careful consideration and kind support of many friends and mentors. Thanks are due first and foremost to Luis Corteguera and Marta Vicente, whose good natures and immense wisdom endeared them to me upon our first meeting, in whose home I have been welcomed countless times, and whose promise to walk beside me during each step of the doctoral journey has been proven true time and again. Similar respect must be given to Elizabeth Kuznesof, whose sure guidance and honest compassion has been a steady comfort to me, to Robert Schwaller, and to Santa Arias. I have been fortunate to learn from each of these historians not only the highest orthopraxy of sturdy historical research, but numerous virtues, including their generosity, joviality, kindness, and patience. Numerous others assisted me in either my professional formation or in the direct production of this work, including Andrew Mitchell, Tony Rosenthal, Michael Bailey, Patricia Manning, Gillis Harp, Mark Graham, Celine León, Paul Schaeffer, Iain Duguid, Greg Cushman, and John McFarland. The archivists and librarians at the Jesuit Library of Boston College, the Hesburgh Library of Notre Dame, the Center for Southwest Research at the University of New Mexico, the Newberry Library, the Kenneth Spencer Research Library and the Watson Library staff at the University of Kansas, the Archivo General de la Nación de Mexico, the Archivo General de las Indias, the Archivum Romanim Societatis Iesu, the Archivo Histórico Nacional de España, the Biblioteca Nacional de España, and the library of the Casa Velazquez were invaluable in their assistance. I note a particular appreciation for Hno. Wenceslao Soto, S.J, Hno. Amancio Arnáiz Arnáiz, S.J., and Javiér Martínez, all of the Archivo de España de la Compañía de Jesús, and Leticia Ruiz Rivera of the Biblioteca Eusebio F. Kino and Archivo Histórico de la Compañía de Jesús in Mexico, for all of their exceedingly kind help. I am similarly appreciative for the assistance of Nacho Díaz-Delgado Peñas at the Real Academia Nacional de la Medicina. At the Universidad vii Autónoma de Madrid, thanks are owed to José Martínez Millán, Jim Amelang, and Maria José del Río, as well as to the incomparable María Tausiet, whose conversations have always challenged me to approach the study of history seriously and with the integrity she possesses. The Fulbright Commission, the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas, the American Catholic Historical Association, and the Latin American and Iberian Institute at the University of New Mexico, among others, offered much-needed assistance. Dave and Rose Prince offered their home and their company in Madrid on countless occasions, for which I am grateful. The “Corteguera Cohort” of colleagues at the University of Kansas afforded me encouragement and help; I am especially obliged to Irene Olivares, Claire Wolnisty, Taylor Hersh, Adam Newhard, and Philip and Marcella Fox, each of whom not only offered me substantial feedback on my research, but provided much-needed companionship on a regular basis. I likewise express gratitude to other graduate colleagues, including Carolina Alarcón, Sarah Bell, Brett Bias, Laura Bland, David Cantor-Echols, Nicholas and Beth Cunigan, Harley Davidson, Amber Graham, Jaclyn and Rob Miller, Ximena Sevilla, Stephanie Stillo, and María Gabriela Torres Montero. I reserve my final appreciation for my patient siblings, my family, and above all my parents, Stephen and Laura, who have the full extent of my loving gratitude and who have taught me to seek the good and enabled me to say my non nobis. G.A. Klaeren Lawrence, Kansas December 13, 2016 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Frontmatter (Copyright, acceptance, abstract, dedication, and acknowledgements) (ii) List of Tables, Figures, and Illustrations (ix) List of Abbreviations (x) Introduction: Encountering the Spanish Enlightenments (p. 1) Chapter One: Religion and the New Philosophy of Science in Eighteenth-Century Spain: Martín Martínez’s Medical Skepticism, Empiricism, and the Challenges of Epistemic Demarcation, 1687-1730 (p. 56) Chapter Two: “A Priest who ventured out of his Science:” the Disillusioning Work of Padre Feijóo and the Catholic Enlightenment, 1726-1760 (p. 99) Chapter Three: La Verdad Católica vs. La Falsa Filosofía: the Anti-Teatrista Polemics of Salvador Josef Mañer and the Counter-Enlightenment Response in the Early-Eighteenth Century, 1728-1749 (p. 158) Chapter Four: ‘Each Subject Has Its Method:’ Negotiating Science and Religion in Valcárcel’s Desengaños Filosóficos (1787-1797) and Establishing the Middle Ground of the Spanish Catholic Enlightenment (p. 199) Chapter Five: From Ilustrado to Afrancesado: Politicizing Reform, Enlightenment, and Jansenism in the Alvarado-Villanueva Debates, 1782-1813 (p. 225) Conclusion: The Legacy of the Spanish Enlightenments (p. 266) Bibliography (p. 275) ix LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1, “Three Enlightenment Frameworks: Catholic, Counter, and Radical” (p. 26) Figure 2, “Portrait of Martín Martínez” (p. 76) Figure 3, “Works Relating to the Polemics of Martín Martínez, 1716-1811” (p. 84) Figure 4, “Portrait of Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro” (p. 112) Figure 5, “Feijóian, Teatrista, and Anti-Teatrista Publications, 1725-1783” (p. 167)