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The evolution of the Jesuit mission system in northwestern New Spain, 1600-1767 Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Polzer, Charles W. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 07/10/2021 07:02:37 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/565266 THE EVOLUTION OF THE JESUIT MISSION SYSTEM IN NORTHWESTERN NEW SPAIN, 1600-1767 by Charles William Polzer, S.J. A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1972 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by Charles William Polzer, S. J.________________ entitled The Evolution of the Jesuit Mission System_________ in Northwestern New Spain, 1600 - 1767 be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy__________________________ //. After inspection of the final copy of the dissertation, the following members of the Final Examination Committee concur in its approval and recommend its acceptance:*v This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination. The inclusion of this sheet bound into the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory performance at the final examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to bor­ rowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. © COPYRIGHTED BY CHARLES WILLIAM POLZER, S. J. 1972 iii PREFACE In the extensive literature about the missions of northwestern New Spain very little attention has been paid to the internal organiza­ tion and operation of the mission system. As thorough as the scholar­ ship of the history of these missions has been, the lack of a study, such as presented in this dissertation, has led many readers of history into the false presumption that missionaries were nearly free agents on the frontier. It is the purpose of this dissertation to focus on cer­ tain aspects of the mission system to show the complexity of the rules by which they operated, the pragmatism that characterized their method, and the protective independence they cherished. This study does not revise the history of the missions; it provides a new back­ ground against which Spanish pioneers and missionaries can be reexamined. This work began in 1968 as a partial background for historical investigations relevant to the introduction of the cause for beatification of Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, S. J. No amount of historical evidence can bear any weight without a full understanding of the man in the context of his times. The reconstruction of that context depends integrally on the kind of historical data and analysis presented here. iv Knowing that future graduate studies would involve research in the major archives of Spain, I requested permission to spend the final year of my theological studies in the Society of Jesus in that country. With the kind assistance of Father Ernest J. Burr us, S .J., of the Jesuit Historical Institute of Rome, I was introduced to the Archive Historico Nacional (Madrid), the research collections at Razon y Fe, and the Archive General de Indias (Sevilla) in which places I spent several weeks acquainting myself with the material and research tech­ niques . Then, through the courtesy of the Graduate College of The University of Arizona, I was awarded a Graduate Fellowship in 1970 that made it possible for me to return to Europe and gather the mate­ rial for this dissertation. In the summer of 1970, I worked in Mexico City at the Archive General de la Nacidn and the Archive Historico de Hacienda. The papers in the Archive Historico de Hacienda have rarely been consulted because the archive was formerly inaccessible and the documents in disarray. This condition has been corrected, but the lack of indexing made it necessary to search page by page through some eighty-six legajos often over 1000 pages long. The majority of these papers once constituted the private archives of the Procurator of the Jesuit. Province of New Spain. All the original documentation for this study was microfilmed through the courtesy of the Vatican Film Library, Pius XII Memorial vi Library, St. Louis University. Through the generosity of the Par km an Foundation, a microfilm reader-printer was made available that cut research time over four times. Struggling through the pale­ ography of three centuries of Spanish, one wonders if the amassing of data made possible by modern technology is a blessing or not. Cer­ tainly without it, this study would never have been possible. This dissertation would not have been possible without the quiet, patient guidance of Professor Russell C. Ewing. A scholar of the Spanish Borderlands and a student of Professor Herbert E. Bolton, Dr. Ewing manifested an understanding of the research problems as few others could. In days when some graduate students protest that their research belongs to their advisors, it was stimulating to work under Dr. Ewing because he lived up to a dictum of Bolton that he often repeated: "I've broken the ground—now you do the building. " This dissertation is finished. If, through it, scholarship has grown, it is the scholars who have helped me who made it possible. If its scholarship is wanting, I have no one to blame but myself. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT..................................................................................viii 1. INTRODUCTION: TERMINOLOGY AND ORIGINS............. 1 2. THE JESUIT MISSION SYSTEM: RULES AND PRECEPTS.................................................................. .. 40 3. JESUIT MISSION METHODOLOGY............................. 85 4. SAN JOSE DE MATAPE—A COLLEGIUM INCHOATUM: THE FIRST SIXTY YEARS, 1620-1680........................... 129 5. THE COLLEGE OF MATAPE: A LEGAL FICTION, 1680-1767 .................................................................. 169 6. SECULARIZATION AND EPISCOPAL RELATIONS ...... 204 APPENDIX A:' BILL OF LADING FOR MATAPE...................234 APPENDIX B; MISSION CERTIFICATION AND SECULARIZATION............................. 240 APPENDIX C: MAPS ILLUSTRATING THE EVOLU­ TION OF THE JESUIT MISSION SYSTEM............................................................. 255 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................... 260 v ii ABSTRACT As Hubert Howe Bancroft suggested in the North Mexican States and Texas, the northern sector of Mexico was the preeminent mission field of America and probably the best area in which to study the mission system. The Jesuit mission system in northwestern New Spain was not conceived or planned in advance. The original itinerant mission techniques, developed through the colleges in the central plateau of Mexico, did not suit the situation on the western coastal plain. As the number of Jesuit missions and missionaries increased in Sinaloa and the Sierra Occidental, the mission system grew more complex in itself as well as in its relations with the civil and episcopal authorities. The first attempt at codification of mission rules was done by Father Rodrigo Cabredo, only recently arrived in Mexico. The simple rules emphasized the precautions that missionaries were to take in safeguarding their spiritual and religious lives. A half century later, in 1662, a new code was promulgated by Father Hernando de Cabrero. These lengthy and minute rules touched almost every phase of a missionary's life. Cabrero1 s Code remained in effect until the expul­ sion of the Society of Jesus from the Spanish empire in 1767. It was, v iii ix however, substantially modified by the issuance of instructions to the newly created office of Visitor General in 1723. Throughout the history of the Jesuit missions in northwestern New Spain no manual of instructions was ever issued to direct the method of evangelization. The techniques employed were devised in the field and refined by the missionaries themselves at semi-annual juntas. Both Andres Perez de Ribas and Eusebio Francisco Kino, the only Fathers known to have left any extant writings on methodology, stress the importance of personal character and intimate contact with the natives as the primary needs of a successful missionary. Prob­ ably the most effective means the missionaries possessed was their - command of the native languages. Jesuits were not even permitted to be ordained until they had proven proficiency in the Mexican language. One of the key Sonoran missions was San Jose de Matape. In 1670 it was officially declared a colegio incoado, which did not imply it was on the verge of becoming an educational institution. The title was given to the mission so that the Jesuit community at Matape could legally, both

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