John F. Schwaller, ed.. The Church in Colonial Latin America. Jaguar Books on Latin America. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 2000. xxiii + 252 pp. $60.00 (cloth) ISBN 0-8420-2703-3; $19.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8420-2704-5.

Reviewed by Brian Larkin

Published on H-Catholic (June, 2002)

This book, designed for classroom use, would vides short chapter introductions that further sit‐ serve as a useful supplementary text in courses uate each contribution within its historical and, on religion in Latin America or colonial Latin frequently, historiographical contexts. America. John F. Schwaller, a specialist on the The frst section of the volume contains three Church in early colonial Mexico, selected seven selections on the intellectual and institutional his‐ previously published articles and excerpted sec‐ tory of the Church in early colonial Latin Ameri‐ tions from two monographs for inclusion in this ca. The frst chapter, an extended excerpt from a volume. These selections, which range in method‐ monograph by Luis N. Rivera,[1] analyzes theolog‐ ology from traditional institutional to post-struc‐ ical-cum-political debates over the legality of the turalist cultural history, introduce students to conquest and subsequent treatment of the Indian three major themes within the study of the early population. Rivera argues that, although many fri‐ colonial Church and religion--particularly, con‐ ars, most notably Bartolome de las Casas, ques‐ ficts between the regular and secular clergies tioned the legitimacy of the conquest on the basis over the right to minister to the Indians, the grow‐ of Augustinian just war theory, they represented a ing infuence of royal power over the Church, and minority view. Moreover, regardless of benevo‐ the complex and contested process of converting lent royal decrees protecting Indian subjects, the indigenous populations to Catholicism. practice did not follow theory. This excerpt, de‐ Schwaller's introduction deftly acquaints the spite the editor's introduction, does not work well reader with the important personages and institu‐ as an article because it lacks a clearly articulated tions in early colonial ecclesiastical history and unifying argument. It will more likely confuse places the topics of the following nine chapters in than enlighten students. their historical context. He divides these chapters Both the second and third chapters use the into three sections entitled "Policy Issues," Ordenanza del Patronazgo to discuss the state of "Parochial Issues," and "Cultural Issues" and pro‐ the regular and secular clergies and the confic‐ H-Net Reviews tive relations between them in early colonial Mex‐ More important, she argues that the censuses sug‐ ico. The Ordenanza del Patronazgo, a royal decree gest that the Franciscans and Dominicans who issued by Philip II in 1574, reversed earlier royal proselytized these towns attempted to convert the policy and shifted crown support from the regular Indians at an individual level rather than concen‐ to the secular clergy, for it mandated the devolu‐ trate their eforts on indigenous leaders in the tion of parishes administered by religious orders hope that these native nobles, in turn, would per‐ in the Spanish Americas to diocesan control. suade the commoners to undergo baptism. Mov‐ Robert C. Padden examines the politics behind the ing from rites of initiation into Christianity to the edict's promulgation and frmly establishes its ori‐ cultural efects of evangelization, Serge Gruzinski gin in the absolutist aspirations of Philip II. Al‐ in the next chapter, a complex and subtle article though the secular clergy had a reputation as edu‐ that will challenge most undergraduates, exam‐ cationally ill- prepared and morally lax, Philip is‐ ines how the sacrament of penance, because of its sued the Ordenanza because the Spanish crown, emphasis on individual sin, conscience, and re‐ through its right to appoint bishops in the New demption, collided with a more collective sense of World, could better control it than the more inde‐ self common among the indigenous peoples of pendent religious orders. Philip, however, issued Mexico. Gruzinski demonstrates that Indians re‐ the decree only after the papacy had rejected his sponded in diferent ways to confession, but ar‐ plan to establish an American patriarchate, an in‐ gues that the sacrament by and large did not re‐ stitution that would have served as a royal inter‐ sult in individuation even into the eighteenth cen‐ mediary between the religious orders and Rome tury. This section's fnal chapter, an article by Ken‐ and thus would have bolstered royal authority neth Mills, examines the Extirpation of idolatry over the Church. In the last chapter of this section, campaigns sponsored by the Archbishop of Lima, John F. Schwaller explores the implementation of Pedro de Villagomez, in mid-seventeenth-century the Ordenanza in the Archdiocese of Mexico. Be‐ Peru. The campaigns were not simply intended to cause of opposition from the regular clergy and eliminate remnants of pre-Columbian religious royal administrators, the main purpose of the Or‐ practices, but also the many forms of indigenous- denanza remained unfulflled. The religious or‐ Christian religious mixture that had occurred in ders retained their parishes. Schwaller points out, Indian villages over the century and a half since however, that one of its secondary aims--the use the conquest. Mills argues that the sometimes vio‐ of competitive examinations to fll vacant cura‐ lent nature of the Extirpation campaigns worked cies--profoundly afected the secular clergy. Over against their purpose; in fact, they "bred a sort of time, competition for curacies prompted clerical natural resistance which allowed for myriad candidates to increase their educational training forms of religious intermixture" (p. 169). Mills, signifcantly. like Gruzinski, reveals in his detailed, subtle anal‐ Three of the four articles that comprise the ysis that Indian populations, despite ready accep‐ volume's second section explore interactions be‐ tance of rites like baptism, misunderstood, resist‐ tween the clergy and the indigenous populations ed, and adapted Spanish Catholicism in an evolv‐ and examine the processes of conversion and ac‐ ing process that created multiple forms of indige‐ culturation. Sarah Cline, employing early six‐ nous Christianity. teenth-century Nahuatl (the language of many in‐ This section's third chapter, an article by digenous groups of central Mexico) censuses that Karen Vieira Powers, is oddly placed. Because it recorded the baptismal status of inhabitants of six traces disputes between the secular and regular indigenous towns, contends that the Nahuas clergy in the province of Latacunga (in modern (speakers of Nahuatl) quickly received baptism. Ecuador) over the right to minister to the mixed-

2 H-Net Reviews race and migrant Indians populations rather than through a book he published in 1648. Sanchez and interactions between the clergy and parishioners, subsequent devotees used the account to promote it is more closely related to chapters in the frst criollo pride, for, so the story goes, the Virgin had section of the book than those of the second. especially blessed Mexico by granting it an image Vieira Powers argues that racial mixing and Indi‐ of heavenly origin. According to Poole, so "began an migration challenged the original division of the long process whereby Guadalupe was fused labor among the clergy: regular clergy for indige‐ with Mexican identity" (p. 236). nous peoples and secular clergy for Spanish popu‐ John Schwaller collected excellent, if not all lations. The jurisdictional arguments resulted in a entirely audience-appropriate, works for inclu‐ division of labor based on space rather than race sion in this volume. But as a whole his selections and, thus, undermined the racial, corporatist or‐ reveal a limited focus. Only two of nine chapters ganization of the Spanish colonies. broach the eighteenth century, and none focuses The book's last section moves from indige‐ extensively on the period. Given the Spanish nous Christianity to the religious practices of the state's bold moves to subordinate the Church to Spanish and Hispanized populations. It contains royal authority and religious reformers' deter‐ two chapters on popular devotion to two images mined attempts to transform devotional practices of the Virgin in Mexico. Linda A. Curcio-Nagy in this period, the lack of an article addressing traces the changing nature and meanings of the these eighteenth-century issues is a conspicuous cult of the Virgin of Remedies from the sixteenth omission.[3] Furthermore, fve of the volume's to the nineteenth centuries. Associated with the nine chapters treat central Mexico. (Two chapters conquest in the early colonial period, the Virgin of are not geographically specifc, and the remaining Remedies, under the aegis of the Mexico City town two focus on Peru and Ecuador.) Although this council, became a general protector of the city's emphasis in part results from the comparatively populace in the seventeenth century. She began to abundant historiography on this region, sufcient lose this status in the eighteenth century as the material on other areas of Latin America exists Spanish monarchy increasingly appropriated the for a more geographically equitable collection of image for royal celebrations. By the outbreak of articles. Readers interested in the history of the the Mexican independence movement in 1810, Church and religion in Brazil, the Caribbean, or Remedios had become so closely associated with the frontiers of Spanish America will be disap‐ the Spanish crown that royalists naturally adopt‐ pointed. Likewise, readers particularly concerned ed her as their protector and counterpart to the with the religious history of women will fnd little insurgents' advocate, the Virgin of Guadalupe. De‐ of immediate interest in this volume. Not even Sor votion to Guadalupe is the subject of the book's Juana Ines de la Cruz or St. Rose of Lima, Latin last chapter, an excerpt from Staford Poole's America's two most famous religious women, re‐ monograph on this advocation of Mary.[2] This ceive mention. Because of its limited scope, in‐ excerpt works better than the frst as an article, structors will need to supplement this text with for its argument comes through clearly. Poole con‐ other materials. Nonetheless, Schwaller has pro‐ tends that devotion to Latin America's most fa‐ vided scholars with a useful selection of articles mous image was primarily a criollo (American- for the classroom. born Spaniard) rather than an Indian afair in the Notes colonial period. Miguel Sanchez, a criollo priest, [1]. A Violent Evangelism: The Political and presented (and may have invented) the apparition Religious Conquest of the Americas (Louisville, narrative (the Virgin's appearance to the Indian Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992). Juan Diego in 1531) to the Spanish population

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[2]. Our Lay of Guadalupe (Tucson: The Uni‐ versity of Arizona Press, 1995). [3]. For a brief introduction to these issues, consult D. A. Brading, "Tridentine Catholicism and Enlightened Despotism in Bourbon Mexico," Jour‐ nal of Latin American Studies 15 (1983): 1-22.

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Citation: Brian Larkin. Review of Schwaller, John F., ed. The Church in Colonial Latin America. H- Catholic, H-Net Reviews. June, 2002.

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