Alonso de Montúfar
Encyclopedia
Alonso de Montúfar Born in Loja
, Andalusia
, Spain
c. 1489, died in Mexico City
, March 7, 1572. Archbishop of Mexico 1551-1572.
Following the chronicler Gil González Dávila
some authors give the year 1498 as Montúfar's year of birth, however, González Dávila contradicts himself stating that the archbishop
was eighty years old when he, erroneously, stated that Montúfar died in 1569. He was born in Loja
in Spanish Andalusia just after the conquest of the town from the Muslims. Apart from this, there is another interesting note concerning Montúfar’s date of birth; when his good friend and assistant Bartolomé de Ledesma, in a eulogy to the Archbishop, writes that Montúfar had accepted the archbishopric in 1551, though he was over sixty years old. This note, together with the other evidence, indicates that Montúfar was born as early as 1489 or at least around that date
and professed in the monastery
of Santa Cruz la Real in Granada
in 1512. By 1517 Montúfar was summoned to Seville
. The reason for his transferral was that the Dominican Archbishop Diego de Deza wanted him as one of the first fellows (colegiales) of the newly founded college of Santo Tomás de Aquino. In the college Montúfar was granted the degree of Master of Theology.
In 1524 he returned to his own college, Santa Cruz la Real in Granada
after seven years in Seville
. At Santa Cruz la Real, he continued his educational efforts. In 1530, the General Chapter of the Dominican Order installed him as Bachelor of Theology at the monastery for two years and then conferred to him the degree of Master of Theology. Following these years of teaching, Montúfar was elected prior of Santa Cruz la Real in 1536. At the end of his priory he went to Lyon
, France to attend the General Chapter of the Order.
Coming back to Spain, in 1538 he was prior of Santo Domingo el Real in Almería
and from 1541 he was prior for two years in Santo Domingo in Murcia
. 1546, however, he was back in his old monastery in Granada, where he was elected prior for yet another term.
Apart from the appointments within the Dominican order, Montúfar served for a long time as a theological consultant of the Inquisition
tribunals of Granada, Murcia, Toledo
and Seville.
, Montúfar was presented as new archbishop by Emperor Charles V
. The recommendation of Montúfar as a candidate to the Mexican see seems to have come from the marquis of Mondejár, Luis Hurtado Mendoza, who at the time was president of the Council of the Indies. According to the chroniclers the marquis knew
Montúfar personally, since he had been his confessor for some time.
Alonso de Montúfar was consecrated in 1553 and finally arrived as archbishop to his see in Mexico City
in June 1554, six years after the death of his predecessor Zumárraga.
provincial councils. As Archbishop of Mexico, Alonso de Montúfar summoned the bishops of the province to two such provincial council.
Having arrived in June 1554, Montúfar saw the celebration of a provincial council as his greatest immediate goal. Already complaining about his advanced age and general fragility, Archbishop Montúfar wrote to the King that he wanted to convoke this assembly before his death, which he thought would come very soon. As a newcomer, the Archbishop thought it indispensable to meet his episcopal colleagues and the clergy, who had first-hand experience of the country. As Montúfar also thought that the young church in Mexico lacked both order and discipline, he considered it very important to establish a body of clear legal norms worthy of the new church province.
of Mexico was inaugurated at a ceremony in the cathedral of Mexico City, in the presence of the Archbishop and four of his suffragan bishops. Two of these suffragans were friars. Martín Sarmiento de Hojacastro of Tlaxcala
was an experienced Franciscan missionary, and Tomás de Casillas of Chiapas
was a Dominican
. The other two prelates were clerics. Vasco de Quiroga
had been a judge of the Mexican audiencia before being promoted to the diocese of Michoacán
, and Juan López de Zárate had been bishop of Oaxaca
for twenty years. López de Zárate arrived at the council severely ill and died before it finished.
The final decrees of the first Mexican council consist of 93 chapters. Most of these chapters deal with the instruction in the Christian doctrine, the administering of sacraments, and the enforcement of episcopal jurisdiction in the new church. Another very important theme is the establishment of concrete and detailed norms for the education and life of the clergy.
The Second Provincial Council of Mexico 1565
The second Mexican council was inaugurated on August 15, 1565, when the bishops swore their oath of obedience to the decrees of the Council of Trent
(1545-1563). Apart from Montúfar and Bishop Tomás de Casillas of Chiapas
, all the remaining bishops from the first council were deceased. Since 1555, the Dominican Bernardo de Alburquerque had become bishop of Oaxaca
and the Franciscan Francisco de Toral
was installed as bishop of Yucatán. In addition, Pedro de Ayala and Fernando de Villagómez, both secular clerics, had become bishops of Guadalajara
and Tlaxcala
respectively. On November 11, a little less than two months after its inauguration, the second council finished.
The acts of the second council include 28 chapters, most of them clarifications on the decrees of the first council. In a concluding note, the bishops stated that they wished to reaffirm the decisions of the first council of Mexico in 1555 and that the new council should be seen as a complement and not as a substitute.
. Despite three decades of missionary work, Montúfar argued that the greater part of the indigenous population was as pagan as it had been before the conquest and that the church lacked both order and discipline. According to Montúfar, the bishop should be the absolute leader and teaching authority in the diocese
, whereas the clergy
(both friars and secular clerics) should be their coadjutors.
Even if Montúfar sometimes admitted that the mendicant
missionaries Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians
had done much for the Christianisation of the Indians and that he as Archbishop could do very little without them, he felt that they had gained too much power and influence. On the other hand, Montúfar thought that he was entrusted with very little power and if the archdiocese could be described as a patchwork of missionary parish
es (doctrinas), most of them were outside the control of the prelate as friars administered them. Thus, Montúfar thought that a major change was needed. He wanted to construct a hierarchical church following the Spanish model, with a strong and influential episcopacy which could define the goals for the ministry.
According to the Archbishop, the doctrinas, which were administered by the friars, should be placed under the jurisdiction of the bishop, establishing legally binding links between the bishop and the clerics. To administer sacrament
s in a given location, all priests involved in the Indian ministry
would need a licence. In this way, Montúfar would be able to replace friars with secular clerics. According to Montúfar, the Indians learned the doctrine of the church as if they were parrots, without understanding its contents. With such a deficient knowledge of the basis of the Christian doctrine and infrequent contact with the sacraments of the church, Montúfar doubted whether many of the Indians souls would be saved.
Montúfar thought that the friars occupied areas of the archdiocese that were too vast without having the personnel necessary for the ministry. In Montúfar’s eyes, the greatest problem for the church in New Spain was the extreme lack of priests. Sometimes Montúfar asserted that ten times as many priests were needed in order to teach the Christian doctrine and administer the sacraments to the native population. Montúfar wanted to replace mendicants with secular priests, who unquestionably were under episcopal jurisdiction. The hope for the church in New Spain would be to educate a large number of priests, particularly among the young Spanish men who were born in New Spain (criollos), many of whom already knew the indigenous languages. To meet the needs of the Indian ministry, Montúfar wanted to build a priest seminary
in Mexico City, where a large number of young criollos could be educated and later serve as priests.
According to Montúfar, this lack of priests could not be solved unless the Indians contributed to the economy of the diocesan church through the payment of general tithes. Overall, Montúfar had a negative view of the indigenous population and their abilities. Like many other churchmen, he thought that the Indians were pusillanimous and weak and that they were easily led astray. He also thought them to be particularly inclined to drunkenness and fornication. If there were no priests living in the village, he believed that the Indians would easily become victims of the native religious experts (hechiceros), who would lure them back to their old beliefs and ceremonies.
On their hand the friars also argued that they were entitled to build and remove churches and monasteries without licence from the Archbishop, as they were beyond his jurisdiction. They wanted straw-bishops with little more than honorary powers, who could ordain the priests necessary for the ministry and bless ornaments and churches. Thus, the friars did not accept the placement of secular clerics by the bishop in areas already ministered by them. In general, the friars doubted the zeal and aptitude of the secular clerics and thought that the clerics were either too greedy or too uneducated to be entrusted with the sensitive Indian ministry.
If the Archbishop did manage to introduce his ideal view of the church, the mendicants thought that there was no future for the church in New Spain. The friars particularly opposed the introduction of separate Indian tithes, as that would have devastating effects on the already poor and tax-burdened Indians. If the Indians were forced to pay tithes, the friars thought that they would despise the church and its ministers and think that they were driven by greed and not by love for their souls. In addition, the Indians were already contributing to the subsistence of the clergy through the payment of tribute to the Crown or an encomendero. The introduction of secular clerics would also be very expensive, since the clerics often had to support large numbers of relatives. Apart from this, the friars argued that the imposition of tithes would only contribute to the enrichment of the bishops and the cathedral chapter
, as only a fraction of the tithe revenues were destined to the ordinary clergy. In short, the friars thought that the introduction of secular priests and the imposition of tithes would rapidly destroy all that they had built up since they had arrived in New Spain.
at Tepeyac
in the outskirts of the city of Mexico was a collection of testimonies against the Franciscan provincial Francisco de Bustamante which was made up by Archbishop Montúfar in 1556. The document is often referred to as the Informacíon.
According to this document a cult of the Virgin Mary under the name of Guadalupe had been initiated at Tepeyac not long before 1556. Several of the witnesses testify that the cult was “new” and that it was very popular among the inhabitants of the city. Many people, both Spaniards and Indians, and men and women from all social strata, travelled to Tepeyac to pay devotion to Our Lady and the picture of her that had been placed there, and gave great amounts of alms. Also, miracles had been reported. Nevertheless, the witnesses stress specifically the piety of upper class Spaniards who made pilgrimages to Tepeyac and entered the chapel on their bare knees. In the document, the church building at Tepeyac is referred to as an ermita
, a word signifying a chapel of ease, often to be found in rural areas or in the outskirts of a town and without resident clergy.
The conflict between the Archbishop and the Franciscan provincial on the cult at Tepeyac began in early September 1556. On Sunday September 6, the octave of the Nativity of Our Lady, Archbishop Alonso de Montúfar preached in the cathedral about a text from the Gospel of St. Luke. The sermon centred on the devotion faithful Catholics should have for the Mother of God. According to witnesses, Montúfar expressed his contention that many people in various parts of the world held images of Virgin Mary in high esteem. Archbishop Montúfar was also pleased to note the devotion that the inhabitants of the City of Mexico showed for Our Lady of Guadalupe in her temple at Tepeyac and thought that the Spaniards’ devotion would surely have edifying effects on the Indians, who he thought did not show such great affection for Our Lady.
The following Tuesday, September 8, on the feast day of the Nativity of Our Lady, the Franciscan provincial Francisco de Bustamante preached in the chapel of San José de los Naturales in Mexico City. By the end of his sermon on the Virgin, the provincial had dealt with the new cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Tepeyac and some of the witnesses noted that the provincial then had become very angry and that his face turned red. In opposition to the Archbishop, he affirmed that the Indians were very much devoted to the Virgin. In fact, their devotion was so great, that they thought that the Virgin was a goddess, instead of the mother of God. Bustamante said that Archbishop Montúfar was totally mistaken in approving the cult, which would have devastating effects on the indigenous population. The Franciscan provincial asserted that the position of the Archbishop threatened to uproot the fragile Christianity of the indigenous population.
Bustamante also thought that the alleged thaumaturgic effect of the picture was a hoax and questioned how a picture “painted yesterday by an Indian could perform miracles.” Only one of the witnesses, Alonso Sánchez de Cisneros, stated that he knew the name of this indigenous artist: Marcos. Though nothing more than his Christian name was rendered, it has often been assumed that this Marcos was an indigenous painter called Marcos de Aquino, who had been trained by the Franciscans in Tlatelolco. According to the testimony of Juan de Salazar, Bustamante continued stating that he:
“did not know what effect the said devotion had, because it would contradict what he and other members of religious orders with much sweat had been preaching to the natives of this country. Because it would be to convince them that this image of Our Lady of Guadalupe performed miracles and if some lame, blind or crippled Indians went there with the intention [to get cured] and they turned back without being cured, or getting even worse because of the walk, they would make jokes about it/her [the cult/the Virgin] and it would thus be better to take away this devotion, because of the scandal of the natives.” (Información 1891:12)
The Franciscan provincial urged that the purported miracles must be thoroughly investigated before they were made public. If the miracles were found to be groundless, Bustamante thought that the inventor ought to be severely punished. According to the Archbishop’s witnesses, Bustamante’s harsh criticism of the popular devotion had caused “scandal and muttering” among the listeners and other people. One of the witnesses even stated that he had become so indignant by the provincial’s words that he had left the church during the sermon.
At least from the mid-1550s onwards, the ermita of the Virgin of Guadalupe at Tepeyac became an important site for pilgrimages. Hispanics and Indians from the city of Mexico and its environs went there to pay devotion to Our Lady, to do penitence and to be cured from illnesses that afflicted them. Just as in the case of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremadura, the Virgin of Tepeyac was celebrated specifically on the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady in September. At that time, the Archbishop and the cathedral chapter took part in a solemn procession to Tepeyac. This procession is a clear testimony of the importance of the cult towards the end of Montúfar’s archiepiscopacy.
Loja
Loja may refer to:*Loja, Granada, Spain*Loja Province, Ecuador*Loja Canton, Ecuador*Loja, Ecuador, capital of Loja province*Loja, Latvia, capital of Sēja municipality*Loja, Estonia, village in Pühalepa Parish, Hiiu County, Estonia...
, Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
c. 1489, died in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, March 7, 1572. Archbishop of Mexico 1551-1572.
Following the chronicler Gil González Dávila
Gil González Dávila
Gil González Dávila was a Spanish Conquistador and the first European to arrive in present-day Nicaragua.González Dávila first appears in historical records in 1508, when he received a royal commission to examine accounts and tax records of estates. He probably traveled soon afterward to Santo...
some authors give the year 1498 as Montúfar's year of birth, however, González Dávila contradicts himself stating that the archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
was eighty years old when he, erroneously, stated that Montúfar died in 1569. He was born in Loja
Loja
Loja may refer to:*Loja, Granada, Spain*Loja Province, Ecuador*Loja Canton, Ecuador*Loja, Ecuador, capital of Loja province*Loja, Latvia, capital of Sēja municipality*Loja, Estonia, village in Pühalepa Parish, Hiiu County, Estonia...
in Spanish Andalusia just after the conquest of the town from the Muslims. Apart from this, there is another interesting note concerning Montúfar’s date of birth; when his good friend and assistant Bartolomé de Ledesma, in a eulogy to the Archbishop, writes that Montúfar had accepted the archbishopric in 1551, though he was over sixty years old. This note, together with the other evidence, indicates that Montúfar was born as early as 1489 or at least around that date
Dominican friar
Montúfar entered the Dominican OrderDominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
and professed in the monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
of Santa Cruz la Real in Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
in 1512. By 1517 Montúfar was summoned to Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
. The reason for his transferral was that the Dominican Archbishop Diego de Deza wanted him as one of the first fellows (colegiales) of the newly founded college of Santo Tomás de Aquino. In the college Montúfar was granted the degree of Master of Theology.
In 1524 he returned to his own college, Santa Cruz la Real in Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
after seven years in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
. At Santa Cruz la Real, he continued his educational efforts. In 1530, the General Chapter of the Dominican Order installed him as Bachelor of Theology at the monastery for two years and then conferred to him the degree of Master of Theology. Following these years of teaching, Montúfar was elected prior of Santa Cruz la Real in 1536. At the end of his priory he went to Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
, France to attend the General Chapter of the Order.
Coming back to Spain, in 1538 he was prior of Santo Domingo el Real in Almería
Almería
Almería is a city in Andalusia, Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the province of the same name.-Toponym:Tradition says that the name Almería stems from the Arabic المرية Al-Mariyya: "The Mirror", comparing it to "The Mirror of the Sea"...
and from 1541 he was prior for two years in Santo Domingo in Murcia
Murcia
-History:It is widely believed that Murcia's name is derived from the Latin words of Myrtea or Murtea, meaning land of Myrtle , although it may also be a derivation of the word Murtia, which would mean Murtius Village...
. 1546, however, he was back in his old monastery in Granada, where he was elected prior for yet another term.
Apart from the appointments within the Dominican order, Montúfar served for a long time as a theological consultant of the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
tribunals of Granada, Murcia, Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
and Seville.
Archbishop of Mexico
After the death of the first archbishop of Mexico, Juan de ZumárragaJuan de Zumárraga
Juan de Zumárraga was a Spanish Basque Franciscan prelate and first bishop of Mexico.-Origins and arrival in New Spain:...
, Montúfar was presented as new archbishop by Emperor Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
. The recommendation of Montúfar as a candidate to the Mexican see seems to have come from the marquis of Mondejár, Luis Hurtado Mendoza, who at the time was president of the Council of the Indies. According to the chroniclers the marquis knew
Montúfar personally, since he had been his confessor for some time.
Alonso de Montúfar was consecrated in 1553 and finally arrived as archbishop to his see in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
in June 1554, six years after the death of his predecessor Zumárraga.
Provincial Councils
In 1546, the Holy See erected the archdioceses of Santo Domingo, Mexico City, and Lima. Consequently, the dioceses in the Indies ceased to be suffragan to the Archbishop of Seville and formed three new church provinces. This event marked the beginning of the golden age of theprovincial councils. As Archbishop of Mexico, Alonso de Montúfar summoned the bishops of the province to two such provincial council.
Having arrived in June 1554, Montúfar saw the celebration of a provincial council as his greatest immediate goal. Already complaining about his advanced age and general fragility, Archbishop Montúfar wrote to the King that he wanted to convoke this assembly before his death, which he thought would come very soon. As a newcomer, the Archbishop thought it indispensable to meet his episcopal colleagues and the clergy, who had first-hand experience of the country. As Montúfar also thought that the young church in Mexico lacked both order and discipline, he considered it very important to establish a body of clear legal norms worthy of the new church province.
The First Provincial Council of Mexico 1555
On June 29, 1555, on the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul, the first provincial councilProvincial council
Provincial councils are organisational bodies within the Gaelic Athletic Association, each made up of several GAA counties. The provincial council is responsible for the organisation of club and inter-county competitions such as the provincial championships, and the promotion of Gaelic games within...
of Mexico was inaugurated at a ceremony in the cathedral of Mexico City, in the presence of the Archbishop and four of his suffragan bishops. Two of these suffragans were friars. Martín Sarmiento de Hojacastro of Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala is one of the 31 states which along with the Federal District comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipalities and its capital city is Tlaxcala....
was an experienced Franciscan missionary, and Tomás de Casillas of Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
was a Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
. The other two prelates were clerics. Vasco de Quiroga
Vasco de Quiroga
Vasco de Quiroga was the first bishop of Michoacán, Mexico and one of the judges in the second Audiencia that governed New Spain from January 10, 1531 to April 16, 1535....
had been a judge of the Mexican audiencia before being promoted to the diocese of Michoacán
Michoacán
Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
, and Juan López de Zárate had been bishop of Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
for twenty years. López de Zárate arrived at the council severely ill and died before it finished.
The final decrees of the first Mexican council consist of 93 chapters. Most of these chapters deal with the instruction in the Christian doctrine, the administering of sacraments, and the enforcement of episcopal jurisdiction in the new church. Another very important theme is the establishment of concrete and detailed norms for the education and life of the clergy.
The Second Provincial Council of Mexico 1565
The second Mexican council was inaugurated on August 15, 1565, when the bishops swore their oath of obedience to the decrees of the Council of Trent
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
(1545-1563). Apart from Montúfar and Bishop Tomás de Casillas of Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
, all the remaining bishops from the first council were deceased. Since 1555, the Dominican Bernardo de Alburquerque had become bishop of Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
and the Franciscan Francisco de Toral
Francisco de Toral
Francisco Toral was a Franciscan missionary in New Spain, and the first Bishop of Yucatán.As part of his effort to Christianize the Indians of New Spain, Toral learned to speak the Nahuatl and Popoloca languages, and compiled a dictionary and grammar of the latter...
was installed as bishop of Yucatán. In addition, Pedro de Ayala and Fernando de Villagómez, both secular clerics, had become bishops of Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Guadalajara is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is located in the central region of Jalisco in the western-pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,564,514 it is Mexico's second most populous municipality...
and Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala is one of the 31 states which along with the Federal District comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipalities and its capital city is Tlaxcala....
respectively. On November 11, a little less than two months after its inauguration, the second council finished.
The acts of the second council include 28 chapters, most of them clarifications on the decrees of the first council. In a concluding note, the bishops stated that they wished to reaffirm the decisions of the first council of Mexico in 1555 and that the new council should be seen as a complement and not as a substitute.
Mission and Church Policy
In letters written shortly after his arrival in Mexico Montúfar presented a very gloomy picture of the state of the church in New SpainNew Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
. Despite three decades of missionary work, Montúfar argued that the greater part of the indigenous population was as pagan as it had been before the conquest and that the church lacked both order and discipline. According to Montúfar, the bishop should be the absolute leader and teaching authority in the diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
, whereas the clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
(both friars and secular clerics) should be their coadjutors.
Even if Montúfar sometimes admitted that the mendicant
Mendicant
The term mendicant refers to begging or relying on charitable donations, and is most widely used for religious followers or ascetics who rely exclusively on charity to survive....
missionaries Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
had done much for the Christianisation of the Indians and that he as Archbishop could do very little without them, he felt that they had gained too much power and influence. On the other hand, Montúfar thought that he was entrusted with very little power and if the archdiocese could be described as a patchwork of missionary parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
es (doctrinas), most of them were outside the control of the prelate as friars administered them. Thus, Montúfar thought that a major change was needed. He wanted to construct a hierarchical church following the Spanish model, with a strong and influential episcopacy which could define the goals for the ministry.
According to the Archbishop, the doctrinas, which were administered by the friars, should be placed under the jurisdiction of the bishop, establishing legally binding links between the bishop and the clerics. To administer sacrament
Sacrament
A sacrament is a sacred rite recognized as of particular importance and significance. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites.-General definitions and terms:...
s in a given location, all priests involved in the Indian ministry
Christian ministry
In Christianity, ministry is an activity carried out by Christians to express or spread their faith. 2003's Encyclopedia of Christianity defines it as "carrying forth Christ's mission in the world", indicating that it is "conferred on each Christian in baptism." It is performed by all Christians...
would need a licence. In this way, Montúfar would be able to replace friars with secular clerics. According to Montúfar, the Indians learned the doctrine of the church as if they were parrots, without understanding its contents. With such a deficient knowledge of the basis of the Christian doctrine and infrequent contact with the sacraments of the church, Montúfar doubted whether many of the Indians souls would be saved.
Montúfar thought that the friars occupied areas of the archdiocese that were too vast without having the personnel necessary for the ministry. In Montúfar’s eyes, the greatest problem for the church in New Spain was the extreme lack of priests. Sometimes Montúfar asserted that ten times as many priests were needed in order to teach the Christian doctrine and administer the sacraments to the native population. Montúfar wanted to replace mendicants with secular priests, who unquestionably were under episcopal jurisdiction. The hope for the church in New Spain would be to educate a large number of priests, particularly among the young Spanish men who were born in New Spain (criollos), many of whom already knew the indigenous languages. To meet the needs of the Indian ministry, Montúfar wanted to build a priest seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
in Mexico City, where a large number of young criollos could be educated and later serve as priests.
According to Montúfar, this lack of priests could not be solved unless the Indians contributed to the economy of the diocesan church through the payment of general tithes. Overall, Montúfar had a negative view of the indigenous population and their abilities. Like many other churchmen, he thought that the Indians were pusillanimous and weak and that they were easily led astray. He also thought them to be particularly inclined to drunkenness and fornication. If there were no priests living in the village, he believed that the Indians would easily become victims of the native religious experts (hechiceros), who would lure them back to their old beliefs and ceremonies.
On their hand the friars also argued that they were entitled to build and remove churches and monasteries without licence from the Archbishop, as they were beyond his jurisdiction. They wanted straw-bishops with little more than honorary powers, who could ordain the priests necessary for the ministry and bless ornaments and churches. Thus, the friars did not accept the placement of secular clerics by the bishop in areas already ministered by them. In general, the friars doubted the zeal and aptitude of the secular clerics and thought that the clerics were either too greedy or too uneducated to be entrusted with the sensitive Indian ministry.
If the Archbishop did manage to introduce his ideal view of the church, the mendicants thought that there was no future for the church in New Spain. The friars particularly opposed the introduction of separate Indian tithes, as that would have devastating effects on the already poor and tax-burdened Indians. If the Indians were forced to pay tithes, the friars thought that they would despise the church and its ministers and think that they were driven by greed and not by love for their souls. In addition, the Indians were already contributing to the subsistence of the clergy through the payment of tribute to the Crown or an encomendero. The introduction of secular clerics would also be very expensive, since the clerics often had to support large numbers of relatives. Apart from this, the friars argued that the imposition of tithes would only contribute to the enrichment of the bishops and the cathedral chapter
Cathedral chapter
In accordance with canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese in his stead. These councils are made up of canons and dignitaries; in the Roman Catholic church their...
, as only a fraction of the tithe revenues were destined to the ordinary clergy. In short, the friars thought that the introduction of secular priests and the imposition of tithes would rapidly destroy all that they had built up since they had arrived in New Spain.
Montúfar and the Cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe
One of the first sources to the cult of Our Lady of GuadalupeOur Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe , also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe is a celebrated Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary.According to tradition, on December 9, 1531 Juan Diego, a simple indigenous peasant, had a vision of a young woman while he was on a hill in the Tepeyac desert, near Mexico City. The lady...
at Tepeyac
Tepeyac
Tepeyac or the Hill of Tepeyac, historically known by the names "Tepeyacac" and "Tepeaquilla", is located inside Gustavo A. Madero, the northernmost delegación or borough of the Mexican Federal District. It is the site where Saint Juan Diego met the Virgin of Guadalupe in December of 1531, and...
in the outskirts of the city of Mexico was a collection of testimonies against the Franciscan provincial Francisco de Bustamante which was made up by Archbishop Montúfar in 1556. The document is often referred to as the Informacíon.
According to this document a cult of the Virgin Mary under the name of Guadalupe had been initiated at Tepeyac not long before 1556. Several of the witnesses testify that the cult was “new” and that it was very popular among the inhabitants of the city. Many people, both Spaniards and Indians, and men and women from all social strata, travelled to Tepeyac to pay devotion to Our Lady and the picture of her that had been placed there, and gave great amounts of alms. Also, miracles had been reported. Nevertheless, the witnesses stress specifically the piety of upper class Spaniards who made pilgrimages to Tepeyac and entered the chapel on their bare knees. In the document, the church building at Tepeyac is referred to as an ermita
Ermita
Ermita may refer to the following:*Ermita, Manila, a place in the Philippines.*Ermita: A Filipino Novel, a novel by F. Sionil José.*Ermita "Ermi" Rojo, the protagonist in F. Sionil José's novel Ermita: A Filipino Novel....
, a word signifying a chapel of ease, often to be found in rural areas or in the outskirts of a town and without resident clergy.
The conflict between the Archbishop and the Franciscan provincial on the cult at Tepeyac began in early September 1556. On Sunday September 6, the octave of the Nativity of Our Lady, Archbishop Alonso de Montúfar preached in the cathedral about a text from the Gospel of St. Luke. The sermon centred on the devotion faithful Catholics should have for the Mother of God. According to witnesses, Montúfar expressed his contention that many people in various parts of the world held images of Virgin Mary in high esteem. Archbishop Montúfar was also pleased to note the devotion that the inhabitants of the City of Mexico showed for Our Lady of Guadalupe in her temple at Tepeyac and thought that the Spaniards’ devotion would surely have edifying effects on the Indians, who he thought did not show such great affection for Our Lady.
The following Tuesday, September 8, on the feast day of the Nativity of Our Lady, the Franciscan provincial Francisco de Bustamante preached in the chapel of San José de los Naturales in Mexico City. By the end of his sermon on the Virgin, the provincial had dealt with the new cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Tepeyac and some of the witnesses noted that the provincial then had become very angry and that his face turned red. In opposition to the Archbishop, he affirmed that the Indians were very much devoted to the Virgin. In fact, their devotion was so great, that they thought that the Virgin was a goddess, instead of the mother of God. Bustamante said that Archbishop Montúfar was totally mistaken in approving the cult, which would have devastating effects on the indigenous population. The Franciscan provincial asserted that the position of the Archbishop threatened to uproot the fragile Christianity of the indigenous population.
Bustamante also thought that the alleged thaumaturgic effect of the picture was a hoax and questioned how a picture “painted yesterday by an Indian could perform miracles.” Only one of the witnesses, Alonso Sánchez de Cisneros, stated that he knew the name of this indigenous artist: Marcos. Though nothing more than his Christian name was rendered, it has often been assumed that this Marcos was an indigenous painter called Marcos de Aquino, who had been trained by the Franciscans in Tlatelolco. According to the testimony of Juan de Salazar, Bustamante continued stating that he:
“did not know what effect the said devotion had, because it would contradict what he and other members of religious orders with much sweat had been preaching to the natives of this country. Because it would be to convince them that this image of Our Lady of Guadalupe performed miracles and if some lame, blind or crippled Indians went there with the intention [to get cured] and they turned back without being cured, or getting even worse because of the walk, they would make jokes about it/her [the cult/the Virgin] and it would thus be better to take away this devotion, because of the scandal of the natives.” (Información 1891:12)
The Franciscan provincial urged that the purported miracles must be thoroughly investigated before they were made public. If the miracles were found to be groundless, Bustamante thought that the inventor ought to be severely punished. According to the Archbishop’s witnesses, Bustamante’s harsh criticism of the popular devotion had caused “scandal and muttering” among the listeners and other people. One of the witnesses even stated that he had become so indignant by the provincial’s words that he had left the church during the sermon.
At least from the mid-1550s onwards, the ermita of the Virgin of Guadalupe at Tepeyac became an important site for pilgrimages. Hispanics and Indians from the city of Mexico and its environs went there to pay devotion to Our Lady, to do penitence and to be cured from illnesses that afflicted them. Just as in the case of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremadura, the Virgin of Tepeyac was celebrated specifically on the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady in September. At that time, the Archbishop and the cathedral chapter took part in a solemn procession to Tepeyac. This procession is a clear testimony of the importance of the cult towards the end of Montúfar’s archiepiscopacy.
Montúfar's Last Years and Death
From the latter part of the year 1570, the now eighty-one-year-old Archbishop hardly left his bed, due to a severe illness. Being unable to fulfil any work, he appointed his longtime friend and assistant, Bartolomé de Ledesma, as the governor of the archdiocese. Alonso de Montúfar died on March 7, 1572.Sources
- Magnus Lundberg, Unification and Conflict: The Church Politics of Alonso de Montúfar OP, Archbishop of Mexico, 1554-1572. Uppsala: Swedish Institute of Mission Research 2002. [See also fulltext version online http://www.teol.uu.se/digitalAssets/4/4695_dissertation.pdf