America. A history

CHAPTER VI

THE CHURCH OF ROME IN SPANISH AMERICA

At the time when the discovery and possession of the New World occupied the Spaniards, the Church of Rome exercised over that people an influence which had no parallel elsewhere in all her wide dominion. A religious war of nearly eight centuries had at length closed victoriously. Twenty generations of Spaniards had spent their lives under the power of a burning desire to expel unbelievers from the soil of Spain, and win triumphs for the true faith. The ministers of that religion, for which they were willing to lay down their lives, gained their boundless reverence. To the ordinary Spaniard religion had yet no association with morals; it exercised no control over conduct. It was a collection of beliefs; above all it was an unreasoning loyalty to a certain ecclesiastical organization. To extend the authority of the Church, and, if it had been possible, to exterminate all her enemies, formed now the grand animating motives of the Spanish nation.

No Spaniard of them all was more powerfully influenced by these motives than the good Queen Isabella. At the bidding of her confessor she set up the Inquisition, for the destruction of heretics; she consented to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and the virtual confiscation of their property. She gave encouragement to the enterprise of Columbus, in the hope of extending the empire of the Church over benighted nations. The King himself stated, in later years, that the conversion of Indians was the chief purpose of the conquest. The Queen sent missionaries to begin this great work so soon as she heard of the discovery. In all her official correspondence her chief concern is avowedly for the spiritual interests of her new subjects. Columbus tells, in regard to his second voyage, that he was sent “to see the way that should be taken to convert the Indians to our holy faith.” He was instructed “to labour in all possible ways to bring the dwellers in the Indies to a knowledge of the holy Catholic faith.” Twelve ecclesiastics were sent with him to share in these pious toils. A little later, when the overthrow of Columbus was sought by his enemies, one of their most deadly weapons was the charge that he did not baptize Indians, because he desired slaves rather than Christians.

Favoured thus by the general sentiment of the mother country, the Church quickly overspread the colonies and appropriated no inconsiderable share of their wealth. Within four years there were monasteries already established.54 Within one hundred years there were twelve hundred nunneries and monasteries. There was a full equipment of patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, prebends, abbots, chaplains, as well as parish priests. There were monks of every variety – Franciscans, Dominicans, Jeronymites, Fathers of Mercy, Augustines, Jesuits. In Lima it was alleged that the convents covered more ground than all the rest of the city. 1644 A.D. From Mexico there came a petition to the King praying that no new monasteries should be allowed, as these institutions, if suffered to increase, would soon absorb the whole property of the country. Wherever the Spaniards went they hastened to erect churches. While the conquest of Peru was yet incomplete, there was a church in Caxamalco to which the devout Spaniards assigned a liberal share of the gold of which they so villanously plundered the unhappy Inca. The magnificence of churches and convents became in course of years so dazzling that the European mind, it was said, could form no conception of it. The tithes, which had been vested in the Crown, were almost wholly made over to the Church. The free-will offerings of a superstitious people, with an exceptionally large volume of personal iniquity to expiate, swelled out to a huge aggregate. The wealth of the Church continued to grow till, as we have seen, in Mexico she possessed one-half of all the land in the province.

Among the multitudes of ecclesiastics who hastened to these new fields of enterprise and emolument there were very many whose characters were debased, whose lives were scandalous. Very soon after the settlement the profligacy of churchmen attracted general remark. Living often in secluded positions without the control or observation of superiors, they gave free scope to evil dispositions, and occupied themselves with the pursuits of avarice or of licentiousness.

But we should grievously wrong the Church of Rome were we to suppose that all her ministers in the New World were of this unworthy description. The sudden knowledge of many millions of heathens, whose existence had been previously unsuspected, awakened in the monasteries of Spain a strong impulse towards missionary effort. To men who were lingering out their idle days in the profitless repose of a religious seclusion there opened now boundless possibilities of ennobling usefulness. Among them were many whose singleness of purpose, whose utter crucifixion of self, whose heroic daring and endurance would have done honour to the purest Church. Especially was this true concerning the Jesuits. This dreaded and upon the whole pernicious Order was distinguished, in its earlier days, as well for the sagacity and administrative ability of its members as for their absorbing devotion to the interests of the faith.

The Indians accepted with perfect readiness the new religion which their conquerors offered. The monks who went among them speedily acquired commanding influence. The Franciscans who went out on the invitation of Cortes reported that they found the Mexicans a gentle people, given somewhat to lying and drunkenness and needing restraint, but well disposed to religion, and confessing so well that it was not necessary to ask them questions. The children about the monastery already knew much, and taught others who were less happily circumstanced; they sang well and accompanied the organ competently.

This gentle people loved the holy men who, clothed plainly and living on the humblest fare, laboured without ceasing to do them good. They willingly submitted to baptism to please their teachers. Indeed, the only limit to the increase of baptized persons was the physical capability of the missionaries. One father baptized till he was unable any longer to lift his arms. Of another it was asserted that he had administered this sacrament to four hundred thousand converts. 1531 A.D. Ten years after the fall of Mexico, the bishop reported that in his diocese there were now a million of baptized persons; that five hundred temples and twenty thousand idols had been destroyed; that in their room were now churches, oratories, and hermitages; that whereas there were formerly offered up every year to idols twenty thousand hearts of young men and young women, the hearts of Mexican youth were now offered up with innumerable sacrifices of praise to the Most High God.

Among many races of Indians there had existed from time immemorial a marvellous fondness for the confession of sin. Under all grave attacks of illness they hastened to confess old sins to any one who would listen to their tale. When they encountered a panther in the wilderness, they began, under the influence of some unexplained superstition, to disclose their iniquities to the savage beast. A people so inclined welcomed a religion which offered them free access to the enjoyment of their cherished privilege. They manifested, in regard to this ordinance of the Church, “a dove-like simplicity, an incredible fervour.” Oral confession was to these simple souls an insufficient relief. They brought to the confessor a pictorial representation of the special transgressions which burdened them. Later, when many of them had learned to write, they bore with them elaborate catalogues of their evil doings.

The monks attempted to bestow upon the children under their care the elements of a simple education. To each monastery a school was attached. Peter of Ghent, a Flemish lay-brother of noble devotedness, caused the erection of a large building, in which he taught six hundred Mexican children to read, to write, and to sing.55 This good man knew the Mexican language well, and could preach when need was. He spent fifty toilsome years in labours for the instruction of the conquered people; and there were many of his brethren equally diligent.

But among the teeming millions of South America, these efforts, so admirable in quality, were wholly insignificant in amount. They were thwarted, too, by the murderous cruelty which the Spaniards exercised, and the people remained utterly uninstructed. The conversion of the country made progress so rapid that in a few years the native religions disappeared, and the Indians seemed universally to have accepted Christianity. But the change rested in large measure upon fear of their tyrants, or love to their teachers, or the authority of chiefs who had deemed it expedient to adopt the faith of men who were always victorious in battle. It was only in a few instances the result of intelligent conviction. The priests baptized readily all natives who would permit the ceremony, because that was a sure provision for their eternal welfare. But the opinion was entertained from an early period that the natives were incapable of comprehending the first principles of the faith. Acting under this belief, a council of Lima decreed their exclusion from the sacrament of the Eucharist. Down to the close of Spanish dominion few Indians were allowed to communicate, or to become members of any religious order, or to be ordained as priests. Underneath the profession of Christianity the Indians have always retained a secret love for the pagan faith of their fathers, and still secretly practise its rites.56

The monks were throughout the warm friends and protectors of the Indians. At a very early period the Dominicans preached against Indian slavery “with very piercing and terrible words.” They refused to confess men who were cruel to Indians – a privation which was severely felt; for to the Spaniard of that day, with his over-burdened conscience, confession was a necessary of life. 1537 A.D. The Pope himself pronounced the doom of excommunication against all who reduced Indians to slavery or deprived them of their goods. We have seen how nobly and how vainly the good Las Casas interposed in defence of the Indians. The efforts of the well-meaning fathers were, in almost every direction, unsuccessful. But this failure resulted from no deficiency either in zeal or in discretion. The record of the Church of Rome is darkened by manifold offences against the welfare of the human family; but she is able to recall with just pride the heroic efforts which her sons put forth on behalf of the deeply-wronged native races.

The servants of the Church enjoyed, on two memorable occasions, the opportunity of exhibiting their capacity for government in striking contrast to that of the civil rulers whom the mother country supplied.

Bordering on the province of Guatemala was a tract of forest and mountain, inhabited by an Indian nation of exceptional fierceness. Thrice the Spaniards had attempted the subjugation of this people, and thrice they were driven back. They hesitated to renew an invasion which had brought only defeat and loss, and the brave savages continued to enjoy a precarious independence. 1537 A.D. Las Casas made offer to the Governor that he would place this territory under the King of Spain, on condition that it should not be given over to any Spaniard, and that, indeed, no Spaniard, excepting the Governor himself, should for the space of five years be suffered to enter it. The offer was accepted, and the brave monk, confident in the power of truth and kindness, made himself ready to fulfil his contract.

Having devoted several days to prayer and fasting, Las Casas and his companions proceeded to draw up a statement of the great doctrines of the Christian religion. They told of the creation of the world, of the fall of man, of his expulsion from the pleasant garden in which he had been placed. Then they told of his restoration, of the death and resurrection of Christ, and of judgment to come. They closed with emphatic denunciation of idols and of human sacrifices. The work was in verse, and in the language of the people for whom it was destined. The fathers next obtained the co-operation of four native merchants who were accustomed for commercial reasons to visit the country of the warlike savages. These friendly traders were taught first to repeat the verses and then to sing them to the accompaniment of Indian instruments.

The merchants were received by the chief into his own house; and they requited his hospitality and gained his favour by offering to him certain gifts of scissors, knives, looking-glasses, and similar matters with which the thoughtful fathers had provided them. When they had finished a day of trading, they borrowed musical instruments and proceeded to sing their message to the crowds by whom they were surrounded. They commanded the immediate and rapt attention of the savages, who hailed them as the ambassadors of new gods. Every day of the next seven the song was repeated by desire of the chief, and every repetition seemed to deepen the effect produced. Then the merchants told of the good fathers by whom they were sent – of their dress, of their manner of life, of their love for the Indians, of their indifference to that gold which other Spaniards worshipped. An embassy was despatched to entreat a visit from some of the fathers. The request was immediately granted; but knowing the fickleness of the savage mind, the prudent monks would not as yet risk the loss of more than one of their number. Father Luis went back with the ambassador. A church was instantly built: the chief in a short time avowed his conversion to the new faith, and was loyally followed by his people. The change was enduring, and the arrangements made by Las Casas for the protection of the Indians being enforced by the King, were in large measure effective. 1630 A.D. A century afterwards the town of Rabinal, which the monks founded, was described by a Spaniard who visited it as in a most flourishing condition, with a population of eight hundred Indian families, who were in the enjoyment of “all that heart can wish for pleasure and life of man.”

A century after the conquest, the Jesuits had made their way into the vast interior region of Paraguay. They came as religious teachers, but they were empowered to trade with the natives, that they might, by their commercial gains, defray the cost of their missionary operations. In both provinces of their enterprise they found themselves frustrated by the excesses of their countrymen. The savages traded reluctantly with men so unscrupulous as the commercial Spaniards; they refused to accept a new faith on the suggestion of men so avaricious and so dissolute as the ecclesiastical Spaniards. The Jesuits, whose sagacity and skill in the management of affairs were then unequalled, obtained from the King the exclusion of all strangers from the land of Paraguay; they in return for this privilege becoming bound to pay to his majesty a yearly tax of one dollar for every baptized Indian who lived under their dominion. Thus protected, the missionaries proceeded to instruct the savages and form them into communities. Their lives were irreproachably pure; the sincerity of their kindness was assured by their manifest self-denial; the wisdom of the measures which they introduced was quickly approved by the increasing welfare of the population. In a very few years the Jesuits had gained the confidence of the Indians, over whom they henceforth exercised control absolute and unlimited.

They drew together into little settlements a number, fifty or thereby, of wandering families, to whom they imparted the art of agriculture. The children were taught to read, to write, to sing. In each settlement a judge, chosen by the inhabitants, maintained public order and administered justice. The savages received willingly the faith which the good fathers commended to their adoption. They were lenient to the superstitions of their subjects, and the reception of the new faith was hastened by its readiness to exist in harmonious combination with many of the observances of the old. In time the sway of the Jesuits extended over a population of one million five hundred thousand persons, all of whom had received Christian baptism; and they could place sixty thousand excellent soldiers in the field.

The fathers regulated all the concerns of their subjects. All possessions were held in common. Every morning, after hearing mass, the people went out to labour according to the instructions of the fathers. The gathered crops were stored for the general good, and were distributed according to the necessities of each family. No intoxicants were permitted. A strict discipline was enforced by stripes administered in the public market-place, and received without murmuring by the submissive natives. When strangers made their unwelcome way into the country, the missionaries stood between their converts and the apprehended pollution. The stranger was hospitably entertained and politely escorted from one station to another till he reached the frontier, no opportunity of intercourse with the natives having been afforded.

1640 to 1770 A.D. The government of the Jesuits was in a high degree beneficial to the Paraguans. The soil was cultivated sufficiently to yield an ample maintenance for all. Education was widely extended; churches were numerous and richly adorned; the people were peaceable, contented, cheerful. In every condition which makes human life desirable, the Jesuit settlements, during a period of considerably over a century, stand out in striking and beautiful contrast to all the other colonial possessions of Spain.

But while the Jesuits of Paraguay were thus nobly occupied in raising the fallen condition of the savages over whom they ruled, their brethren in Europe had incurred the hatred of mankind by the wicked and dangerous intrigues in which they delighted to engage. 1767 A.D. The Church of Rome herself cast them out. They were expelled from Spain. The Order was dissolved by the Pope. The fall of this unscrupulous organization was in most countries a relief from constant irritation and danger; in Paraguay it was disastrous. 1773 A.D. The country accepted new and incapable rulers, and was parcelled out into new provinces. It speedily fell from the eminence to which the fathers had raised it, and sunk into the anarchy and misery by which its neighbours were characterized.

CHAPTER VII

BRAZIL

King John of Portugal, to whom Columbus first made offer of his project of discovery, was grievously chagrined when the success of the great navigator revealed the magnificence of the rejected opportunity. Till then, Portugal had occupied the foremost place as an explorer of unknown regions. She had already achieved the discovery of all the western coasts of Africa, and was now about to open a new route to the East by the Cape of Good Hope. Suddenly her fame was eclipsed. While she occupied herself with small and barren discoveries, Spain had found, almost without the trouble of seeking, a new world of vast extent and boundless wealth.

Portugal had obtained from the Pope a grant of all lands which she should discover in the Atlantic, with the additional advantage of full pardon for the sins of all persons who should die while engaged in the work of exploration. The sovereigns of Spain were equally provident in regard to the new territory which they were now in course of acquiring. They applied to Pope Alexander Sixth, who, as vicar of Christ, possessed the acknowledged right to dispose at his pleasure of all territories inhabited by heathens. From this able but eminently dissolute pontiff they asked for a bull which should confirm them in possession of all past and future discoveries in Western seas. The accommodating Pope, willing to please both powers, divided the world between them. 1493 A.D. He stretched an imaginary line, from pole to pole, one hundred leagues to the westward of the Cape de Verd Islands: all discoveries on the eastern side of this boundary were given to Portugal, while those on the west became the property of Spain. Portugal, dissatisfied with the vast gift, proposed that another line should be drawn, stretching from east to west, and that she should be at liberty to possess all lands which she might find between that line and the South Pole. Spain objected to this huge deduction from her expected possessions. 1494 A.D. Ultimately Spain consented that the Papal frontier should be removed westward to a distance of two hundred and seventy leagues from the Cape de Verd Islands; and thus the dispute was happily terminated.

1500 A.D. Six years after this singular transaction, by which two small European States parted between them all unexplored portions of the Earth, a Portuguese navigator – Pedro Alvarez Cabral – set sail from the Tagus in the prosecution of discovery in the East. He stood far out into the Atlantic, to avoid the calms which habitually baffled navigation on the coast of Guinea. His reckoning was loosely kept, and the ocean currents bore his ships westward into regions which it was not his intention to seek. After forty-five days of voyaging he saw before him an unknown and unexpected land. In searching for the Cape of Good Hope, he had reached the shores of the great South American Continent, and he hastened to claim for the King of Portugal the territory he had found, but regarding the extent of which he had formed as yet no conjecture. Three Spanish captains had already landed on this part of the continent and asserted the right of Spain to its ownership. For many years Spain maintained languidly the right which priority of discovery had given. But Portugal, to whom an interest in the wealth of the New World was an object of vehement desire, took effective possession of the land. She sent out soldiers; she built forts; she subdued the savage natives; she founded colonies; she established provincial governments. Although Spain did not formally withdraw her pretensions, she gradually desisted from attempts to enforce them; and the enormous territory of Brazil became a recognized appanage of a petty European State whose area was scarcely larger than the one-hundredth part of that which she had so easily acquired.

For three hundred years Brazil remained in colonial subordination to Portugal. Her boundaries were in utter confusion, and no man along all that vast frontier could tell the limits of Portuguese dominion. Her Indians were fierce, and bore with impatience the inroads which the strangers made upon their possessions. The French seized the bay of Rio de Janeiro. The Dutch conquered large territories in the north. But in course of years these difficulties were overcome. 1654 A.D. The foreigners were expelled. The natives were tamed, partly by arms, partly by the teaching of zealous Jesuit missionaries. Some progress was made in opening the vast interior of the country and in fixing its boundaries. On the coast, population increased and numerous settlements sprang up. The cultivation of coffee, which has since become the leading Brazilian industry, was introduced. 1750 A.D. Some simple manufactures were established, and the country began to export her surplus products to Europe. There was much misgovernment; for the despotic tendencies of the captains-general who ruled the country were scarcely mitigated by the authority of the distant Court of Lisbon. The enmity of Spain never ceased, and from time to time burst forth in wasteful and bloody frontier wars. Sometimes the people of cities rose in insurrection against the monopolies by which wicked governors wronged them. Occasionally there fell out quarrels between different provinces, and no method of allaying these could be found excepting war. 1711 A.D. Once the city of Rio de Janeiro was sacked by the French. Brazil had her full share of the miseries which the foolishness and the evil temper of men have in all ages incurred. These hindered, but did not altogether frustrate, the development of her enormous resources.