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Toledo and the New World in the Sixteenth Century*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
It is curious to observe how local historians generally lack historical perspective. The local historian or chronicler of a city is usually a man who in most cases has lived in the city itself, knows its little hidden corners, its narrow streets and small plazas, its characters, such as Don Francisco, Doña Agata, Jovita, etc., as Azorín would say, but, absorbed by the minutiae, the legacy of an era of leadership in government, he lives estranged from the outside world, as though the happenings in it did not affect his own city.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1963
Footnotes
*
Translated and edited by Fintan B. Warren, O. F. M. This paper was originally prepared for presentation on the occasion of the author's acceptance of the Serra Award of the Americas, December 8, 1962 (See The Americas, XIX, 315, 413-420).
References
1 The classic histories of Toledo are: de Alcocer, Pedro, Historia, o descripción de la Imperial cibdad de Toledo. Con todas las cosas acontecidas in ella, desde su principio, y fundación. A donde se tocan, y refieren muchas antigüedades y cosas notables de la historia general de España (Toledo, 1554).Google Scholar Pisa, Francisco. Descripción de la imperial Civdad de Toledo y historia de sus antigüedades y grandeza, y cosas memorables que en ella han acontecido, de los Reyes que le han señoreado y gouernado en sucesión de tiempos: y de los Arçobispos de Toledo, principalmente de los mas celebrados. Primera Parte. Repartida en cinco libros, con la historia de Santa Leocadia … (Toledo, 1605).Google Scholar Some copies carry the date 1617 on the title page but in the colophon they have that of 1605. Gamero, Antonio Martín. Historia de la ciudad de Toledo, sus claros varones y monumentos (Toledo, 1862).Google Scholar Luis Hurtado de Toledo. Memorial de algunas cosas memorables que tiene la imperial ciudad de Toledo. 1576. MS. It was written in response to the interrogatory which Philip II commanded to be sent to the towns of Castile. It will appear in the second part of the Kingdom of Toledo in Relaciones de los pueblos de España ordenadas por Felipe II, published by Carmelo Viñas and Ramón Paz.
2 For example, in case of Toledo we have the book of Aragonés, Adolfo, Toledo en América (Toledo, 1925).Google Scholar
3 Cosío, Manuel Bartolomé, El Greco (Buenos Aires, 1948), pp. 71–79.Google Scholar
4 The groundplan of Toledo recalls the Arabic origin of the present city, of which it has been said “that it has something of the convent, of the prison, of the fortress, and a little bit of the harem.” Marañón, Gregorio, El Greco y Toledo (2nd edition; Madrid, 1958)Google Scholar; and Elogio y nostalgia de Toledo (Madrid, 1951).
5 Gamero, Martín, Historia de Toledo, p. 865.Google Scholar
6 Castro, Américo, Aspectos del vivir hispánico (Santiago de Chile, 1949)Google Scholar; and España en su historia. Cristianos, moros y judíos (Buenos Aires, 1948). Concerning the importance of the Moriscos and their number in the kingdom of Toledo, see Braudel, Fernand, El Mediterráneo y el Mundo Mediterráneo en la época de Felipe II (México, 1953) 1, 637–641.Google Scholar
7 de Ayala, Jerónimo López, Toledo en el siglo XVI después del vencimiento de las comunidades (Madrid, 1901), p. 7.Google Scholar
8 That America was already in a certain respect a refuge for many is expressed by Cervantes in “El celoso extremeño” in his well-known judgment: “… the Indies, refuge and defense of those without hope in Spain, church for those in rebellion. …” The repercussion of the revolt of the Comuneros in America has been pointed out by John P. Moore, who sees in it the cause for the relatively slow development of rigid municipal organizations in the New World, where a certain amount of self-government was enjoyed for a time due to a cautious attitude regarding the extension of absolutist principles. Moore, John P., The Cabildo in Peru under the Hapsburgs (Dur-ham, North Carolina, 1954), p. 31.Google Scholar See also Wright, Irene, The Early History of Cuba, 1492–1586 (New York, 1916), pp. 111–112.Google Scholar
9 Mañé, J. Ignacio Rubio, Alcaldes de Mérida de Yucatán (1542–1941) (México, D. F., 1941), pp. 41, 42, 47, 49, 51–53.Google Scholar (Gaspar Pacheco was alcalde in 1542 and 1547 and his son Melchor occupied the post repeatedly between 1561 and 1585.)
10 Plata, C. Bermúdez, Catálogo de pasajeros a Indias durante los siglos XVI, XVII y XVI11 (3 vols.; Sevilla, 1940–1946)Google Scholar; Arzua, J. Rodrigues, “Las regiones españolas y la población de América (1509–1538),” Revista de Indias, 8, no. 30 (1947), 695.Google Scholar Carande, Ramón in Carlos V y sus banqueros (Madrid, 1943), pp. 45–46,Google Scholar makes certain pertinent observations regarding the evaluation of these numbers. 1) For twenty-one years (1518, 1520 to 1525, 1531, 1532, 1541, 1542 to 1556) out of the fifty years between 1508 and 1559 the data are missing. 2) For the years 1515, 1519, 1529, 1530, and 1533 the extant lists of passengers cover only a few months of the year. 3) Between 1520 and 1525 when the numbers would be most significant for indicating the increase of emigration after the conquest of New Spain, the lists are not extant; and the same is true regarding the emigration to Peru for the fourteen years following 1542. 4) Taking into account the visible increase in emigration during the years when it was registered after 1534, only the loss of considerable data can explain the disproportion in the figures. At first the registers were faithful in recording the profession of the passengers but later they become negligent in this matter and the lists are of little value for determining the type of person who was going to the New World.
11 In the armada of Montejo (June 1527) the two pharmacists who went along were from Toledo; Pedro Díaz, native of Ocaña, son of Gonzalo Díaz and of Isabel Rodríguez; and Pedro de Arenas, native of the city of Toledo, son of Gómez de Casa Rubios and of Hernández, Marina. Bermúdez, Catálogo de pasajeros, vol. 1, nos. 3119, 3202Google Scholar; Chamberlain, Robert S., The Conquest and Colonization of Yucatán (Washington, D. C, 1948) p. 33.Google Scholar
12 In the year 1534 we find the following Toledans (from the city alone) who went in groups to the Indies: to Venezuela in the armada of the Germans, nos. 4904, 4920, 4973, 5028, 5061, 5078, 5093; to Peru with the soldiers of Almagro or Hernando Pizarro, 5137, 5166, 5199, 5211, 5213, 5214; to Cartagena, 4657, 4659, 4680, 4897; and to Veragua with governor Felipe Gutiérrez (in 1535), 62, 64, 65, 66, 102, 103, 160, 161, 213, 224, 240, 245, 246, 248, 249, 261, 312, 446, 517, 518, 537, 539, 637, 639, 677, 682, 695, 711, 735, 763, 764, 823. Bermúdez, , Catálogo de pasajeros, vols. 1, II.Google Scholar
13 See de Icaza, Francisco A., Conquistadores y pobladores de la Nueva España: diccionario autobiográfico sacado de los textos originales (2 vols.; Madrid, 1923), passim.Google Scholar
14 The memorials of the conquerors and colonists are interesting in that, like every “petition of merits and services,” the authors attempt to overestimate the value of their activities. Already in the sixteenth century their contemporaries criticized them severely. An example of this criticism are the satirical verses of Oquendo:
“… y aunque así como lo piden
el virrey se lo otorgase,
no les premian sus servicios
conforme a sus calidades
porque en Italia dexaron
sus plazas de capitanes,
y con esto que le dan
aun no puede sustentarse.
Malditos seáis de Dios
embusteros charlatanes:
¿Entendéis que acá no hay hombres
servicios ni calidades?
Mil años viva el Marqués
y quien se lo aconsejare,
si cuando pedís la lança
con ella os alanceare.
Y llévele el diablo, amén,
cargado de memoriales
si luego que se los dais
por ahí no los echare.
Vaya muy enhoramala
búsquenlo por otra parte
y trabaxen en las Indias
como en Castilla sus padres …
Y el otro que en Lombardía
tuvo una scuadra de infantes
si allá defendió la tierra
vaya allá que se lo paguen.
Icaza, , Conquistadores, vol. 1, pp. 29–30.Google Scholar Mateo Rosas de Oquendo, who had taken some part in the campaigns in Italy and France, also participated in the conquest of Tucumán (without spilling a drop of his blood). In about 1593 he wrote a long poem, “Famatina,” now lost, in which he described this conquest. He was an encomendero in Tucumán, later becoming a servant of the Viceroy in Lima. After leaving Lima in 1598, he is known to have lived in Mexico until at least 1612. Plan-carte, Alfonso Méndez, Poetas Novo-hispánicos. Primer siglo (1521–1621) (México, 1942), p. 30.Google Scholar
15 The satire of Oquendo describes the pretensions of certain individuals:
“…Todos son hidalgos finos
de conocidos solares …;
¡Como si no se supiera
que allá rabiaban de hambre!
A similar expression is found in an anonymous sonnet of the sixteenth century:
Viene de España por el mar salobre
a nuestro mexicano domicilio
un hombre tosco, sin algún auxilio
de salud falto y de dinero pobre.
Y luego que caudal y ánimo cobre,
le aplican en su bárbaro concilio
otros como él, de César y Virgilio
las dos coronas de laurel y roble.
Y el otro, que agujetas y alfileres
vendía por la calle, ya es un Conde
en calidad, y en cantidad un Fúcar;
¡y abomina después el lugar donde
adquirió estimación, gusto y haberes;
y tiraba la jábega en Sanlúcar!
Méndez Planearte, Poetas, pp. xxxi, 116.
16
We will single out here merely as an example some of the natives of the kingdom of Toledo who took part in the conquest and colonization of New Spain:
The authors of the memorials (sixty in number) belong to one particular time. As Icaza says, they were written when Viceroy Mendoza decided to delay the execution of the New Laws and the registers of conquistadores were formed in response to the promise of assistance and rewards made at the time of the deferment. Icaza, , Conquistadores, vol. 1, p. 26 Google Scholar. The list is taken from this work.
17 Icazbalceta, J. García, “Un creso del siglo XVI en México,” Obras (México, 1896), 2, 435–441.Google Scholar Concerning Villaseca, see also Baquero, Juan Sánchez S. J., Fundación de la Compañía de Jesús en la Nueva España (México, 1945), pp. 49, 52–58, 91–92, 160–161Google Scholar; Diccionario Universal de Historia y Geografía (México, 1853–1856), III, 823-908; Quintana, José Miguel, La primera crónica jesuítica mexicana y otras noticias (México, 1944), pp. 35–51 Google Scholar; Cario, Agustín Millares, Cartas recibidas de España por Francisco Cervantes de Salazar (México, 1946), pp. 20–25,Google Scholar and Apuntes para un estudio biobibliográfico del humanista Francisco Cervantes de Salazar (México, 1958).
18 Mey, C. Viñas and Paz, R., Relaciones de los pueblos de España ordenadas por Felipe II. Reino de Toledo, Primera parte (Madrid, 1951), p. 260.Google Scholar
19 García Icazbalceta, “Un creso.”
20 He took part in the arrangements for the foundation of the University (although we have no direct knowledge of the fact), as is shown by the fact that between the years 1549 and 1551 his countryman and cousin, Cervantes de Salazar, was brought to Mexico by Don Alonso to be one of the first professors. Sergio Méndez Arceo, La Real y Pontificia Universidad de México (Mexico, 1952) p. 94; Carlo, Millares, Cartas, p. 20 f.Google Scholar Villaseca was a man “who liked to give … but did not show much pleasure at being asked and even less at being thanked for some benefit received.” Many of his works were known only after his death when there were found among his papers letters from the Pope and from the Master of Malta, thanking him for help they had received. García Icazbalceta, “Un creso.”
21 García Icazbalceta (“Un creso”), Millares Carlo (Cartas), and de Ayala, J. López (Catálogo Monumental de la Provincia de Toledo [Toledo, 1959], p. 18)Google Scholar give this as, his place of birth; nevertheless, in the “Relación,” cited above, which was prepared in Casarrubios on February 10, 1576, he appears as a native of this town.
22 In the chapel there is a tablet of gray stone which says:
Esta Capilla mandaron fundar / de nuevo los ylustres señores Alonso / de Villaseca y Pedro de Villaseca / su hermano, hijos de los señores / Andrés de Villaseca y Teresa Gutiérrez / de Turanzo, sus padres, a honor y gloria / de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo y de la gloriosa / Virxen María sv madre y de sv Santa / Anunciazión. Está dotada de / una misa cada día para siempre. / Acabóse en el año de mil quinientos / y sesenta y cuatro años.
de Ayala, López, Cátalogo, pp. 17–18.Google Scholar
23 Andrés, in a memorial, spoke of the fact that “four years ago he came to this New Spain and that he is poor. …” Icaza, Conquistadores, no. 1347. By 1570 he had already died. It seems that he did not depend upon the help of his brother Alonso, as is inferred from the correspondence of his mother with Cervantes de Salazar, Millares, , Cartas, pp. 23, 51–52.Google Scholar
24 Concerning Vázquez de Ayllón extensive references are found in all the con-temporary chronicles: Fernández de Oviedo, Las Casas (who did not esteem him very highly and accused him of being a “new Christian”), etc. For more details concerning him see Fernández, Manuel Giménez, El plan Cimeros Las Casas para la reformación de las Indias, vol. 1 (Sevilla, 1955)Google Scholar; Quattlebaum, Paul, The Land Called Chicora (Gainesville, 1956)Google Scholar; and Malagón-Barceló, Javier, “The Role of the ‘Letrado’ in the Colonization of America,” The Americas, 18 (1961–1962), 9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25 Viñas Mey and Paz, Relaciones, p. 30. Villena, Guillermo Lohmann, Las minas de Huancavelica (Sevilla, 1949)Google Scholar for the activity of Dr. Loarte in regard to the mines; and Mendiburu, Manuel, Diccionario histórico biográfico del Perú (2nd edition; Lima, 1931–1932).Google Scholar
26 Icaza, Conquistadores, no. 514.
27 Ibid., no. 2.
28 Plata, Bermúdez, Catálogo, vol. 2, no. 711.Google Scholar
29 Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas de América y Oceania (42 vols.; Madrid, 1864–1884) II, 17, 227 f. Cited hereinafter as CDI.
30 Ibid., III, 60, 137 f, 150, 158, 171, 180 f, 183 f, 194; XX, 248, 262, 268, 274, 296, 299, 334, 346, 368, 370, 409, 416, 426.
31 Friede, Juan, Documentos inéditos para la historia de Colombia, 5 (Bogota, 1957), 334.Google Scholar
32 Icaza, Conquistadores, no. 1238.
33 CDI, XXVIII, 491.
34 Icaza, Conquistadores, no. 65.
35 Ibid., no. 376.
36 Francisco Hernández, Libro de la conquista de la Nueva España, cited by Somolinos, Germán, “Vida y obra de Francisco Hernández” in Obras completas de Francisco Hernández, 1 (México, 1960), 143.Google Scholar
37 Mey, Viñas and Paz, , Relaciones, p. 260.Google Scholar The profession of physician was not given social acceptance, because of the great number of Jews and Arabs who practiced it. Juan Méndez Nieto, graduate of Salamanca, physician of the Court in Toledo, from which according to report he fled and went to the New World because he did not dare take care of the prince Don Carlos, gives us an account of the troubles that he had in hiding from his father the fact that after starting several careers he was following that of medicine. “Then I decided to turn to medicine, seeing that there no longer remained for me any other profession which I might exercise. …” “I understood that he [my father] had learned of my change and that he was coming to remedy it or even to punish me.” “Yes, sir, I said that I am studying medicine. … I do not know how your parents are going to take it.” In another place in order to insult a physician he was called a Jew (Oh, hi de p—, judío), Nieto, Juan Méndez, Discursos medicinales, ed. Bordona, J. Domínguez, Boletín de la Academia de la Historia, vols. 107, CVIII (Madrid, 1935).Google Scholar Marañón (El Greco, p. 165) points out to us that among the three offices that were a monopoly of the Jews one was that of physician. It should not surprise us that, as Jiménez Gregorio tells us in relation to Toledo, the professions of physician and druggist still bore a stigma in the eighteenth century. Gregorio, Fernando Jiménez, Toledo a mediados del siglo XVIII (Toledo, 1959), p. 51.Google Scholar See also Ortiz, Antonio Domínguez, La clase social de los conversos en la Edad Moderna (Madrid, 1955), pp. 146 ff.Google Scholar The same Méndez Nieto, in various place in his Discursos, either as a personal opinion or as that of one of the personages with whom he was living, points out the bad professional opinion which was held of the greater part of the physicians who went to the Indies: “… that they are the outcasts, who not being able to make a success of it in Spain, because they will not give them a mule to cure, all come over here as to the land of the blind, where the one-eyed man in king, or at least regidor. …” (Lib. Disc. 2. See also Disc. 3 and 4 of the same book.)
38 For their activity as a governing body, cf. Fr.de Sigüenza, José, Historia de la Orden de los Jerónimos (Madrid, 1909)Google Scholar; and Fernández, Giménez, El plan Cimeros, 1, 152, 154, 158, 166 f, 252-256, 306, 311, 351, 384, 500, 636 f, 639; II, 114, 129, 140, 150, 160, 168 f, 171, 197, 210, 231, 237, 434 f, 499, 558.Google Scholar
39 Covarrubias did not take possession of the episcopal see, but in four of his works published between 1553 and 1556, until his designation as bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo, he made clear on the title page that besides his quality of “Toletani” he was “Archiepiscopi S. Dominici designati” (Practicarum Quaestionum; Relectionem Cap. Quamvis de Pactis; In Reg. Peccatum, de Jus in VI Commentaries; and Veterum Numismatum Collectio) and in the dedication which he makes to Philip li in his Practicarum he says: “… that by command of the Imperial Majesty and by reason of the very great kindness toward me of which you are undoubtedly the author, I am about to leave for the Island of Española, with the help of God, that I may exercise the duty and office of Archbishop there. …”
40 Royal cedula of January 24, 1528, Documentos para la historia de Nicaragua, vol. I (Madrid, 1954), doc. lxx.
41 de Alcocer, Luis Gerónimo, “Relación sumaria del estado presente de la Isla Española en las Indias Occidentales, de sus poblaciones y cosas notables que ai en ella, de sus frutos y de algunos sucesos que han acontecido en ella, del Arçobispado de la Ciudad de Santo Domingo de la dicha Isla y vida de sus Arçobispos hasta el ano de 1650,” Relaciones históricas de Santo Domingo, ed. Demorizi, E. Rodríguez (Santo Domingo, 1942), p. 242.Google Scholar
42 de la Vega, Inca Garcilaso, Historia General del Perú, ed. Rosenblat, Angel (Buenos Aires, 1944), lib. I, caps, xxii, xxiii.Google Scholar
43 Beristain, J. M. y Souza, , Biblioteca hispano-americana septentrional (3rd edition; México, 1947), 5, 194.Google Scholar
44 Icazbalceta, J. García, Bibliografía mexicana del siglo XVI, ed. Carlo, A. Millares (México, 1954), pp. 121–123, 287–290Google Scholar; Opúsculos y biografías (México, 1942), pp. 110–116. His Vocabulario belongs to the period of the “scientific orientation of missionary work,” which not merely by chance coincides with the founding of the University. During this period, departing from the purely practical activity of the doctrinas, sermonarios, and confesionarios, studies of the native languages were made from the general viewpoint of grammar and vocabulary. Pidal, Ramón Menéndez, “Prólogo,” Colección de Incunables Americanos, vol. 1 (Madrid, 1944), p. 13.Google Scholar
45 de Mendieta, Jerónimo, Vidas franciscanas, ed. Iguiniz, Juan B. (México, 1945), pp. 71–75.Google Scholar
46 Ibid., pp. 143–154.
47 Icazbalceta, J. García, Obras, 9 (México, 1899), 451–452.Google Scholar
48 Mendieta, , Vidas, pp. 183–186.Google Scholar Some of the Franciscans went on immediately to the Philippines and from there to other parts of Asia. Such, in the sixteenth century itself, were Fray Pedro de Burgillos, famous physician-surgeon who went on to Manila in 1595 and to Japan in 1601, Fray Diego de San José, from Oropesa, who arrived in Manila in 1578 and departed from there five years later for Cochin China, where he was the first to celebrate Mass in that country. Pérez, Antolín Abad, “Misioneros toledanos en el Extremo Oriente,” Missionalia Hispánica, 13, no. 38 (1956), 317–370.Google Scholar
49 Garcilaso de la Vega, Historia, lib. III, cap. xvii.
50 “… that it was not permissible to kill a king who had shown such courtesy to them and had done them no harm; that if they found any guilt in him they should refer it to the Emperor and send him to Spain and not make themselves judges against a king over whom they had no jurisdiction.” Ibid., lib. I, cap. xxxviii.
51 Hurtado, the Toledan historian, rector of the parish of San Vicente and author of the memorial which was written in answer to the questionnaire sent out by Philip II in 1576, gave an idyllic description of people of that area, in which he proclaimed their nobility and virtues. For this reason, he says, the people of Toledo were respected everywhere. He refers to the popular saying: “A quien Dios quiso bien, en Toledo le dio de comer.” Gregorio, Fernando Jiménez, Toledo y sus constantes (Toledo, 1961), p. 58.Google Scholar
But opposed to this description there is a contemporary sonnet, attributed to Góngora, which presents an entirely contrary picture of the city and its inhabitants, crediting them with no virtues except those of the worldly-wise. Gamero, Martín, Historia de Toledo, p. 1097.Google Scholar
52 The single exception, if he can be considered as such is Don Francisco de Toledo, born in Oropesa, third son of the Count of Oropesa and fifth Viceroy of Peru. His work is very well known. In Spain, previous to his appointment, he spent several periods of time in Toledo. In 1528 he assisted at the Provincial Council, acting as representative of the monarch. Zimmerman, Arthur F., Francisco de Toledo, Fifth Viceroy of Peru, 1569–1581 (Caldwell, Idaho, 1938), p. 47.Google Scholar Levillier, Roberto, Don Francisco de Toledo, supremo organizador del Perú (Madrid, 1935) Anexos, p. 16 Google Scholar; Sebastián Horozco, Libro de muchas cosas notables escritas y recopiladas por el licenciado Sebastián Horozco, vecino de Toledo, MS. in the Real Biblioteca, fol. 82, cited by López de Ayala, Toledo en el siglo XVI, ap. VII.
53 According to Ots Capdequi, the popular classes were those who gave the support necessary for the continuation of the expeditions of discovery. The aristocratic element of society maintained an attitude of reserve toward the discovery, neither leading nor supporting the expeditions. They were also fearful that the enrollment of too many agricultural workers would leave their lands depopulated. The younger sons of the hidalgo class were the ones who gave the greatest support to the expeditions of discovery and colonization which went to the New World. Capdequi, José María Ots , Instituciones (Barcelona, 1959), pp. 3, 53.Google Scholar
54 Solórzano Pereira, Juan de, Política Indiana (Madrid, 1647),Google Scholar cited by Medina, J. T., Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición en Chile (Santiago de Chile, 1952), p. 6.Google Scholar
55 The Inquisition was severe in Toledo. At the time when the Tribunal was established in 1485, there was a plot to kill the Inquisitors and their companions on the Feast of Corpus Christi. It was discovered beforehand and exemplary punishment was meted out. After this the Tribunal was exceptionally active in Toledo for several years, leaving hardly a family untouched by its severity. For a description of the plot and its consequences, see Gamero, Martín, Historia de Toledo, pp. 864–866.Google Scholar The activities of the Inquisition in Toledo, especially frequent during the final years of the fifteenth century, are summarized in detail in Sebastián Orozco, “Memorial … de las primeras reconciliaciones y autos de fe celebrados en Toledo desde el año 1485” in Gamero, Martín, Historia de Toledo, pp. 1064–1069.Google Scholar
56 Rueda, Julio Jiménez, Herejías y supersticiones en la Nueva España (México, 1946), p. 44.Google Scholar
57 Medina, J. T., La Inquisición en Lima (Santiago de Chile, 1956), 1, 50.Google Scholar
58 “Carta de Alcedo de 11 de junio de 1570,” cited ibid.
59 In spite of this accusation he was given the nomination, due to the favor of Viceroy Toledo and Inquisitor Cerezuela. Ibid., p. 23.
60 Villena, Guillermo Lohmann, Informaciones genealógicas de peruanos seguidas ante el Santo Oficio (Lima, 1955), ficha 1.Google Scholar
61 Letter of the Inquisitor General of February 7, 1570, in which he said: “that I assure your Lordship that in relation to the few Spaniards who are in these lands, there are two times as many confesos as there are in Spain.” Medina, , La Inquisición en Lima, p. 39.Google Scholar In all of this we must reckon with the reality that for various reasons the crossing to the Indies did not present the difficulties that were established by the legislation. Thus, the fiscal of the Holy Office of Lima said in a letter of June 26, 1569: “… because in regard to the fact that people come here without permission, there is much fraud and evil among the shipmasters and little or no punishment.” Ibid., p. 20. Another proof is that one of the areas of activity which the Inquisition had was that of pursuing fugitives from the Peninsula, many of whom were integrated into groups of Jews or Judaizers which were established in various places in the Indies. The problem in relation to these was greater in New Spain than in Peru. “Jews came with Cortés and Pánfilo de Narváez and with subsequent colonizers in the 1520's. There was a sizeable Jewish community in Mexico by 1536 and despite the Inquisition the colony continued to grow and prosper throughout the sixteenth century.” “The Jewish community continued to grow in Mexico City, Pachuca and the Nuevo León area, and the conversos discreetly practiced the old rites in private.” Green-leaf, Richard E., Zumárraga and the Mexican Inquisition, 1536–1543 (Washington, D. C, 1962), pp. 89, 99.Google Scholar
62 CDI, XXII, 125–130.
63 Ibid., pp. 137–144.
64 Ibid., XIX, 5–18; XXII, 271–285.
65 Ibid., XXII, 338–350, 350–360, 360–383.
66 In the “Cedulario de Encinas,” for example, are found about a hundred royal decrees signed in Toledo or in its territory (Ocaña, Fuensalida, or Talavera de la Reina). None of them is later than 1563.
67 Letter of Licenciado Castro, dated in Los Reyes, April 26, 1563. Medina, J. T., Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de Chile, 2nd series, 1 (Santiago de Chile, 1956), 36.Google Scholar
68 Ibid.
69 de Espinosa, Antonio Vázques, Compendio y descripción de las Indias Occidentales (Washington, D. C, 1948), no. 381.Google Scholar The archbishopric of Toledo was considered the richest in Spain and we have testimony of this in the commentaries of the foreigners who visited the city: Gabriel Tetzel (1464–1467) affirmed, “The most powerful bishop of this kingdom lives there. It is believed that he can spend a thousand coronas daily.” Antonio de Lailaing (1501) “The income of the Archbishop is worth 40,000 ducats, and the canons, who are seventy in number, have an equal amount.” Vicente Quirini (1505) echoed the fact that the Archdiocese of Toledo produced 50,000 ducats. Andrés Navagero (1525–1528) wrote, “the Archbishop has an income of 80,000 ducats and the Church does not have less; the archdeacon has 6,000 and the dean 3,000.” Mercadal, J. García, Viaje por España del magnífico Andrés Navagero, 1525–1528 (Madrid, 1952),Google Scholar cited by Gregorio, Jiménez, Toledo a mediados, pp. 44–45.Google Scholar
70 Vázquez de Espinosa, Compendio, no. 1251.
71 de Castellanos, Juan, Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias, cited by Emilio Hart-Terre, Artífices en el Virreinato del Perú (Lima, 1945), pp. 63–64.Google Scholar
72 de Herrera, Antonio, Descripción de las Indias Occidentales (Asunción, Paraguay, 1944), cap. i.Google Scholar
73 Hernández, Francisco, Antigüedades, cited by Somolinos, Obras completas de Francisco Hernández, 1, 163.Google Scholar
74 “Parecer de Juan Bautista Gessio sobre cierto libro de Cosmografía [Sumario de las Indias tocante a la sciencia de Geografía], dado por mandado del Consejo [Real de las Indias], Madrid, 11 de abril 1580,” Catálogo de la Colección de Don Juan Bautista Muñoz, vol. I (Madrid, 1954), doc. 190.
75 Vázquez de Espinosa, Compendio, no. 1978.
76 In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the earthenware of Talavera attained its golden age of territorial expansion and artistic richness. Gregorio, Jiménez, Toledo y sus constantes, p. 80.Google Scholar
77 Cervantes, Enrique A., Nómina de loceros (México, 1939)Google Scholar; and Azulejos y loza blanca de Puebla (México, 1939).
78 Hart-Terre, Emilio and Marquez, Alberto, El azulejo criollo y la arquitectura limeña (Lima, 1958), pp. 6, 14, 22 f, and 26 f.Google Scholar
79 Riaño, Juan F., The Industrial Arts in Spain (London, 1879),Google Scholar published the list of the Spanish silversmiths in the sixteenth century, in which are numbered seventy-seven from Toledo.
80 The most beautiful monstrance made in the sixteenth century, perhaps the most important of Spain, and the most ancient within the period is that of Toledo. Crevea, Rafael Altamira, Historia de España ye de la civilización española (4th edition; Barcelona, 1928), 3, 672–673.Google Scholar
81 Pradeau, Alberto F., Don Antonio de Mendoza y la Casa de Moneda de México en 1543 (México, 1953).Google Scholar
82 Plata, Bermúdez, Catálogo, vol. 1, no. 2028.Google Scholar
83 de Ayala, López, Toledo en el siglo XVI, p. 138.Google Scholar A proof of the importance of this industry in Toledo are the Ordinances given by Philip II to the “torcedores de seda” in 1573. Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España (1st series, 114 vols.; Madrid, 1842–1895), XXV, 363–396.
84 Icazbalceta, García, “La industria de la seda en México,” Obras, 1 (2nd edition; México, 1905), 127–161.Google Scholar
85 In the notary archives are conserved proofs of the commerce of Toledo w,ith the Indies. Such, for example, was the case of Juan Henche, a German merchant in Tenuchtitlan, México, who acknowledges the rights of Alvaro Hernández de Madrid, a merchant in the same city “que por cuanto vos el dicho Alvaro Hernández, teniades mil pesos de oro de minas … para los enviar a los reinos de Castilla a Alonso Pérez Parada mercaderes vecinos de la ciudad de Toledo vuestros compañeros … 15 de junio de 1537.” Cario, Agustín Millares and Mantecón, J. Ignacio, Indices y extractos de Protocolos del Archivo de Notarías de México (2 vols.; México, 1945–1946) 2, no. 2316.Google Scholar
86 Among them there must have been conversos and Judaizers, for in the uprising of the Comunidades there was certainly some Jewish influence. Francesillo de Zúñiga (Crónica, published in the “Biblioteca de Autores Españoles”) tells us that when the troops of the Prior of San Juan (that is, the soldiers of Charles V after the pact of La Sisla, which put an end to the struggles of the comuneros) entered Toledo “many dead men were found without foreskins,” that is, Jews. Marañón, Gregorio, Las Comunidades de Castilla (Madrid, 1948).Google Scholar
87 With regard to this, see Larruga, Eugenio, Memorias políticas y económicas y sobre los frutos, comercio, fábricas y minas de España (Madrid, 1770).Google Scholar
88 The sword of Toledo crossed to America as an object of luxury, since the process of tnanufacturing a good sword was long and complicated and was completed slowly and with careful attention to details without being hurried. The swords of Toledo presented the peculiarity of not being of pure steel, but the interior of the blade was made of an " alma " of iron which by means of patient work at the forge was covered over with the fine steel of Mondragón or that of the peña de Udola. The union which was achieved between these distinct parts and materials was close and secure. When the blade had been given its proper form, it was tempered, a delicate and difficult operation, which determined the high qualities of the new sword. In this the swords of Toledo appeared to be a work of magic, and a belief grew up that Toledan sword-makers possessed special formulas of incantation and sorcery to give the best temper to their swords. The delicate operation of heating the blade to a burning red, or a cherry red, of submerging it in the water of the Tagus, contained in vats, and of heating it again, with attention to the different colorings which the steel took on, all this was carried out at night. They measured the time mathematically intoning songs and verses.
Bendita la hora en que Dios nació
Santa María que lo parió
San Juan que lo bautizó
el hierro está caliente
el agua muele
buen temple haremos
si Dios quiere.
Then followed the violent tests to which the new blade was submitted to try its strength, elasticity, and temper. It was bent in a semicircle, an S was made with the flexible blade, and a blow of full force was given with it on a steel helmet. Then it was ornamented and signed, and sometimes a motto was placed on it (e. g., “Lealtad Toledana; sueño de soldado.”) Salas, Alberto Mario, Las armas de la Conquista (Buenos Aires, 1950), p. 178–179 Google Scholar; and Larrain, Arturo Fontecilla, “Las espadas de los siglos XVI y XVII,” Revista Chilena de Historia y Geografía, vol. 90, no. 98 (1941).Google Scholar Among the small arms which crossed over to the Indies were numbered the “daggers of Toledo.” Revello, J. Torres, “Merchandise Brought to America by the Spaniards (1534–1536),” The Hispanic American Historical Review, 23, 777.Google Scholar
89 Among the products which were exported were two curious ones: marchpane and quince, “dulces, suaves y muy saludables” which were sent to the Indies preserved in sugar and honey. Hurtado, Memorial, cap. xxxvi, cited by Gregorio, Jiménez, Toledo a mediados, p. 27.Google Scholar
90 Juan Villuga, Repertorio de todos los caminos de España, cited by Regla, Juan, Historia social y económica de España y América, 3 (Barcelona, 1957), 182.Google Scholar When the capital was transferred to Madrid, the most frequented routes of commerce were, as is logical, removed to a distance, producing the natural isolation which was made greater by the ever more intense economic debility. Gregorio, Jiménez, Toledo a mediados, p. 15.Google Scholar
91 After the departure of the Court the number of inhabitants of Toledo increased, since according to the census of 1530 it had 31,930 (and in population it was the fourth largest city in Castile), while in 1594 it had increased to 54,665 (and had risen to the second largest). Then a short time afterwards the population fell off, perhaps because the capital was established permanently in Madrid, for in the sixteenth century the prosperity of Toledo was based principally on the economic influence of four groups: the court, the archbishopric, the municipality, and the artesan class. When the Court was gone, and with it much of the demand for the work of the artesans, this class also declined, causing a decrease in population and leaving only the Church and the Municipality as economic forces. Carande, , Carlos V, p. 38 Google Scholar; de Gregorio, Jiménez, Toledo a mediados, p. 21.Google Scholar
It is interesting to note the series of memoriales which were prepared in the following century concerning the causes of the decline of Toledo and the remedies for it. Among them we have:
de Moneada, Juan Belluga, Memorial de la ciudad de Toledo a D. Felipe 111 sobre su despoblación (1618?).Google Scholar It contains very curious and interesting data concerning, the former prosperity of Toledo and proposes the means to restore its splendor, contriving inefficacious and impossible expedients.
Dr.Herrera, García y Contrera, , Memorial de la ciudad de Toledo sobre la manera de remediar su despoblación y jaita de riqueza (Toledo, 1618). He proposes insufficient remedies and does not recognize the economic causes of the decline of Toledo.Google Scholar
Damián de Olivares, Memorial sobre las fábricas de Toledo (seventeenth century). He considers the old silk and wool industries of Toledo, Mancha, and Segovia and attributes their decline to the introduction of foreign merchandise.
Gerónimo Zevallos, Discurso y parecer del licenciado Gerónimo Zevallos para tratar de los arbitrios convenientes y aumento de la Imperial ciudad de Toledo (no date or place of publication given—beginning of seventeenth century). It is very interesting and important. Although the author errs in some points, he points out with notable sagacity the true causes of the ruin of industry and commerce.
These sources are cited by Colmeiro, Manuel, Biblioteca de los economistas españoles de los siglos XVI, XVII, y XVI11 (México, 1942), pp. 83, 127, 165–166, 211–213.Google Scholar
92 Actas de las Cortes de Castilla (Madrid, 1862–1918), voi. VII, passim; and de Cabánez, D. Francisco Xavier, Memoria que tiene por objeto manifestar la posibilidad y facilidad de hacer navegable el río Tajo desde Aranjuez hasta el Atlántico (Madrid, 1829).Google Scholar The appendix of 177 documents contains in part the history of the project of Philip II.
93 Regla, , La historia social y económica, p. 186.Google Scholar
94 de Acosta, Joseph S. J., Historia natural y moral de las Indias (2 vols.; Madrid, 1894), lib. III, cap. x.Google Scholar
95 This information on the difficulties of navigation of the Tagus has been supplied to us by our friend, companion in work, and countryman, Manuel Díaz Marta, Ingeniero de Caminos, Canales, y Puertos.
96 Frías de Albornoz took part in the sensational controversy between Fray Bartolomé de las Casas and de Sepúlveda, Ginés, writing in his Arte de Contratos (Valencia, 1573),Google Scholar lib. III, tit. iii. ff. 45v-48v, against the position of Las Casas. In like manner he wrote a Tratado de la conversión y debelación de los Indios, of which only the title remains to us, because it was gathered up by the Inquisition. Nicolás Antonio says that Frías was a man of great genius and exceptional memory. He was a very learned and very accomplished in all the languages. Planearte, Gabriel Méndez, Humanistas del siglo XVI (México, 1946), p. 149 Google Scholar; Zavala, Silvio, La encomienda indiana (Madrid, 1935), pp. 234–240 Google Scholar; Malagón-Barceló, Javier, La literatura jurídica española del Siglo de Oro en la Nueva España (México, 1959), p. 107.Google Scholar
97 Melgarejo occupied the chair for a short time. A good humanist and linguist, he translated the work of the satirical Latin poet, Persius, a version which has remained inedited and which has not come to our knowledge. Planearte, Méndez, Humanistas, p. 32.Google Scholar
98 See Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, Diálogos latinos in Icazbalceta, J. García, Obras vol. 6 (México, 1898).Google Scholar Icazbalceta himself in vol. IV (México, 1897), pp. 17–52, has a study of Cervantes de Salazar. Concerning this, see also Carlo, Agustín Millares, Cartas recibidas de España por Francisco Cervantes de Salazar (México, 1946)Google Scholar; and Apuntes para un estudio biobibliográfico del humanista Francisco Cervantes de Salazar (México, 1958).
99 de la Plaza, Cristóbal, Crónica de la Real y Pontificia Universidad de México (2 vols.; México, 1935).Google Scholar
100 Rueda, Julio Jiménez, Historia jurídica de la Universidad de México (México, 1955), p. 32 Google Scholar; Malagón-Barceló, Javier, La Escuela Nacional de Jurisprudencia: Breve síntesis histórica (México, 1951).Google Scholar
101 Oviedo de la natural hy / storia de las Indias / con privilegio de la / S. C. C. M. (Al Fin) El psente tratado in / titulado Oviedo de la natural hystoria / d’ las indias se imprimió a costa del au / tor Goçalo Fernadez de ouiedo a l’s de / Valdes. Por industria de maestre Re / mo de petras ε se acabo en la cibdad de / Toledo a xv dias del mes Hebrero / de MDxxvj años.
102 La quarta relación q Fernando cortes gover / nando y capitan general por su majestad en la nueva España d’ / mar oceano embio al muy / alto ε muy potentísimo invictísimo señor / don Carlos emperador semper augusto y / rey de España nuestro señor: en la cual están otras ε relaciones que los capitanes / Fedro de alvarado ε Diego godoy embia / ron al dicho Fernardo [He] cortes. (Al fin) Fue impresa la presente carta de relación / en la imperial ciudad de Toledo por Gaspar de avilar. / Acabóse a veinte dias del mes de Octubre / año del nascimiento de nuestro salva / dor Jesu christo de mil quinien / tos ε veinte y cinco / años.
103 A magnificent edition is that which is being published by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Up to the present time four volumes have appeared out of a total of eight which have been planned. Francisco Hernández, Obras completas.
104 Pastor, Cristóbal Pérez, La imprenta en Toledo (Madrid, 1887), pp. 3–14.Google Scholar
105 Leonard, Irving A., Books of the Brave (Cambridge, 1948), pp. 95–96.Google Scholar
106 Villa, José Moreno, Lo mexicano (México, 1948), pp. 30–32.Google Scholar
107 Toussaint, Manuel, Arte colonial en México (México, 1948), p. 106.Google Scholar
108 Angulo, Diego, Historia del arte hispanoamericano, 1 (Barcelona, 1945), 454.Google Scholar
109 Toussaint, , Arte Colonial, p. 25.Google Scholar See also Salazar, L., “Arquería de Zempoala,” Anales del Ministerio de Fomento, 2 (México, 1877), 141 Google Scholar (with drawings of the aqueduct).
110 Beristain, , Biblioteca, 5, 18.Google Scholar See also Valdés, Octavio, El Fadre Tembleque (México, 1945).Google Scholar
111 Toussaint, , Arte Colonial, pp. 129–130 Google Scholar; Hart-Terre, Emilio and Abanto, Alberto Marquez, Retablos limeños en el siglo XVI (Lima, 1959), p. 28.Google Scholar
112 de San Román, Francisco, De la vida del Greco (Madrid, 1927), p. 4.Google Scholar
113 Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España, cap. cxcv.
114 de Gómara, Francisco López, Historia general de las Indias, segunda parte (“Biblioteca de Autores Españoles,” vol. 22; Madrid, 1918), pp. 424–425.Google Scholar
115 de Oviedo, Gonzalo Fernández, Historia general y natural de las Indias (14 vols.; Asunción, Paraguay, 1944–1945),Google Scholar parte II, lib. xiv, cap. xlv.
116 Garcilaso de la Vega, Historia general del Perú, lib. i, cap. xiv, and lib. ν, cap. xliii.
117 Díaz del Castillo, Historia, cap. cxcv.
118 It is calculated that the mantle is decorated with more than 80,000 pearls and that the apron and sleeves have about 12,000. Benito, José Polo, Catedral de Toledo: Museo (Barcelona, n. d.), pp. 6–7.Google Scholar
119 Baltasar Porreño, Historia episcopal y real de España. En la cual se trata de los Arzobispos de Toledo, y Reyes que han gobernado a España debaxo de su Primado, vol. II, ff. 21-22 (MS. in the Biblioteca Capitular de Toledo), cited by López de Ayala, Toledo en el siglo XVI, apéndice IV.
120 The land was transformed as though it had been bathed with the light of the very lamp of Aladdin. Under the tremendous energy of the conquering race, fired by their lust for power and riches and at the same time animated by their religious faith, New Spain flourished in a few years and was transformed into a wonderful kingdom, whose immense expanse was sown with splendid cities which here sprang up from the desert, there occupied the site of an anterior culture. Baxter, Sylvester, Spanish-Colonial Architecture in Mexico (Boston 1901), 1, 24.Google Scholar This same judgment can be applied to other places in America. See also Foster, George M., Culture and Conquest, America’s Spanish Heritage (Chicago, 1960), pp. 2–6.Google Scholar
121 Among the scarce references which we encounter, I would say the only one in the Historia of Martín Gamero is that of Don Pedro IV González de Mendoza “who is adorned with the prudence with which he helped to encourage the Genoese Christopher Columbus in the great enterprise of the discovery of the New World and helped to incline Doña Isabel to take this project kindly under her protection” (p. 888). We have another reference in Sebastián Horozco, Libro de muchas cosas notables, in which, giving the list of those who took part in the Provincial Council of Toledo of 1565-1566, he says: “…then came the bishop of Sigiienza, called De la Gasea, well known for the journey he made to the Indies against Pizarro. …” Cited by de Ayala, López, Toledo en el siglo XVI, p. 192.Google Scholar
122 Araquistain, Luis, “¿Cuál era la religión del Greco?” Cuadernos (Paris, 1957), no. 24.Google Scholar