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Tridentine Catholicism and Enlightened Despotism in Bourbon Mexico*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

D. A. Brading
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Extract

In 1799 Dr Juan José de Gamboa, an influential canon of the cathedral chapter in Mexico City, presented a lengthy petition on behalf of the Marquesa of Selva Nevada seeking permission to found a Carmelite convent in Querétaro, a city of some 30,000 inhabitants. Whereas the capital possessed twenty wealthy convents with over nine hundred professed nuns, Querétaro only had two established houses, the Santa Clara and the Capuchines. Marvelling that, whereas in France the Revolution had destroyed convents, in Mexico the Church was still able to found new houses, the crown attorney advised granting the necessary licence. A handsome edifice was subsequently designed and constructed by Manuel Tolsa, the chief proponent of the neo-classic style in New Spain, and in 1803 the Archbishop accompanied the founding sisters on their journey from Mexico to Querétaro.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , May 1983 , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

1 Mexico, Archivo General de la Nación (hereafter cited as AGN), Historia 77–1, 7 January 1800.

2 Muriel, Josefina and Grobet, Alicia, Fundaciones neoclásicas: La Marquesa de Selva Nevada, sus conuentos y sus arquitectos (Mexico, 1969), pp. 35–48.Google Scholar

3 This memorial is reprinted in José, María Luis Mora, Obras sueltas (Mexico, 1963), pp. 175–213.Google Scholar

4 Hamnett, B. R., ‘The Appropriation of Mexican Church Wealth by the Spanish Bourbon Government – The “Consolidación de Vales Reales” 1805–1809’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 1, no. 2 (1969), pp. 85–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 For these dramatic events see Cayetano, de Cabrera y Quintero, Escudo de Armas de México (Mexico, 1746; facsimile edition, 1981), passim.Google Scholar

6 Lafaye, Jacques, Quetzalcoatl and Guadalupe (Chicago, 1976) pp. 211–301;Google ScholarBrading, D. A., Los oríenes del nacionalismo mexicano (2nd ed., Mexico, 1980), pp. 26–9.Google Scholar

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10 For these trends, see Evans, R. J. W., The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy 1550–1700 (Oxford, 1979), pp. 432–46.Google Scholar

11 Sarrailh, Jean, L’Espane éclairée de la second moitié du XVIIIe siàcle (Paris, 1954) p. 184;Google ScholarBrading, D. A., Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico 1763–1810 (Cambridge, 1973), pp. 25–30.Google Scholar

12 Saugnieux, Joel, Le Jansénisme espagnol du XVIIIe siécle, ses composantes el ses sources (Oviedo, 1975 );Google ScholarHerr, Richard, The Eighteenth-Century Revolution in Spain (Princeton, 1958), pp. 400–27;Google ScholarChadwick, Owen, The Popes and the European Revolution (Oxford, 1981), pp. 392–439.Google Scholar

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14 Archivo General de Indias (hereafter cited as AGI), Mexico 2716. The president of this junta was José de Carbajal y Lancaster.

15 José, Antonio de Villaseñor y Sánchez, Teatro Americano (2 vols., Mexico, 1746), I, 26–30;Google ScholarFernando, Navarro y Noriega, Catálogo de los curatos y misiones de la Nueva Españla (Mexico, 1812 and 1943), passim.Google Scholar

16 AGI, Mexico 2712. See also the protest of Mexico City Council, 27 July 1753.

17 AGI, Mexico 2716, real céula 23 June 1757.

18 For Yucarn, , see AGI Mexico 3173, Bishop’s letter, 10 1766; for the Dominicans, AGI Mexico 1308, real cédula, 4 February 1781 for Franciscans of Jalisco, AGN Clero 4–1, real cédula is 15 July 1797.Google Scholar

19 AGI Mexico 2716, Archbishop, Rubio to Arriaga, , 1 03 1759.Google Scholar

20 AGI Mexico 2714, Archbishop, Rubio to Arriaga, , 21 04 1756.Google Scholar

21 AGI Mexico 2631, Printed pastoral, 29 March 1803.

22 Bibliotecta Nacional, Archivo Franciscano, Caja 127, documentos 1647–51; AGI Mexico 3173, real cédula 14 October 1763 on reduction of novitiate.

23 This census is reprinted in Alexander von Humboldt, Ensayo politico sobre el reino de la Nueva España (Mexico, ed. Medina, J. A. Ortega y, 1966), p. 573.Google Scholar

24 Nicolás, P. Navarrete, Historia de la Provincia Agustiniana de San Nicolás de Tolentono de Michoacán (2 vols., Mexico, 1978), I, 552–3, 560–6, 594–6, 719; 11, 88, 18.Google Scholar

25 Archivo Casa Morelos (hereafter cited as ACM) Cédulas reales y decretos, I, 12 August 1805; AGI, Indifferente general 73 has these Comments of the Bishop of Havana: ‘there is not a convent of regular clergy in this city from which religious of all classes have not petitioned me for secularisation’. 28 June 1796.

26 ACM, XIX, N.D. 34, 13 Macrh 1804.

27 AGN, Obispos 18, Contador de propios y arbitrios; Bishop of Oaxaca, 5 May 1778.

28 Ibid., Archbishop Haro to Viceroy Revillagigedo, 24 05 1794.

29 AGI Mexico 2651, Fiscal 16 October 1796.

30 Ibid., Fiscal 3 09 1802.

31 AGN, Obispos 18, Archbishop, Haro 4 05 1794.Google Scholar

32 AGN, Historia 73–18, has a village-by-village description; several are printed in José, Bravo Ugarte (ed.), Inspección ocular en Michoacán (Mexico, 1960).Google Scholar

33 Brading, , Miners and Merchants, pp. 107–109.Google Scholar

34 AGN, Cofradías 6, has a list of Mexico City confraternities and their endowments.

35 ACM, XVIII 359, constitution approved 4 May 1767 at petition of mayordomo, José Simón González, an Indian cacique.

36 AGN, Clero 195–9, petition for recognition, 24 September 1794.

37 AGN, Clero 72–19, real cédula 24 March 1791 approving constitution.

38 AGN, Historia 437, Viceroy Revillagigedo, 18 March 1794.

39 ACM, XIX, N.D. 33, prohibitions 3 December 1803, 7 July 1807.

40 Ibid., Salvatierra magistrate 14 11 1807Google Scholar.

41 ACM, XVIII 648, Vicente de Loredo, 31 March 1788.

42 The entire case can be found in AGN, Historia Petitions of mayordomos 3 April 1797; Bishop, to Viceroy, , I 06 1798. The original Spanish is as follows: ‘…que la devoción de los fieles, principalmente de los pobres ignorantes, se va enribiando notablemente y acaso ha quedado solo en una sombra y de hay necesariamente es fuerza que se siga mayor relajación de costumbres, por el mismo caso de que les faltan estas vivas representaciones o imágenes, que son las que les causan impresión para que formen algún concepto o idea de los sublimes misterios de la religión porque su rusticidad e ignorancia, muchas veces no cede, o se da vencida a Ia explicación de las palabras, por muy claras que sean, si a esto también no se les añade un objeto que se les entre por la vista o que pueda acomodarse para tocarlo con lo material de los sentidos, mejor que comprehenderlo por medio del discurso o de qualesquiera otra operación o entendimiento: que es decir en dos palabras, que lo que no se les puede hacer percibir porque tienen tapiadas las puertas del discurso, se les entra por los sentidos, y así se consigue que formen algún concepto de los misterios de la religión. De esta verdad pueden ser téstigos fidedignos todos los curas y confesores, pues por mas que se predique y se explique al pueblo, con las palabras mas rurales, o con el mas claro y vulgar catecismo, siempre se encuentra en Ia gente de la plebe una crasisima ignorancia de los misterios de la religión, no por falta de enseñanza y doctrina de los pastores, pues es bien notorio su celo, sino por falta de comprehensión de las ovejas.’Google Scholar

43 AGI Mexico 2693, Fiscal’s comment 12 February 1807.

44 AGI Mexico 1892, Archbishop, to José, Antonio Caballero and Pedro, Ceballos, 10 1804.Google Scholar

45 AGI Mexico 2622, Sánchez de Tagle, 12 February 1772.

46 Printed edict issued by Manuel, Abad y Queipo to diocese, 03 1811.Google Scholar

47 For a discussion of clerical income, see Brading, D. A., ‘El clero mexicano y el movimento insurgente de 1810’, Relaciones, vol. 2, no.5 (1981), pp. 5–26.Google Scholar