Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
The Holy Office of the Inquisition in colonial Mexico had as its purpose the defense of Spanish religion and Spanish-Catholic culture against individuals who held heretical views and people who showed lack of respect for religious principles. Inquisition trials of Indians suggest that a prime concern of the Mexican Church in the sixteenth century was recurrent idolatry and religious syncretism. During the remainder of the colonial period and until 1818, the Holy Office of the Inquisition continued to investigate Indian transgressions against orthodoxy, and to provide the modern researcher with unique documentation for the study of mixture of religious beliefs. The “Procesos de Indios” and other subsidiary documentation from Inquisition archives present crucial data for the ethnologist and ethnohistorian, preserving for him a view of native religion at the time of Spanish contact, eyewitness accounts of post-conquest idolatry and sacrifice, burial rites, native dances and ceremonies as well as data on genealogy, social organization, political intrigues, and cultural dislocation as the Iberian and Mesoamerican civilizations collided. As “culture shock” continued to reverberate across the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Inquisition manuscripts reveal the extent of Indian resistance or accommodation to Spanish Catholic culture.
Paper read at XLI International Congress of Americanists, Mexico, D.F., September 5, 1974.
1 For the workings of the Monastic Inquisition under the Omnímoda and Bishop Zumárraga’s inquisitorial ministry from 1536 to 1543, see Greenleaf, Richard E., Zumárraga and the Mexican Inquisition 1536–1543 (Washington, D.C., 1962).Google Scholar For a full analysis of the Episcopal Inquisition and the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition during the sixteenth century, consult Greenleaf, Richard E., The Mexican Inquisition of the Sixteenth Century (Albuquerque, N.M., 1969).Google Scholar
2 Jurisdiction over Indian cases during the entire colonial period is discussed in Greenleaf, Richard E., “The Inquisition and the Indians of New Spain: A Study in Jurisdictional Confusion,” The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, Vol. 22 (1965), pp. 138–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The materials for this article are drawn from Archivo General de la Nación (México) cited as AGN, Archivo General de Indias (Sevilla) cited as AGI, and Archivo Histórico Nacional (Madrid) cited as AHN.
3 For an analysis of missionary pessimism about the spiritual conquest consult, Manrique, Jorge A., “La Epoca Crítica de la Nueva España a Través de Sus Historiadores,” in Investigaciones Contemporáneas sobre la Historia de México (México, 1971), pp. 101–124.Google Scholar
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5 Cline, Howard F., “Reflections on Ethnohistory,” p. 18.Google Scholar See also Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 12 (Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources Part One), pp. 3–15.
6 Edmonson, Munro S., Nativism, Syncretism, and Anthropological Science (New Orleans, La., 1960).Google Scholar
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9 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 1, exp. 1. The trial record has disappeared from the Inquisition archive.
10 See Greenleaf, , Zumárraga and the Mexican Inquisition, pp. 42–75 Google Scholar for a detailed analysis of the Procesos de Indios. Padden, Robert C., The Hummingbird and the Hawk. Conquest and Sovereignty in the Valley of Mexico, 1503–1541 (Columbus, Ohio, 1967),Google Scholar Chapter 13 entitled “Huichilobos and the Bishop” gives a highly speculative interpretation of the trials basing his account on two published compendia of the procesos issued by the Archivo General de la Nación: Proceso Inquisitorial del Cacique de Texcoco (México, 1910), and Procesos de Indios Idólatras y Hechiceros (México, 1912).
11 Scholes, France V. and Adams, Eleanor B., Proceso contra Tzintzicha Tangaxoan El Caltzontzin formado por Nuño de Guzmán. Año de 1530 (México, 1952).Google Scholar
12 See Boletín del Archivo General de la Nación (México), Vol. 11 (1940), pp. 177–194.
13 Supra, note 10.
14 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 37, exp. 1.
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19 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 30, exp. 9.
20 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 37, exp. 4 bis.
21 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 40, exp. 8.
22 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 42, exp. 18.
23 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 40, exp. 2.
24 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 40, exp. 7.
25 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 42, exp. 17.
26 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 2, exp. 10.
27 AGN, Civil, Tomo 1271, exp. 5.
28 See the Proceso of Don Pedro, Cacique of Totolapa, tried for concubinage and idolatry in 1540, AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 212, exp. 7.
29 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 139, exp. 11. See also Cline, Howard F., “The Oztoticpac Lands Map of Texcoco 1540,” The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, Vol. 23 (1966), pp. 76–115.Google Scholar
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33 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 304, exp. 39.
34 Mexico, 1892. Reprinted in Paso, Francisco del y Troncoso, , Tratado de Las Idolatrías, Supersticiones, Dioses, Ritos, Hechicerías, y Otras Costumbres Gentílicas de las Razas Aborígenes de México (Two Tomos; México, 1954).Google Scholar See also AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 303, exp. 19.
35 Ibid., Tomo 2, p. 23.
36 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 303, exp. 38.
37 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 303, exp. 39.
38 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 478, f. 260.
39 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 312, exp. 4.
40 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 289, exp. 2.
41 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 486, fs. 451–458.
42 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 346, exp. 12.
43 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 1552, f. 114.
44 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 372, exp. 14.
45 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 518, fs. 193–197.
46 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 586, exp. 11.
47 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 596, exp. 12.
48 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 699, exp. 10.
49 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 596, exp. 19.
50 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 706, exp. 27.
51 Reprinted in Paso y Troncoso, Tomo I, pp. 40–368.
52 Ibid., pp. 370–380. See, for example, the 1710–1713 trial of José Lázaro of Actopán for sorcery. AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 715, exps. 18 and 19.
53 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 1000, exp. 21, and Tomo 1073, exp. 2.
54 AGN, Reales Cédulas Originales, Tomo 86, exp. 140.
55 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 1168, exp. 16.
56 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 1057, exp. 19.
57 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 1100, exp. 18; Tomo 1145, exp. 26.
58 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 663, exp. 19.
59 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 1421, exp. 30.
60 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 663, exp. 30.
61 For an analysis of the proceedings see “The Indian Inquisition of Tello de Sandoval 1544–1547,” in Greenleaf, , The Mexican Inquisition of the Sixteenth Century, pp. 75–81.Google Scholar
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63 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 42, exp. 20.
64 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 37, exp. 12.
65 See Gay, José Antonio, Historia de Oaxaca (México, 1950), pp. 629–634.Google Scholar
66 AGN, Inquisición. Tomo 249, exp. 23.
67 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 510, exp. 133. The Ololiuqui was a seed gathered from flowers similar to the morning glory. In some areas of New Spain “ololiuqui” probably referred to the hallucination rather than to the drug, and hence was a broad term encompassing seeds, mushrooms, etc.
68 Reprinted in Paso y Tronosco, Tomo II, pp. 338–390.
69 Berlín consulted AGN, Inquisición, Tomos 431, 437, 438, 442, 445, 456, 457, 458, 571, 572, 573, 575, 584.
70 A convenient reprint of this translation is found in Greenleaf, Richard E., The Roman Catholic Church in Colonial Latin America (New York, 1971), pp. 138–147.Google Scholar
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72 Anales del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Vol. 3 (1949), pp. 175–197. The originals are no longer extant.
73 See AGN. Inquisición. Tomo 734, fs. 418–440; Tomo 530, exp. 13.
74 AGN, Inquisición. Tomo 876, exp. 41; Tomo 1256, exp. 10.
75 See Cruz, E. T., “Aún se practica la idolatría en Oaxaca,” Oaxaca en México, Vol. 2 (1939),Google Scholar num. 14, and by the same author, “La hechicería entre los antiguos zapatecos,” Neza, Vol. 2 (1936), pp. 3–5. See also Spores, Ronald M. and Saldaña, Miguel, Documentos para la Etnohistoria del Estado de Oaxaca (Nashville, Tenn., 1973).Google Scholar
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79 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 125, exp. 69.
80 Professor Uchmany extracts procesos from AGN, Inquisición, Tomos 125, 302, 303, and 1256.
81 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 467, fs. 436–442.
82 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 302, exp. 17b.
83 AGN, Inquisición. Tomo 303, fs. 357–365.
84 See his “New Information about Dance-Dramas of Rabinal and the Rabinal-Achí,” Xavier University Studies, Vol. 6 (1967), pp. 1–19, and Two Spanish-Quiché Dance-Dramas of Rabinal (New Orleans, La., 1970). Also valuable is Aguilar, Ernesto Chinchilla, “La Danza del Tum-Teleche o Loj-Tum,” Revista de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala, Vol. 3 (1951), pp. 17–20.Google Scholar
85 Reprinted in Paso y Troncoso, Tomo II, pp. 181–336.
86 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 510, exp. 25.
87 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 354, fs. 205–206.
88 AGN, Inquisición. Tomo 629, exp. 4.
89 See Klein, Herbert S., “Peasant Communities in Revolt: The Tzeltal Republic of 1712,” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 35 (1966), pp. 247–264 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and “Sublevación de los Indios Tzendales Año de 1713,” BAGN, Vol. 19 (1948), pp. 499–535. The latter document on Chiapas is transcribed from AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 746.
90 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 789, exp. 31.
91 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 1256, exp. 1.
92 AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 312.
93 See his appendix IV “Native Ceremonials” drawn from documents in AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 304.
94 See the excellent English translation with extended explanatory notes by Hodge, Frederick W., Hammond, George P. and Rey, Agapito. Fray Alonso de Benavides’ Revised Memorial of 1634 (Albuquerque, Ν.M., 1945).Google Scholar
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97 AGN, Inquisición. Tomo 1345, exp. 11.
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101 AGN. Inquisición, Tomo 1421, exp. 9.
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