planting the faith – some inspiring images and...
TRANSCRIPT
Planting the Faith – Some inspiring images and quotations
-‐ The sui generis uses of a convent in New Spain (Fr. Diego Valadés, Rhetorica Christiana, 1579) and the Quinatzin Map (mid-‐sixteenth century), showing the palace of Texcoco as it was remembered in the glory days of prince Nezahualcoyotl (1429–1472); central panel, after Jules Desportes’ copy of 1849. ‘they used to acknowledge [that the Spaniards were their lords] and they did so because that had been their custom but they were told by the friars that we were not lords but macehuales, which means common people, and that the lords remained in Spain.’
-‐ Spanish conquistador Jeronimo López in a letter to the crown c.1548. ‘Greatest defender of the Christian faith, indefatigable fighter against the assaults of infidels and heretics…always engaged in fighting barbarous nations, infidels and idolaters of demons… In pacifying the defeated, illuminating them and finally winning them for Christ, which Your Majesty has done amongst us…This very thing gives us the greatest consolation encourages us to be in good spirits and convinces us that there is no reason to fear addressing Your Majesty by letter’
-‐ Antonio Cortés Totoquihuaztli tlatoani (prince) of Tacuba 1540s
‘…we were baptised and made Christians and received the faith and Christian customs with the most complete free will, which, when compared with our previous style of life, we found that our former life was all lies and trickery…knowing this great equality, truth, honesty and goodness of Christianity we are determined to subject ourselves to it and keep it and work for it…’
-‐ The tecuhtli (lords) of Huexotzinco to the viceroy, 1555 ‘We and those under our care need protection and succour from your majesty for the many grievances and molestations that we receive from the Spaniards because they live amongst us and us amongst them’.
-‐ The tecuhtli (lords) of Mexico, Tacuba and Texcoco, 1554. ‘Oh Mexico, mountain crowned…you were [before the conquest] a Babylon full of confusions and evil. You came and you went as you pleased, guided by the will of a gentile tyrant who executed barbarous laws in you; now you are another Jerusalem mother of provinces and kingdoms…more does your subjection to the invincible Caesar Charles ennoble and aggrandise you than the tyrannous lordship with which in the past you wished to subject everyone else.’
-‐ Fr. Toribio de Benavente, or Motolinía, Motolinia Historia de los Indios de Nueva España.
-‐ A depiction of the polity of Tlaxcala taken from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala (copy of lost document from the 1540s). Montezuma shows Cortés the throne room of the Aztec ‘royal palace’ by Miguel Gonzales (‘Enconchado’ series La Conquista de Mexico late 17th century)