_On the Confraternity of la Misericordia_
Your Majesty gives commands in a letter dated the seventeenth of
April, 1606, for information to be sent regarding the nature of the
Confraternity of La Misericordia of this city, when and with what
official license it was organized, its constitution, the amount
of its income and the manner in which the income is distributed,
the good results which have followed from the establishment
of the Confraternity, and what are its constitutions [_i.e._,
rules of organization]. Your Majesty also asks that a copy of these
constitutions be sent, and information as to whether the present income
of the Confraternity is sufficient for its purposes, and whether some
grant may properly be made to it; and, if so, the amount and form of
grant that would be suitable--so that your Majesty may be furnished
with full information on the whole matter. Since, as has been stated,
the departure of these vessels is so near at hand, a copy of the
constitutions of the Confraternity is not sent, but a summary of them,
which is enclosed. Your Majesty will see by this abstract that the
works to which this Confraternity is dedicated are those of great
charity and of service to God our Lord. To all such works it attends
with great fervor, using the charitable gifts which are bestowed
for this purpose. Although this Audiencia asked the brethren of the
Confraternity to make a statement of the manner in which your Majesty
might make them a grant, and as to the amount thereof, they were unable
to discover any way in which the grant could be made; nor could this
Audiencia perceive any, so much exhausted and indebted is the treasury
of your Majesty. Accordingly, your Majesty may make such grant as
shall please your Majesty, which will be well employed by them, and
much to the service of God and your Majesty. [_In the margin_: "There
is no answer. Let a copy of this section be given to the secretary,
Señor Contreras, that he may know the deliberations and decree."]
The activity of the Confraternity of La Misericordia in this city
began fourteen years ago. At that time the governor associated with
himself some twelve of the chief persons here, and they gave every
week from their own households what was necessary for the support
of widows, the poor, persons in secret distress, and others in
pressing need. This they continued to do until they received the
rules governing the Confraternity in the city of Lisboa, where it was
first established. By these rules they have been governed ever since,
the number of brethren being now a hundred and fifty.
1. In the first place, knowing that women, both Spanish and mestizas,
suffered greatly in case of sickness, for lack of a hospital in which
to be treated, the Confraternity determined to establish one, which
is still called the hospital of La Misericordia. They bought land
and erected a building with the money given in alms; and they pay the
expense of keeping a physician and a surgeon, of medicines, and of the
maintenance of two Franciscan religious, who administer the sacraments
and care for the welfare of the souls of the patients. In addition,
the Confraternity has made up for the lack of a hospital for slaves
by setting apart some rooms where slaves go to be cared for, and are
attended to with special care of both their bodies and their souls.
2. The principal matter to which the Confraternity gave its attention
from the first was the succor of needy persons who committed themselves
to its protection--as widows, married persons, orphans, cripples,
and deserted persons of good life. To them the Confraternity give
what is necessary for their daily support. This matter is attended to
once a week by two brethren who give them aid in their own houses,
within and without the walls of the city, doing the work with all
the secrecy in the world. Upon this are spent weekly sixty or seventy
pesos, more or less, according to the amount of contributions received.
3. The Confraternity has always attended to the support of the poor
in the prison. A brother is assigned to this duty, who causes food
for the poor prisoners to be prepared daily at his own house, and
takes care to have it sent to them with great regularity. He also
provides the said prison with water sufficient for the prisoners,
which is their greatest want. [38] Thus they alleviate the misery
of the prisoners. The said prison is always attended by one of the
brethren of high station, that he may attend to the care and prompt
decision of the cases of poor prisoners.
4. This Confraternity attends to providing a shelter for the daughters
of poor conquistadors and colonists, and for other women whom they
consider thus in need; and has placed them in a seminary in this city,
supporting them there until they enter the married state, and then
it gives them assistance according to their rank.
5. The Confraternity takes great care to place orphan boys where
they may be cared for, and to protect them. Those who desire to
give themselves to exercises of virtue and learning it places in a
college of the Society of Jesus, paying for each one a hundred pesos
for his board.
6. The Confraternity also aids with clothing, which it collects from
charitable persons, which the said brethren give to both men and
women, who would suffer greatly without this assistance and care,
from lack of clothes. Many women would not go to mass for lack of
cloaks and other things needed, if this alms were not given them.
7. It gives aid to many sick persons who, as incurable and beyond
remedy, are discharged from the royal hospital--the physicians
directing them, if they wish to recover, to go to certain baths
about twelve leguas from the city. [39] They are assisted to do this,
that they may recover their health.
8. Every week when they hold their meeting and assembly they give
assistance to many persons who do not receive continued assistance,
and they also aid many who are on their way to Nueva España--discharged
ensigns, sergeants, and soldiers. These are assisted in proportion to
their rank, as their need and their service to your Majesty are known.
9. The Confraternity has also given aid outside of this city, by
sending to the provinces of Pintados much aid to the Portuguese,
of both the higher and the lower classes, who by the destruction of
Maluco and Ambueno by the Dutch have been obliged to come to these
regions with their families and households. Without this assistance
they would have suffered severer privations.
10. It has undertaken to provide persons to go [_i.e._, to the
scaffold] with those who suffer under the law, and to bury them;
and it takes up the dismembered bodies of those who have suffered,
and the bodies of the drowned, burying them in consecrated ground
with much care, and showing honor to their bodies and bones, thus
greatly edifying the natives.
11. It attends with the necessary secrecy to securing reconciliations
between persons at enmity--sometimes of husbands with their wives,
and sometimes between other persons; and thus the brethren bring to
an end many evils and prevent injuries. They likewise correct many
persons of vices of which they have secret knowledge, which without
doubt greatly redounds to the service of God our Lord.
12. It attends to the execution of many wills, which are entrusted to
it by persons who leave their property to be distributed for pious
works and for chaplaincies. Leaving the matter in the care of this
Confraternity, they feel certain that their trusts will be executed
forever. It is a great consolation to them to know that the execution
has been accepted by the Confraternity. In particular, the execution of
the wills of poor persons who leave heirs in Nueva España and España,
and in Yndia, is accepted by the Confraternity.
13. All of these works of charity are performed by the said
Confraternity from the alms which are received from the citizens, from
the brethren, and from persons who at death leave them bequests because
they see how well is allotted and spent that which is collected. The
income is obtained with much pains, because of the smallness of the
population. Should your Majesty make a grant to the Confraternity,
it could accomplish more in caring for cases of need which every day
occur, requiring aid and claiming pity.
_Pedro Hurtado Desquivel_, clerk of court.
This is an accurate copy of the original section:
_Juan Lopez de Hernani_