REAL. THE INDIANS OF CHIAPA
Although the Bishop of Chiapa, upon landing in his diocese, determined to
follow the dictates of prudence rather than the promptings of zeal in
bringing his spiritual subjects into submission to the New Laws, the
question of Indian slavery was one so closely bound up with their temporal
interests that no moderation or persuasion on his part could have availed
to bring about their renunciation of the established system. In the
first sermons preached by his friars, the subject of slavery was not
mentioned, and Las Casas sought, more by private conversation and argument
with individuals, to convince them of the grave infraction of morals as
well as the open violation of the law, they committed in holding the
Indians in slavery. His arguments fell upon deaf ears, nor did a single
Spaniard accept his admonitions or entertain for a moment the idea of
liberating his slaves. Nor did their resistance confine itself to a
passive form, for within a short time, the colonists openly refused him
obedience and withheld his lawful tithes, declaring that they would not
receive him as their Bishop, and occasioning him every annoyance and
discomfort they could invent. The refusal of his tithes caused the Bishop
serious embarrassment, as it left him without funds to pay for the ship he
had chartered in Hispaniola for his journey to Campeche. The priest of
the town managed to raise about one hundred castellanos for this purpose
and Las Casas signed a note for the remainder.
The Governor of those regions at that time was Francisco de Montejo, who
had played a conspicuous part in the affairs of Mexico, whither he had
gone with Fernando Cortes. He was absent when Las Casas landed at
Campeche and became the object of such general and determined hostility,
and his son was governing in his stead. In response to the announcement
of the Bishop’s presence, the Governor despatched his brother-in-law, who
was a person of some authority, to welcome the Bishop, instructing him to
treat him in all respects with the highest consideration and in case he
wished to come to Merida, to arrange everything necessary for his journey
thither.
It was decided to make the journey by sea rather than by the more
difficult overland route, and one boat-load of friars sailed, carrying a
large part of the stores, which included vestments and altar plate and
other church furnishings. Hardly were the preparations for the departure
of the Bishop and the remainder of his people completed, when the
distressing news of the total loss of this vessel and its cargo reached
them from Champoton, an Indian village, where the few survivors of the
wreck had found refuge. Nine friars and twenty-three other persons
perished in this disaster, the news of which threw a heavy cloud of
sadness over the little band of missionaries. Thousands of miles from
their native land and in a new world, these men were sustained solely by
their faith in their mission and their confidence in the leadership of
their venerable Bishop, for they were not only cut off from hope of
succour but were exposed to the persecutions of their own countrymen,
because of their zeal for justice, in defending the oppressed against
cupidity and cruelty. Despite the many causes for discouragement Las
Casas decided, on the advice of the pilot of the ship that was to carry
them, to profit by the fair weather then prevailing, and set the example
to the others of going first on board the vessel. The friars followed in
silence, and so entirely were their thoughts given to the premature fate
of their lost comrades, that the whole of that night and the following day
were passed in silence and prayer: when the ship reached the place where
the wreck had occurred, the prayers for the dead were solemnly recited by
the tearful company. This becoming tribute rendered to the memory of the
departed, Las Casas seated himself at table and, setting the others a
wholesome example, he began to eat, for until then no one had had the
heart to touch food. The weather suddenly changed for the worse and a
perilous Norther, which was the greatest enemy of navigation in those
waters, sprang up, forcing the vessel to put in at the island of Terminos,
where some fragments of the wreck were found, but the sea had given up no
dead. Three days passed in waiting for better weather, and though Las
Casas desired to re-embark and continue the voyage, Fray Tomas Casillas
was in favour of waiting for the shipwrecked people at Champoton to
overtake them, and then to continue the journey overland. This difference
of opinion led to a division of the company, the Bishop re-embarking with
Father Ladrada and a few of the others, while the majority were left to
follow the overland route.
The chief city of the diocese of Chiapa was Ciudad Real, and the Bishop,
on his arrival, was accorded a warm welcome and was lodged in one of the
best houses in the place, belonging to a Spaniard who was absent at that
time, while the friars were accommodated in another, just opposite. The
clergy of the immense diocese was scanty enough, being composed of two
priests in that town and three others elsewhere; of these latter common
report did not speak well, as their secular occupations and efforts to
enrich themselves brought discredit upon their clerical character. The
cathedral was a small church, of poor construction and meagrely furnished
with the necessaries for celebrating the religious offices. One of the
new Bishop’s first disciplinary acts was to summon the three vagrant
priests to Ciudad Real, where he might constrain them to a more sacerdotal
life under his immediate authority. Las Casas lived according to the
strict rule of his Order, eating only fish, eggs, and vegetables, and,
though he permitted meat to the others who sat at his table, there was so
little to tickle the palate of the epicure that two out of the three
renounced allegiance to their Bishop and betook themselves beyond the
confines of his diocese where they speedily fell into evil ways. His life
at this period was one of truly apostolic simplicity; although seventy
years old, his habits were as frugal and austere as those of any
anchorite. Towards the Spanish colonists he at first manifested mild and
affectionate sentiments, which blinded them so entirely to the indomitable
energy and fearless spirit that animated him, that they, on their part,
showed themselves obsequious and generous. The deception was mutual, and
disillusion only awaited the moment when the material interests of the
Spaniards should be touched, to declare itself. Slavery flourished
throughout the diocese, to the great affliction of the Bishop: he first
sought by private conversations with the principal persons of the colony,
by arguments, explanation of the New Laws and of the Emperor’s wishes, to
effect the liberation of the Indians, but failing in this, he next
preached publicly on the subject. No headway was made by one or the other
means employed, while shocking cruelties were of daily occurrence and the
Indians, who recognised the Bishop as their only protector and advocate,
brought him tales of their sufferings which left him no choice but to have
recourse to stronger measures.
The Easter season of 1545 was approaching, and the fulfilment of the
precept of confession, which marks the farthermost frontier of Catholic
observance, within which even the most lax must remain under penalty of
excommunication ipso facto, afforded the Bishop his opportunity. He
withdrew from all his clergy, except the dean and canon of his cathedral
church, their faculties for granting absolution, reserving to himself all
questions involving the relations of the Spaniards to the Indians. He
furnished the two appointed confessors with a detailed list of cases in
which not merely the questions of holding slaves and cruel treatment were
involved, but likewise those which had to do with the right to hold
property acquired unjustly from the natives and by violation of the law.
This treatise was doubtless the same that was published in 1552 entitled
_Confesionario_, etc., or in any case it contained the root doctrines of
which that tract may have been an elaboration. Both upon the ability and
the fidelity of the two confessors he had selected, the Bishop felt he
could rely, but in the case of the Dean he was again mistaken in his
choice, for in certain of the reserved cases the latter declared that he
found no grounds, either in canon law or in any authorities, for his
Bishop’s decision. The Mercedarian friars, who also had a community in
the diocese, were likewise opposed to the severity of the Bishop, and as
none of the colonists were disposed to ruin themselves by liberating the
Indians, the situation was a grave one for a Catholic community, for no
matter how little in conformity with the Church’s teaching were the daily
lives of many, excommunication was intolerable to all of them.
Remonstrances and petitions against his trenchant decision poured in upon
the Bishop, and the Dean, supported by the Mercedarians, undertook to
intercede for the Spaniards and, if possible, to obtain some relaxation of
the obnoxious ruling. Their efforts were vain, for the simple reason that
Las Casas held that it was not within his competence to recede from his
decision without practically denying his life’s mission. As the tension
became daily more severe, the colonists addressed to the Bishop, a formal
“requirement” drawn up by a notary public, containing arguments to support
their claims, based on the terms of the Bull of Alexander VI. and
threatening, if he persisted in refusing them the sacraments, to appeal to
his metropolitan, the Archbishop of Mexico, and ultimately to the Pope:
meanwhile they would denounce him to the King and his Council as a
disturber of the public peace and a formenter of dissensions and troubles
in the country. To this threat the Bishop answered: “O blind men! How
completely does the devil deceive you! Wherefore do you threaten me with
your complaints to the Archbishop, to the Pope, and to the King? Know
then that though I am obliged by the law of God to do as I do, and you to
obey what I tell you, you are likewise constrained thereunto by the most
just laws of your sovereign, since you think yourselves such faithful
vassals to him.” After reading some of the articles of the New Laws
forbidding slavery to them, he continued: “According to this, it is I who
might much better complain of you, for not obeying your King.” The
situation was a deadlock, for the Bishop was immovable, neither would the
Spaniards give way. From murmuring against his decision and questioning
his authority to impose such unreasonable and ruinous commands, they
passed to calumny and ridicule, and as these weapon are forged by evil
imaginations and their exercise is unhampered by the restrictions of
truth, many fantastic accusations were invented against Las Casas, and
diligently circulated. The most frugal and abstemious of men was accused
of gluttony and intemperance; his learning, which was certainly varied if
not vast and was by no means mediocre, was declared to be superficial and
insufficient to enable him to properly weigh nice questions of theology
and law, and finally it was insinuated that some of his opinions were
heretical and that his refusal to allow the sacraments of penance and the
eucharist in his diocese proceeded from his dissembled Lutheranism. As a
hint of what might overtake him if he persisted in his course, a musket
was fired into the window of his room one night. Even the children were
taught scurrilous couplets which they sang at him, when he appeared in the
streets: only his Dominicans remained faithful to him in this difficult
season and their fidelity, though doubtless a source of great consolation
to him, had for its chief visible effect, to involve the friars in the
popular execration visited on the Bishop. It was a repetition of the
incidents in Hispaniola, for likewise in Chiapa the people turned against
the friars, refraining from their ministrations and refusing them alms and
support. (57)
The first act of open rebellion came from the Dean, who administered the
communion during Holy Week to various persons who not only continued to
hold their Indians in spite of the Bishop’s remonstrances and admonitions,
but were notoriously engaged at that very time in buying and selling
slaves. The disobedience of his subordinate could not be left unnoticed
and the bishop resolved to reprimand him, but paternally, in presence of
the other clergy, as an example. This intention was more easily formed
than executed, for the Dean refused to appear, although the first summons
came in the form of an invitation to dinner: three times was the summons
repeated but each time, on one pretext or another, it was evaded, until
there only remained to summon him officially and to censure his violation
of his Bishop’s instructions and his refusal to appear before him. As
even this severe measure left him unmoved, Las Casas ordered his arrest
and sent his alguacil and some of the clergy to bring the recalcitrant
Dean before him. The news of what was passing had spread through the town
and when the diocesan authorities went to make the arrest, quite a crowd
of people had collected to see the outcome of the ecclesiastical duel.
The appearance of the Dean, being conducted by force to answer to the
Bishop for disobedience that had been prompted by his compliance to the
Spaniards’ desires, provoked a demonstration in his favour. He, seeing
his opportunity, began to call for help, crying: “Help me to get free,
gentlemen, and I’ll confess everybody! Get me free and I’ll absolve all of
you!” A great hubbub ensued; men armed themselves to attack the Bishop’s
alguacil; some barricaded the Dominicans in their convent to prevent their
coming to the assistance of the arresting party, others freed the Dean
from his captors, and thus, with great uproar and shouts for the King and
his justice against the Bishop, the mob arrived at the latter’s house,
into which a crowd forced its way with clamorous disorder.
A gentleman named Rodriguez de Villafuerte, who was in the ante-chamber in
company with Fray Domingo de Medinilla, managed to somewhat calm the
turbulence of the people. The leaders of the mob burst into the room
beyond, where Fray Domingo had insisted that the Bishop should remain,
instead of coming out to face the rioters as he wished, insulting him in
the coarsest language and even threatening to kill him. The storm of
popular fury broke itself against the imperturbable serenity and
inflexible determination with which Las Casas met and dominated it.
Though the crowd dispersed, cowed and sullen, to their houses, the
murmuring continued, and the friars dared not leave their convents, for
fear of provoking a fresh outbreak.
The Bishop cancelled the ecclesiastical faculties of his Dean and
excommunicated him.
The man who had threatened to kill Las Casas was the same one who had once
before fired a musket shot through the Bishop’s window, by way of warning
him, and as he was known for a hot-headed reckless person, the friars were
seriously apprehensive lest he might execute his threat; they begged Las
Casas to leave and go to a place of safety. “Where,” he asked in reply,
“would you, Fathers, have me go? Where shall I be safe as long as I act
in behalf of these poor creatures? Were the cause mine, I would drop it
with pleasure, but it is that of my flock, of these miserable Indians,
wearied and oppressed by unjust slavery and insupportable tributes, which
others of my flock have imposed upon them. Here I wish to remain; this
church is my spouse, it is not mine to abandon. This is the purpose of my
residence [here]. I wish to irrigate it with my blood, if they take my
life, so that zeal for God’s service may be absorbed by the very ground I
hold, to make it fertile, to bring forth the fruit of desire—the end of
the injustice that stains and infects it. This is my wish, this is my
determined resolve, and I shall not be so fortunate that God will permit
the inhabitants of this city to fulfil it; other times have I found myself
in greater dangers and, because of my unworthiness, God has withheld from
me the crown of martyrdom. These disturbances, and the hatred of the
conquerors for me, are of ancient date; I no longer feel their insults nor
fear their threats, and in comparison with what has happened to me in
Spain and the Indies, those of the other day were very moderate.”
Against such steadfast resolution, the colonists could not hope to
prevail, and one of the first results of the violent attack upon the
Bishop, was a certain reaction in public sentiment when calmer Judgment
reasserted itself. There was even some counter demonstration, and the
news was brought to Las Casas that the man who had threatened to kill him
had himself been badly mauled and beaten. The Bishop was the first and
most assiduous of the injured man’s visitors, even preparing with his own
hands, bandages and ointments to dress his hurts. Such charity and
abnegation could not but touch even the rude object of these attentions,
and after repeatedly begging the Bishop’s forgiveness for his recent
violence, the man attached himself to him from thenceforth, and became one
of his warmest defenders.
Nevertheless, the attacks on the Bishop and on the friars did not lessen
for long, nor was the resentment against them diminished amongst the
greater number of the colonists, who pushed their reprisals to such an
extent that, not only were the priests reduced to the barest necessities
of life, but even wine for the celebration of mass was wanting and
unobtainable. To remedy this necessity, Indians were sent out into the
province to beg for the friars, but the Spaniards learned of this measure
and, after forbidding the natives to give them anything, they seized
whatever these messengers obtained in spite of the prohibition, and gave
them a sound beating as a preventive of any future excursions.
Existence in such surroundings was no longer possible, and the friars
resolved to leave Ciudad Real. They sent out four of their number in
advance, after which Fray Tomas de la Torre announced from the pulpit
their intention to abandon the convent and the reasons which forced them
to go.
Learning from those who had gone ahead that they had been well received in
Chiapa, and that everything seemed propitious for the foundation of a
convent there, the community prepared to follow. Before definitely
abandoning Ciudad Real, it was thought well to deliver a final address to
the people, explaining clearly and fully the righteousness of their
doctrine concerning slavery. This discourse was pronounced by Fray Alonso
de Villabra, who cited many authorities to show that the iniquity of
slavery was beyond dispute and that it was condemned by the laws of God
and man alike. The sermon failed to convince the hostile and unwilling
listeners, whose interests were bound up in slavery, and the only result
of this last well-meant effort was to intensify, if possible, the
irritation against the Bishop and the friars.
The reception of this interesting band of apostolic men by the people of
Chiapa, was in striking contrast to the menacing demonstrations which
provoked and accompanied their departure from Ciudad Real. More than a
league outside the town, the exiles found a large number of Indians,
decked out in their best gold ornaments and plumes, carrying crosses made
of feathers and flowers, awaiting their arrival, to escort them to the
quarters prepared for them.
As soon as the Bishop was housed, an immense number of natives came from
all parts of the neighbourhood, begging to be taught the Christian
religion. The joy of the tormented Bishop at this demonstration may be
imagined, and he urged the friars, after such proofs of the disposition of
the Indians to receive the faith, to send to persuade other religious to
come and join them in the work of converting the willing people.
The Spaniard who held the encomienda of Chiapa was an astute person, in
reality quite as vicious as any of the others but more adroit in
concealing his evil doings; he found small difficulty in deceiving the
simple friars and, by showing them hospitality and professing great
respect for the New Laws, he succeeded in persuading them that he was
their friend and protector. The harmony of their relations could not
however remain long undisturbed; from professing friendship he passed to
more or less open acts of hostility, and from flattery he resorted to
calumny. An incident which occurred may serve admirably to illustrate the
deceptions practised by the colonists on the ignorant Indians. One of the
more intelligent of the natives came one day to the Dominicans and spoke
as follows:
“Fathers, behold we are becoming bewildered. Our master told us when you
came, that he had written a letter to the Emperor _his brother_ [sic]
asking that you be sent to say Mass for us and that it was by his order
that you came to live amongst us. Since then, he tells us that you are
poverty-stricken people, who come here to be supported by our labour,
because you have not enough to eat in your own country. He has forbidden
us to give you the ground for your convent and to allow the church to be
altered. You, on the other hand, tell us we should not call him our
master, for no man other than God whom you preach, is that; you tell us,
also, that this man is a mortal like ourselves, subject to the Emperor,
King of Castile, and that the Alcaldes at Ciudad Real may punish him. He
tells us that he is next to God and has no master in the world. I don’t
understand you; you speak ill of our master; he speaks ill of you, and
with all this we see you going about together good friends, neither of you
daring to speak in the other’s presence of what each tells us in the
other’s absence. If you are honest, speak clearly, for we are in a cloud
of smoke from your manner of proceeding.” (58)