THE ECCLESIASTICS IN GUATEMALA.
1529-1541.
FRANCISCO MARROQUIN ARRIVES AT SANTIAGO—HE IS APPOINTED
BISHOP—GODLESSNESS OF THE COLONISTS—THE PRELATE INVITES
LAS CASAS TO JOIN HIM—MARROQUIN'S CONSECRATION IN
MEXICO—THE CHURCH AT SANTIAGO ELEVATED TO CATHEDRAL
RANK—DIFFICULTY IN COLLECTING THE CHURCH TITHES—THE
MERCED ORDER IN GUATEMALA—MIRACULOUS IMAGE OF OUR LADY OF
MERCED—BIBLIOGRAPHICAL.
When Pedro de Alvarado was laying waste the fair province of Guatemala
with fire and sword during the early years of the conquest, he paid
little heed to the presence of the priestly order. One of the friars,
named Pontaz, of whom mention has before been made, took up his abode
at Quezaltenango, and there lived in security, instilling faith and
hope into the native heart,[VIII‑1] while another, Juan de Torres, for
a time at least, labored in the vineyard under less easy circumstances
at Patinamit. The spiritual wants of the Spaniards themselves were
ministered to by the army chaplains and parish priest. But the clerical
staff was not large enough to attend to the religious welfare even of
the colonists. On the 5th of November 1529, the cabildo of Guatemala
represented to the royal officers that half the colonists, being
usually engaged in war, required the services of the clergy during
their campaigns, while the population of the city at that time was
such that two friars at least ought to reside there. They requested,
therefore, that a suitable number of ecclesiastics and a sacristan be
appointed with fixed salaries, and that the necessary church furniture
and ornaments be supplied. This demand was made with some urgency, and
the treasurer and auditor were given to understand that, if it were not
complied with, the tithes would be retained and devoted to that purpose;
whereupon his Majesty's officers declared that they were willing to
grant the tithes for the year then current, but that future necessities
must be provided for in accordance with the orders of the king.
[Sidenote: MARROQUIN.]
The spiritual needs of the community were partially relieved by the
arrival, in 1530, of the licentiate Francisco Marroquin, who accompanied
Alvarado on his return to Guatemala during that year. A few months later
he was appointed to the benefice of Santiago, and after he had taken
the customary oaths the cabildo assigned to him an annual salary of one
hundred and fifty pesos de oro per annum.
Of patrician birth, and possessing talents of no common order, the
licentiate gave promise during his early manhood of a useful and
honorable career, and not until in after years he had dwelt long among
communities where lust of power and greed for wealth permeated all
classes of society, did the darker phase of his character appear. After
receiving an education befitting his rank and ability, he graduated
as professor of theology in the university of Osma, and was ordained a
priest. Meeting with Alvarado at the court of Spain, he was so impressed
with his glowing descriptions of the marvels of the New World that
he requested permission to accompany him on his return to Guatemala.
On arriving at Santiago he at once assiduously applied himself to the
study of the native languages, and soon became especially proficient
in the Quiché tongue.[VIII‑2] Marroquin's appointment was confirmed
by the bishop of Mexico, by whom he was also made provisor and vicar
general of the province, and such was the zeal and capacity with which
he tended the spiritual and material needs of his flock that in 1533 he
was appointed by the emperor to the see of Guatemala. In December of
the following year his appointment was confirmed by his holiness Paul
III.[VIII‑3]
The chief anxiety of the newly appointed prelate was to provide a
sufficient number of ecclesiastics for the requirements of his extensive
diocese. The secular priests residing in Guatemala at this period as
we have seen were inadequate to the great work of conversion which
he contemplated, and he felt the necessity of aid from those of the
established orders. Besides those who first came, a few friars had,
indeed, visited the province, but found there no abiding-place.[VIII‑4]
In 1529, or possibly at an earlier date, a convent was founded near
Santiago by the Dominican friar, Domingo de Betanzos,[VIII‑5] who
travelled on foot from Mexico with a single companion. At the beginning
of the following year however he was recalled, and as there was no
one of his order qualified by rank to take his place he locked up the
building and intrusting the keys to the padre Juan Godinez retraced his
steps.
Thus Marroquin was left to contend almost alone with the idolatry of
the natives and the godlessness of the colonists. The work was difficult
and progress slow. The settlers were too absorbed in other matters, in
house-building, gambling, and drinking, to give much heed to religion.
The church was unattended, the church rates were unpaid, and the
neglect became so general that eventually laws were passed to enforce
due observance of religious rites. In May 1530 it was publicly cried in
the streets of Santiago that, by order of the governor and the cabildo,
all the artisans of the city must, on the day of Corpus Christi, walk
in procession before the holy sacrament, as was customary in Spain.
The penalty for non-compliance was fixed at thirty pesos, one half of
the amount being assigned to the church and the remainder to the city.
In February 1533 a law was passed making attendance at divine service
compulsory, every citizen being required to attend mass on Sunday, under
penalty of three days' imprisonment or the payment of three pesos de
oro. This measure of course served but to widen the breach between the
bishop and his flock, and in June of the same year we learn that the
regidor Antonio de Salazar stated to the cabildo, that there were no
means of paying Marroquin the stipend allotted to him. Notwithstanding
all discouragements, however, he resolved that the settlers should not
lack for spiritual guidance.
[Sidenote: LAS CASAS.]
At the beginning of the year 1536 Bartolomé de Las Casas was residing
at Leon, there engaged in a controversy with Rodrigo de Contreras, the
governor of Nicaragua, the story of which will hereafter be related.
In 1531 he had passed through Santiago on his way to the South Sea,
and Marroquin had then an opportunity of making the acquaintance of
the great apostle of the Indies. In common with the more enlightened
of the colonists he would fain have had him take up his abode in their
midst. But Las Casas was bound on one of his many missions of mercy,
though his efforts were destined to prove futile. He was journeying
toward Peru, armed with a royal cédula forbidding the conquerors in that
land, and all their followers, to deprive the natives of their liberty
under any pretext whatever. No entreaties could induce him to abandon
his undertaking, and embarking at Realejo he reached his destination
at the end of the year. There, what man could do, he did; but such were
the political disturbances then prevailing that his efforts were lost.
Urged by members of his own order, he reluctantly abandoned the field
and returned to Nicaragua.
To him the prelate now applied for aid, representing the sore need of
a larger force of ecclesiastics, and begging him to come to Santiago
and reopen the deserted convent. The invitation was accepted, and Las
Casas with his fellow Dominicans established their order permanently in
Guatemala.
But Marroquin was not yet satisfied. At this early period in his career
he was an enthusiast in the missionary cause, and he now resolved to go
to Spain and beg assistance of the emperor. But first he must proceed
to consecration, and on the 12th of January 1537 he set forth for
Mexico, where, about two months later, the ceremony, the first of the
kind that occurred in the Indies, was conducted with due solemnity and
splendor.[VIII‑6]
[Sidenote: ORGANIZATION OF THE DIOCESE.]
The bishop's labors were now directed to the elevation of the parish
church of Santiago to cathedral rank. He therefore proceeded to frame
the constitution and complete the establishment of his diocese in
accordance with the commission granted to him by Paul III. He prescribed
that the dignitaries of the church should include a dean, an archdeacon,
a precentor, a chancellor, and a treasurer. He established ten canonries
and six prebendaries. He defined the church revenues; ordained that
preferment to minor benefices should be open to those born in the
country, whether of Spanish or native race, and that the appointments to
them should pertain to the bishop. Divine services were to be celebrated
in the manner observed in the cathedral of Seville. Prebendaries were
to have a vote in the chapters, and these were to be held on Tuesdays
and Fridays. On Tuesdays general church matters were to be discussed,
and on Fridays internal discipline was to be considered.[VIII‑7]
When on the point of departing for Spain, the bishop was advised by his
friends that the journey would be attended with great risk; for already
the North Sea was infested with pirates, and a large number of Spanish
vessels had been captured by French corsairs. Moreover the expenses he
had incurred in Mexico had drawn heavily on his slender purse, and he
did not wish to return to his native country wholly destitute of means.
Resolving therefore to abandon his voyage, he forwarded his power of
attorney to Juan Galvarro, the procurador of Santiago at the court of
Spain, instructing him to send to Guatemala a number of ecclesiastics
and to pay their passage and outfit. He also addressed a letter to the
emperor,[VIII‑8] informing him of the great need of missionaries, and
stating that he had asked aid both from Mexico and Santo Domingo, but
had received none, although it had been promised.
During the early part of the year Charles had already appointed the
cathedral prebendaries. Marroquin remarks that his Majesty was somewhat
hasty in the matter, and not sufficiently considerate toward those who
had so long shared with himself the labor of supporting the church
at Santiago. These, he declares, it would be unreasonable for him
to dismiss, though he is at a loss to conjecture whence the means to
support his diocese would be derived. He well knew the perverse temper
of the colonists and their antagonism to the cause of the church.
Nevertheless he forwarded to the cabildo a provision handed to him by
the viceroy Mendoza ordering the church tithes which were usually paid
in kind to be delivered by the natives direct to the bishop at places
where their value would be real and available.[VIII‑9] His mind was full
of doubt as to the manner in which this regulation would be received
by the encomenderos. The tone of his letter indicates misgiving, united
with a rare spirit of self-negation, and he appears rather as a pleader
than as a claimant for his rights.[VIII‑10] "You will pay," he says,
"what is due in a proper manner; if not, I command that no scandal be
raised about it."
Nor were his apprehensions unfounded. The settlers in Guatemala were
a stiff-necked people. They would not go to church, and they did not
intend that the delivery of the tithes should cost them anything if
they could avoid it. They could not spare their Indians to carry the
tithes a distance of many leagues to the places appointed. The bishop
must send for them. They and not the ecclesiastics had conquered the
province, and they did not see that either God or the emperor had any
claim upon it. The cabildo immediately appealed to the viceroy, and
meeting with no sympathy in that quarter addressed themselves directly
to the emperor.[VIII‑11] Their representations gained for them some
concessions, whereupon they pressed the matter further and protested
against paying tithes at all. Though the bishop was now at a loss
whither to turn to obtain the means for carrying out his various plans,
he none the less labored with unceasing perseverance,[VIII‑12] and on
his return to Guatemala, at the end of 1537, brought with him two friars
of the order of Merced, Juan Zambrano and Marcos Perez Dardon.[VIII‑13]
[Sidenote: THE FRIARS OF LA MERCED.]
After the conquest of Mexico, certain members of this order obtained
the royal permission to proceed to the newly discovered countries for
certain charitable purposes. When the subjugation was completed many of
them settled in towns built by the Spaniards, but no convent of their
order existed in New Spain at a very early date. To Bishop Marroquin
they are indebted for the establishment of their first monastery in
North America. This was founded in 1537[VIII‑14] at Ciudad Real in
Chiapas, and in the following year frailes Zambrano and Dardon organized
a similar institution in Santiago.
When, as will be hereafter told, the city of Santiago was almost
destroyed by inundation in 1541, the friars of La Merced, then six
in number, were compelled for a time to remain amid the ruins of the
deserted city, for such was the indifference of the settlers that no
land was assigned to them in the site afterward chosen. Finally, through
the efforts of the bishop, an allotment was granted, and in the erection
of their new convent they were greatly assisted by the Dominicans, who
subsequently transferred to them several of the Indian towns under their
charge. From this time they increased in number, gradually extended the
field of their labors in Guatemala, and having districts assigned them
by the bishop were enabled in after years to found convents in various
parts of the country.[VIII‑15]
* * * * *
In the church of their order at Santiago was an image of Our Lady of
La Merced, for which miraculous properties were claimed. The story as
related in documents in the archives of the convent is as follows: As
a westward-bound vessel was about to sail from the port of Santa María
in Spain, a person dressed in the garb of a traveller approached the
captain, and placing in his hands a closed box charged him to deliver
it unopened to the superior of the convent in Guatemala. The aspect and
bearing of the man impressed the seaman, and he faithfully discharged
the commission. On receiving the casket, the superior carried it to
the church, accompanied by the friars, and having opened it in their
presence, the sacred effigy was disclosed. Great was their rejoicing
at this unexpected boon; but their happiness was complete when they
marked the divine serenity of the countenance, and perceived that an
exquisite fragrance was exhaled from the holy image. Ere long one of
their number noticed that from a wound in the right side a strange fluid
oozed. Divine manifestation was recognized, and many of the afflicted
were cured of their diseases by the application of the ichor.[VIII‑16]
* * * * *
Domingo Juarros may be considered the leading Guatemalan historian of
modern times. He was born in the old city of Guatemala in 1752, and
died in 1820. He wrote very fully on the subjugation of his country by
the conquerors. Although his work is called the history of Guatemala
city, it gives in reality the history of all Central America, and
provides lists of all prominent officials, civil and ecclesiastical,
and biographical notices of leading men, whether soldiers, priests,
or rulers. The first volume treats of geography, settlements, church
matters, and the history of Guatemala city. The second is devoted to the
ancient records of the country, its conquest and settlement. The author
was a secular presbyter and synodal examiner, and quite an able and
intelligent man. His connection with the clergy and his rank gave him
access to both ecclesiastical documents and government records. His work
is full and clear, and displays considerable research, but unfortunately
he follows Fuentes too closely, and this latter author's partiality to
the conquerors renders him too biassed to be faithful as an historian.
Yet Juarros frequently displays compassion for the Indians, is always
ready to retract an error when he detects himself making one, and is
ever cautious against dogmatic assertion. He draws largely from Remesal
and Vazquez, and quotes several other of the earlier authorities;
but strangely enough, while mentioning the manuscripts of Gonzalo de
Alvarado and Bernal Diaz, and of writers in the Quiché, Cakchiquel,
and Pipil tongues, he does not allude to Alvarado's letters to Cortés.
This omission, and his numerous direct disagreements with Alvarado's
own statements, lead to the inference that neither Juarros nor Fuentes
consulted these despatches. Juarros' work is remarkably free from
church bias. Though a priest he censures undue zeal or carelessness
on the part of friars. Miracles receive attention, however, and so do
stories of giants and other marvels. His arrangement with regard to
the order of events is bad, and the want of logical sequence gives the
work an appearance of incompleteness. The first edition was published
in Guatemala by Don Ignacio Betela, and the two volumes appeared
respectively in 1808 and 1818. A later issue was published in the same
city in 1857. J. Baily translated the first publication into English,
in a slightly abridged form, which was issued in London by John Hearne
in 1823. In this edition omissions and inaccuracies may be noticed.
[Sidenote: FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ.]
Francisco Vazquez, the author of the _Chronica de la Provincia del
Santissimo Nõbre de Jesvs de Gvatemala_, was a friar of the Franciscan
order, retired lecturer, calificador del Santo Oficio, and synodal
examiner in the diocese of Guatemala. His work was published in the city
of Guatemala in 1714, and according to the title-page and preface there
was, or was to have been, a second volume, consisting of two books,
the existing one containing three. This work, which is rare, although
mainly devoted to chronicling petty details of the labors of obscure
friars, throws much light upon the early history of Guatemala during
the conquest and subsequently down to the end of the sixteenth century.
The author, having had access to the city archives at the early date
at which he wrote, was able to avail himself of documents which have
since disappeared. Fortunately he quotes such evidence frequently, thus
enabling the historian to establish historical facts which otherwise,
in the face of conflicting assertions of chroniclers unsupported by
evidence, he would be unable to do. Vazquez has undoubtedly borrowed
much material from Remesal, giving him little or no credit, while he
mercilessly exposes his real or supposed errors. The jealousy which
existed between the Franciscan and Dominican orders was the cause of
this unfairness. In his opening declaration the author protests that,
when he applies terms of praise to any who figure in his history, he is
but giving the common and general estimation. This will hardly apply to
his adulation of Alvarado and other conquerors, and his eager defence of
their actions. It is not easy to find in the old chroniclers, clerical
or secular, an uncompromising champion of their conduct, in face of
the reliable and varied evidence of the cruelties practised by them.
In defence of the conquerors he asserts that the vices and cruelties
of a few were attributed to all; and without one symptom of feeling for
the natives, maintains that their refusal to receive the faith was the
cause of the incessant warfare. On this subject he writes: "It causes
me much pain, disgust, and affliction to read some books which attempt,
with artificial piety, to persuade us that the Indians were innocent
and inoffensive lambs, and that the Christians were cruel furies, it
being certain that these races while in a condition of paganism were
greater butchers than blood-thirsty wolves, more cruel than lamiæ,
harpies, and infernal furies, and, were it not for subjection and fear,
they would neither have become Christians nor now remain so." 29-32.
The matter contained in his work is badly arranged; the sentences
drawn out to a puzzling length, a fault which, in addition to a lack of
proper punctuation, renders the recital of facts frequently confusing.
Information of the neighboring provinces can, in a less degree, be
obtained from this volume.