CHAPTER III. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DOMINICAN AND FRANCISCAN OR DERS IN NEW SPAIN.-LIFE OF DOMINGO DE BETANZOS. LEAVING for a time the rising town of Guate mala, where the inhabitants were so busy in considering their new possessions, discovering mines, making slaves, and breeding cattle-which multiplied in the most marvelous manner-that a year, we are told, passed almost without their perceiving it, we must turn to a greater subject even than the conquest of New Spain and Guatemala, namely, the spiritual occupation of these new countries. Hitherto, though there had generally been priests and chaplains in the invading armies (there was one in each of Alvarado's expeditions), these men had been able to effect but little, in the dense mass of heathenism to which they had been opposed, beyond the mere destruction of idols and of temples. But when, in 1522, news arrived in Spain of the conquest of Mexico, and when Cortez, who was a devout man, prayed in his letters to the Emperor to have religiosos sent out for converting the Indians, the matter was taken seriously in hand. It happened, too, that just about the time that these letters arrived, Antonio Montesino, already well known to the readers of this history, and Thomas Ortiz, Dominican monks of the convent in the island of Hispaniola, were at the court of Spain, probably engaged in some negotiation for the good of the Indians. Charles the Fifth was Dominicans and Franciscans sent to New Spain. 257 absent, having gone to Germany to receive the imperial crown. The Bishop of Burgos, as may be recollected, had recovered his power in the Council of the Indies, and he was cold about this business, as he would have been about any thing that Cortez recommended, for the bishop favored Velazquez and disapproved of Cortez. Fortunately for the New World, this ungodly prelate died about this time; and the reader will remember that Garcia de Loaysa, a Dominican, Bishop of Osma and Confessor to the Emperor, was appointed President of the Council of the Indies, having really enjoyed the power attached to this office for some little time beforehand. It was then resolved by the Indian Council that twelve Dominicans and twelve Franciscans should be sent to New Spain. The prelate named for the twelve Franciscans was Martin de Valencia. The prelate of the twelve Dominicans, with the title of Vicar General, was Tomas Ortiz. It was arranged that Antonio Montesino should stay in the island of Hispaniola, but his superiors gave him six monks of his order to found a convent in the island of San Juan. The Emperor, or his officers acting in his name, provided all these monks with robes of serge, a material which they chose in order to make demonstration of their poverty. Charles also furnished them with all that was necessary for their voyage. The Franciscans and Dominicans were to go together, in order to show their brotherly feeling; and they were all at San Lucar, ready to sail, when a message came from the Bishop of Osma to Tomas Ortiz requiring him to return to court. A junta was about to be formed of learned and conscientious persons (de sciencia y consciencia) to discuss the question of Indian 258 Reception of the Franciscans by Cortez. slavery; and the advice of Father Tomas, as a man of experience in the Indies, would be required. He was obliged to obey this command, and accordingly he delegated his authority of vicar general to Antonio Montesino, who was to convey the Dominican monks to the convent at San Domingo in Hispaniola, and there await Tomas Ortiz's arrival. The Franciscans and Dominicans set sail together. The Dominicans were landed in Hispaniola; the Franciscans pursued their course to New Spain. They had a prosperous voyage, and, landing at Vera Cruz, took their way to Mexico, where they arrived two days before Whit-Sunday in the year 1524. They were well received by Cortez, whom they met on the road, as he was commencing his expedition to Honduras. Cortez, from his natural feelings of respect for these good men, and also from a desire to impress that respect upon his own men and upon the natives, knelt down before the Franciscan fathers, and kissed their robes in the most reverent manner. The Indians, noticing the povertystricken appearance of the monks, uttered the word, “Motolinia, motolinia," meaning "poor," an epithet that was immediately adopted by one of these Franciscan monks, Father Toribio Paredes de Benavente, who became very celebrated,* and was ever afterward called Father Toribio Motolinia. These Franciscans, however, were not the first of * He wrote a work, of which the following is the title: "FR. TORIB10 DE BENAVENTE, Ó MOTOLINIA, FRANCISCANO, de las Costumbres de los Indios, en Latin, MS. Otro Libro he visto de este Autor, cuio Título es: Relacion de las Cosas, Idolatrías, Ritos, í Ceremonias de la Nueva-España, MS., fol." PINELO, Epitome de la Bibliotheca Occidental, Título 17. Historias de los Indios Occidentales, p. 711, Madrid, 1738. This Relacion is probably the letter before referred to, which is to be found in Sir Thomas Phillipps's library. Franciscans already in New Spain. 259 their order who had arrived in New Spain, though they were probably the first that were sent out officially. Two years previously, five Franciscans had come to New Spain, three of whom were Flemings. The two Spaniards died very soon; the three Flemings survived to welcome their brethren; and one of them, Peter of Ghent, became, as we shall hereafter see, one of the most useful and distinguished men in the community. To return to the Dominicans. The business for which Tomas Ortiz had been summoned to court was not settled speedily; and, indeed, he was detained* during the whole of the year 1525. It was about this time that the Licentiate Luis Ponce de Leon was appointed to take a residencia of Cortez. The Vicar of the Dominicans thought that it would be advisable for him and his brethren to accompany the licentiate. * From another and a very truthful source we learn what counsel the monks gave when consulted by Charles's ministers for Indian affairs. "Sed audi, quid inter nos versetur. De Indorum libertate, super qua variæ sunt opiniones diu discussæ. Nihil adhuc repertum conducibile. Jura naturalia Pontificiaque jubent ut genus humanum omne sit liberum. Imperiale distinguit. Usus adversum aliquid sentit. Longa experientia hoc censet, ut servi sint, non liberi autem hi, quod à natura sint in abominabilia vitia proclives; ad obscœnos errores, ducibus et tutoribus deficientibus, ilico revertuntur. Accitos in Senatum nostrum Indicum bicolores Dominicanos fratres, et pede nudos Franciscanos illarum partium longo tempore colonos, quid fore putent, satius consuluimus. Nihil à re magis alienum sanxerunt, quam quod liberi relinquantur. Latius et hæc et quæ referent in particularibus. Nunc satis. Vale. Ex Mantua Carpentana (Matrito) viii. Calendas Martii, M.D.XXV.”—P. MARTYR, Epist., lib. xxxviii., ep. 806. It is to be noticed here that the Dominicans and the Franciscans were then of the same mind, and, apparently, adverse to the liberty of the Indians. The monks still remembered, and drew the most unjust conclusions from, those fatal proceedings on the coast of Cumaná, which had ended in the destruction of the Franciscan and Dominican monasteries, and the ruin of Las Casas's scheme of colonization. 260 Arrival of Dominicans at Mexico. They accordingly embarked together on the 2d of February, 1526. Tomas Ortiz had with him seven Dominican monks. When he arrived at San Domingo, he found that three of his monks there were dead, and that among the survivors the ardor for going to New Spain had grown somewhat cool, by reason of the rumors which had reached them of the confusion which prevailed in the government of that country. Still, however, they resolved to prosecute their original intention; and setting sail at the end of May, and having a passage which was very swift for those times, they arrived in nineteen days at Vera Cruz. Making their way slowly from thence, they arrived at Mexico some day in July of that year. They, too, were very well received by the whole city, and found hospitable entertainment in the Franciscan monastery ruled over by Martin de Valencia. the The arrival of these communities is one of the most important events that took place in that part of world. The clergy, every where powerful in that age were doubly so in a newly-discovered country, where they would naturally take a much larger part in human affairs than they did even at home. Here, in the Indies, they not only taught spiritual things, but temporal also. They converted, they civilized, they governed; they were priests, missionaries, schoolmasters, kings. It is allowed even by Las Casas that Mexico presented a favorable appearance as regards the conquered races-more favorable, at least, than the other dominions of Spain in the Indies.* A considerable * "Puesto que en unas partes son (las tiranías) mas fieras, y abominables que en otras. México, y su comarca está un poco menos malo, ó donde á lo menos no se osa hazer públicamente; porque allí, y no en |