The old and the new Peru

by Marie Robinson Wright

The church, chapels, and convents of the Franciscans are the largest and handsomest in Lima. It is said that more than two million dollars were spent in the construction of their principal edifice, which was built in the sixteenth century and reconstructed after the earthquake of 1746, the interior being richly ornamented; the high altar was encased with silver and the niche of the Madonna beautifully wrought of the same material. The cloisters of the convent are supported on stone pillars, the roof being of panel-work, and, with the beams, exquisitely carved. In colonial days it used to be said that the four best offices in Lima were the viceroyalty, the archbishopric, the ecclesiastical province of the Dominicans and the office of the Mother Abbess of Concepcion. This nunnery commanded an income of one hundred thousand dollars annually, the dowry of each nun, on taking the veil, being three thousand dollars. The order of San Agustin built many handsome churches and convents during the viceroyalty, and the church of Nuestra Señora de la Merced (Our Lady of Mercy) is still among the most attractive of the city’s sacred edifices. There are at present sixty-six religious establishments existing in Lima, twelve of which are nunneries, each with its respective church.

CHOIR OF THE CATHEDRAL OF CUZCO.

The Jesuits, who first came to Peru in 1567, were conspicuously noted for their scholarship and their great ability as teachers among the Indians. In every city they established a church and a college; and at Juli, on the border of Lake Titicaca, they founded a training school for missionaries, in 1577. Here the students were taught the native tongues, and were provided with catechisms, grammars, dictionaries, and other text books necessary for their work, the order having introduced the printing press into Peru at that early date. The first book issued from the press of Juli was a catechism, which is now a valued possession of the National Library of Lima. Among their number were some of the most celebrated historians of the Conquest, as well as noted naturalists, geographers, and philologists. Their institutions became renowned, especially those established in Misiones, in the seventeenth century, the ruins of which are visited by hundreds of tourists annually. They accumulated such enormous wealth and their influence was so powerful throughout colonial Spain, that a royal decree of 1769 ordered their banishment. The command of the king was carried out with remarkable secrecy and expedition under the direction of the Viceroy Amat. The chief difficulty threatened the attempt to arrest the Jesuits of the capital and convey them on board the vessel which had been sent to the Peruvian port to receive them. However, the task was completed between midnight and sunrise, the viceroy himself heading the troops,—which were divided into four sections, each with a numerous force of infantry and cavalry—and marching to the four strongholds of the Jesuits in the city, viz., the convent of San Pablo, the Novitiate, the house of the Desamparados and that of the Cercado. As soon as the door of each institution opened, the purpose of the viceroy’s visit was made known and the establishment was placed under guard of the royal troops until the inmates could be taken on board. The same method was followed in Chuquisaca, Potosí, and in Chile, though many of the unfortunate exiles met their death while crossing the snowbound passes of the Andes or in transportation by sea. Sixty were drowned on the voyage from Valparaiso to Callao, and the loss of life from shipwreck and other causes greatly reduced the number who arrived at their destination.

OLD CHURCH AT URCOS.

At the time of their expulsion from Peru, the Jesuits were in possession of the college of San Pablo, the Novitiate, the house of probation of the Cercado, the house of the Desamparados, and the royal colleges of San Martin and the Caciques, in Lima; the colleges of the Transfiguration, San Bernardo, and San Francisco de Borja in Cuzco; the celebrated University of San Francisco Javier and the royal college of San Juan Bautista in Chuquisaca; and colleges in Potosí, Arequipa, Cochabamba, Bellavista, Huancavelica, Huamanga, Ica, Moquegua, Oruro, La Paz, Pisco, and Trujillo, as well as the missions of Mojos and Chiquitos, the residence of Santa Cruz de la Sierra and five parishes of Juli. The landed estates of the Jesuits numbered more than two hundred at the time of their banishment, and were valued at six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It was believed that the order succeeded in hiding vast treasure, and the government made a persistent search, but it has never been found, nor is there anything to prove that all their wealth was not employed in the support of their colleges, missions and other immense and constantly increasing religious establishments. The estates of the banished order were sold at auction, and the proceeds, together with the gold and silver confiscated by the Crown, were used to pay the costs of their deportation, amounting to half a million dollars, the surplus, eight hundred thousand dollars, being sent to the King of Spain. The sacred relics and ornaments of the temples were distributed among the public institutions, and the collections of books were given to the University of Lima to form the basis of a public library. All the revenues of the order reverted to the Crown.

Under the viceroyalty there were five bishoprics subject to the metropolitan See of Lima, the first having been established in Cuzco and the second in Lima, at the time of the Conquest, to which were added those of Trujillo (1611), Arequipa (1612) and Huamanga (1615). In each diocese the ecclesiastical government was divided into parochial districts, under the authority of the priests. The religious labors of the Christian fathers were by no means light during the early days, as the former subjects of the Children of the Sun, though apparently easily converted, confounded the worship of God with that of Pachacámac, giving a most unorthodox interpretation to the dogma of the Trinity and the Immaculate Conception.

The office of the Inquisition was established in Lima during the sixteenth century and its victims included all ranks and classes of society, though the Indians were exempt from its terrors. In the present day, such an institution as the Inquisition seems a blot on religion; but centuries ago, it was regarded as an instrument of great power in keeping the Church free from the contamination of evil beliefs. Its most earnest and relentless supporters were not hypocrites, bent on revenge, but enthusiasts, who believed they were justified in taking even the cruellest measures to protect the faith. The seventeenth century was an intolerant age, and at the same time that the Inquisition was holding the auto de fé with fatal frequency, the Salem Puritans were burning witches, and the Kirk of Scotland was banishing one of its members for having travelled through a Catholic country.

The viceroy Abascal received the order from the Cortes of Spain to abolish the Inquisition in the year 1811; and the hall in which so many judgments had been pronounced contrary to the best laws of human liberty, was abandoned by the Holy Office, to be occupied in years to come by the representative authorities of a government pledged to recognize the right of every man to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The same year that witnessed the abolition of the Santo Oficio, saw the first military gathering of the patriots of Tacna, led by a Limeño, preparing to join the forces of their fellow colonists on the tableland of Alto Peru, where they were to encounter the royalist army.