No Spaniard of them all was more powerfully influenced by these motives than the good Queen Isabella. At the bidding of her confessor she set up the Inquisition, for the destruction of heretics; she consented to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and the virtual confiscation of their property. She gave encouragement to the enterprise of Columbus, in the hope of extending the empire of the Church over benighted nations. The King himself stated, in later years, that the conversion of Indians was the chief purpose of the conquest. The Queen sent missionaries to begin this great work so soon as she heard of the discovery. In all her official correspondence her chief concern is avowedly for the spiritual interests of her new subjects. Columbus tells, in regard to his second voyage, that he was sent “to see the way that should be taken to convert the Indians to our holy faith.” He was instructed “to labour in all possible ways to bring the dwellers in the Indies to a knowledge of the holy Catholic faith.” Twelve ecclesiastics were sent with him to share in these pious toils. A little later, when the overthrow of Columbus was sought by his enemies, one of their most deadly weapons was the charge that he did not baptize Indians, because he desired slaves rather than Christians.
Favoured thus by the general sentiment of the mother country, the Church quickly overspread the colonies and appropriated no inconsiderable share of their wealth. Within four years there were monasteries already established.[54] Within one hundred years there were twelve hundred nunneries and monasteries. There was a full equipment of patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, prebends, abbots, chaplains, as well as parish priests. There were monks of every variety—Franciscans, Dominicans, Jeronymites, Fathers of Mercy, Augustines, Jesuits. In Lima it was alleged that the convents covered more ground than all the rest of the city. 1644 A.D. From Mexico there came a petition to the King praying that no new monasteries should be allowed, as these institutions, if suffered to increase, would soon absorb the whole property of the country. Wherever the Spaniards went they hastened to erect churches. While the conquest of Peru was yet incomplete, there was a church in Caxamalco to which the devout Spaniards assigned a liberal share of the gold of which they so villanously plundered the unhappy Inca. The magnificence of churches and convents became in course of years so dazzling that the European mind, it was said, could form no conception of it. The tithes, which had been vested in the Crown, were almost wholly made over to the Church. The free-will offerings of a superstitious people, with an exceptionally large volume of personal iniquity to expiate, swelled out to a huge aggregate. The wealth of the Church continued to grow till, as we have seen, in Mexico she possessed one-half of all the land in the province.
Among the multitudes of ecclesiastics who hastened to these new fields of enterprise and emolument there were very many whose characters were debased, whose lives were scandalous. Very soon after the settlement the profligacy of churchmen attracted general remark. Living often in secluded positions without the control or observation of superiors, they gave free scope to evil dispositions, and occupied themselves with the pursuits of avarice or of licentiousness.
But we should grievously wrong the Church of Rome were we to suppose that all her ministers in the New World were of this unworthy description. The sudden knowledge of many millions of heathens, whose existence had been previously unsuspected, awakened in the monasteries of Spain a strong impulse towards missionary effort. To men who were lingering out their idle days in the profitless repose of a religious seclusion there opened now boundless possibilities of ennobling usefulness. Among them were many whose singleness of purpose, whose utter crucifixion of self, whose heroic daring and endurance would have done honour to the purest Church. Especially was this true concerning the Jesuits. This dreaded and upon the whole pernicious Order was distinguished, in its earlier days, as well for the sagacity and administrative ability of its members as for their absorbing devotion to the interests of the faith.
The Indians accepted with perfect readiness the new religion which their conquerors offered. The monks who went among them speedily acquired commanding influence. The Franciscans who went out on the invitation of Cortes reported that they found the Mexicans a gentle people, given somewhat to lying and drunkenness and needing restraint, but well disposed to religion, and confessing so well that it was not necessary to ask them questions. The children about the monastery already knew much, and taught others who were less happily circumstanced; they sang well and accompanied the organ competently.
This gentle people loved the holy men who, clothed plainly and living on the humblest fare, laboured without ceasing to do them good. They willingly submitted to baptism to please their teachers. Indeed, the only limit to the increase of baptized persons was the physical capability of the missionaries. One father baptized till he was unable any longer to lift his arms. Of another it was asserted that he had administered this sacrament to four hundred thousand converts. 1531 A.D. Ten years after the fall of Mexico, the bishop reported that in his diocese there were now a million of baptized persons; that five hundred temples and twenty thousand idols had been destroyed; that in their room were now churches, oratories, and hermitages; that whereas there were formerly offered up every year to idols twenty thousand hearts of young men and young women, the hearts of Mexican youth were now offered up with innumerable sacrifices of praise to the Most High God.
Among many races of Indians there had existed from time immemorial a marvellous fondness for the confession of sin. Under all grave attacks of illness they hastened to confess old sins to any one who would listen to their tale. When they encountered a panther in the wilderness, they began, under the influence of some unexplained superstition, to disclose their iniquities to the savage beast. A people so inclined welcomed a religion which offered them free access to the enjoyment of their cherished privilege. They manifested, in regard to this ordinance of the Church, “a dove-like simplicity, an incredible fervour.” Oral confession was to these simple souls an insufficient relief. They brought to the confessor a pictorial representation of the special transgressions which burdened them. Later, when many of them had learned to write, they bore with them elaborate catalogues of their evil doings.
The monks attempted to bestow upon the children under their care the elements of a simple education. To each monastery a school was attached. Peter of Ghent, a Flemish lay-brother of noble devotedness, caused the erection of a large building, in which he taught six hundred Mexican children to read, to write, and to sing.[55] This good man knew the Mexican language well, and could preach when need was. He spent fifty toilsome years in labours for the instruction of the conquered people; and there were many of his brethren equally diligent.
But among the teeming millions of South America, these efforts, so admirable in quality, were wholly insignificant in amount. They were thwarted, too, by the murderous cruelty which the Spaniards exercised, and the people remained utterly uninstructed. The conversion of the country made progress so rapid that in a few years the native religions disappeared, and the Indians seemed universally to have accepted Christianity. But the change rested in large measure upon fear of their tyrants, or love to their teachers, or the authority of chiefs who had deemed it expedient to adopt the faith of men who were always victorious in battle. It was only in a few instances the result of intelligent conviction. The priests baptized readily all natives who would permit the ceremony, because that was a sure provision for their eternal welfare. But the opinion was entertained from an early period that the natives were incapable of comprehending the first principles of the faith. Acting under this belief, a council of Lima decreed their exclusion from the sacrament of the Eucharist. Down to the close of Spanish dominion few Indians were allowed to communicate, or to become members of any religious order, or to be ordained as priests. Underneath the profession of Christianity the Indians have always retained a secret love for the pagan faith of their fathers, and still secretly practise its rites.[56]
The monks were throughout the warm friends and protectors of the Indians. At a very early period the Dominicans preached against Indian slavery “with very piercing and terrible words.” They refused to confess men who were cruel to Indians—a privation which was severely felt; for to the Spaniard of that day, with his over-burdened conscience, confession was a necessary of life. 1537 A.D. The Pope himself pronounced the doom of excommunication against all who reduced Indians to slavery or deprived them of their goods. We have seen how nobly and how vainly the good Las Casas interposed in defence of the Indians. The efforts of the well-meaning fathers were, in almost every direction, unsuccessful. But this failure resulted from no deficiency either in zeal or in discretion. The record of the Church of Rome is darkened by manifold offences against the welfare of the human family; but she is able to recall with just pride the heroic efforts which her sons put forth on behalf of the deeply-wronged native races.