The King's Surprise: The Mission Methodology of Toribio de Mogrovejo

Abstract

In 1579 King Philip II selected the presiding inquisitor of Granada as the second archbishop of Los Reyes, or Lima. Countering precedents which favored the episcopal nomination of priests who had spent time in the New World, Philip chose Toribio de Mogrovejo, a man totally lacking in both clerical and missionary experience, to preside over the most important episcopal see in the Southern hemisphere. That curious choice revealed Philip's strategy for the future of the church of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Philip presumably named the young jurist to implement a rigorous organization of the Church in the territory that retiring Viceroy Francisco de Toledo had only recently brought under effective civil governance. This article will demonstrate that, contrary to Philip's expectations, Toribio de Mogrovejo not only failed toinstill a Toledan spirit in the Church, but that he actively developed a mission methodology in accord with that promoted by Bartolomé de Las Casas and his followers in Peru.