Inquisition In Mexico Research Articles

Crítica y ¿defensa? de las mujeres en un «Sermón» satírico novohispano prohibido por la Inquisición (1795)

El artículo analiza el discurso misógino y los recursos satíricos del Sermón con­tra las mujeres que circuló manuscrito hacia finales del siglo xviii, el cual fue denunciado ante la Inquisición de México en 1795, así como los argumentos con los que los teólogos designados por los inquisidores como calificadores decidieron sugerir su prohibición. El objetivo consiste en determinar si el discurso de la Iglesia, representado en este caso por la opinión de los calificadores e inquisidores, propone argumentos en defensa de las mujeres y, en su caso, cuáles y de qué tipo son.

Milton in Revolutionary Hispanoamerica

Milton in Revolutionary Hispanoamerica Mario Murgia In 1905, five years before the onset of the Mexican Revolution (ca. 1910–20), the Chilean historian and bibliographer José Toribio Medina Zavala published his Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición en México (A history of the tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Mexico), which he dedicated to the Mexican president Porfirio Díaz as a token of friendship and admiration.1 Medina devotes an entire chapter of his lengthy account of the life and deeds of this American branch of the Spanish Inquisition to the matter of prohibited books. In chapter 23, the historian relates how, given an evident growth in (illegal) book commerce between the Iberian Peninsula and the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and Mexico in particular, the Inquisition eventually found itself struggling to exert efficient control over the overseas book trade.2 The situation became so troublesome in the second half of the eighteenth century that, according to Medina, "los Inquisidores no lograban echar mano á ninguno que tuviese los libros que diariamente iban anatemizando" (Inquisitors did not manage to lay their hands on those who possessed the books that they anathemized on a daily basis).3 [End Page 203] This anecdote concerning the increasing failure on the part of the Inquisition's ecclesiastical court to deal with intellectual and literary smuggling in the late stages of the Spanish Empire would remain on the level of historical generalization were it not for the fact that Medina provides a most peculiar exception to such inquisitorial inefficiency. A certain Carlos—presumably Charles—Loret, a young French surgeon residing in the Mexican city of Jalapa in 1768, was "acusado de tener el Paraíso perdido de Milton y enjuiciado y castigado hacía poco con abjuración y destierro á España" (accused of having Milton's Paradise Lost, and tried and punished not long ago with abjuration and banishment to Spain).4 We do not know which edition of the epic Loret may have been reading, or if he approached the poem in the original English. However, since Paradise Lost had already been translated in its entirety into French and only partially into Iberian Spanish by the 1760s, we might speculate that Loret had been breaking the (ecclesiastical) law in either of these two languages, but most probably in his mother tongue.5 And yet, it is significant that out of the "muchos libros prohibidos" (many prohibited books) that were confiscated on that particular occasion, only Paradise Lost and Milton were explicitly mentioned by title and surname. This tells us, first, that given the magnitude of Loret's punishment, both the peruser and the poem in his possession were held up as particular examples of seditiousness for the reading public. Second, and perhaps more important, an educated man reading Paradise Lost illegally in provincial Mexico betrays the existence of a potential cultured readership, however limited it might have been, for Milton and at least his major poetry in that localized region of the Americas. This example confirms that reading Milton in Spanish-speaking America, even in intellectually selected circles, could be a difficult and even dangerous business. As has been documented, Milton's name first appeared in the 1707 edition of the Spanish Catholic Inquisition's Index Librorum Prohibitorum.6 The Index classifies Milton as a heretic and, moreover, as a "Class I" author whose entire oeuvre should be avoided: "Aquellos Autores cuyos Libros están todos prohibidos, se señalan, poniendoles una estrellita (*), [End Page 204] ó con esta señal I. cl. (I.a Classis ó de I.a Clase)" (Those authors whose books are all prohibited are signaled with an asterisk [*] or with this signal I. cl. [I.a Classis or of the 1st. Class]). This had changed in the 1790 Index, which simply reads, "Milthonius (Joan.), Angl. I. cl.," minus the asterisk.7 As Angelica Duran states insightfully, "The 1790 index moves away from bold assessments of individuals' personal and spiritual status as heretic. In some ways, that move participates in the construction of modern forms of reception that situate authors within their historical roles and emphasizes networks of power relations, overriding attention on individuals...

La Inquisición de México y la calificación del Árbol de la ciencia de Ramon Llull (1665-1669)

This article reveals the examination received in the Court of the Inquisition of Mexico for the Spanish translation of the Arbor scientiae by Ramon Llull. This edition was printed in Brussels in 1663 and was examined by Inquisition in New Spain in 1665. This documentation helps determine more precisely the ideological control and censorship of books of the Court of the Inquisition in Mexico, as well as to considerate, through Lullism, the relations between Ecclesiastical power and Royal power on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Index of Prohibited Books in Sixteenth Century Mexico: Theological Conservatism and Adaptive Responses to Censorship

In this article the author discusses two principal themes: (1) the ways in which the Inquisition in Mexico exercised its power to censor books and to remove suspect or forbidden books from circulation; and (2) the ways in which this process was less effective and omnipotent than is generally assumed. The time frame for this article is mostly the sixteenth century with some consideration of the early seventeenth century.

Juggling Identities: Identity and Authenticity Among Crypto-Jews (review)

Juggling Identities: Identity and Authenticity Among Crypto-Jews, by Seth D. Kunin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. 278 pp. $50.00. This book discusses the diversity and the complexity of its subject, and in some ways acts rather like a review article in describing and criticizing the approaches the topic adopted by different scholars. Some of the latter have denied absolutely that Crypto-Jewish practices of some people in the United States Southwest have any connection with New Christian and Judaizing ancestors who fled northwards from the Inquisition in Mexico itself, while others take the opposite view. Professor Kunin's admitted goal is to indicate how these arguments have shaped Crypto-Jews' self-understanding and presentation of self, particularly in the public sphere, not suggest that they are either historically or sociologically supportable. This presents a serious problem for those who want know whether the Jewish customs practiced have indeed been handed down the generations. One major problem is the contradiction inherent in the term Crypto-Judaism itself. If secrecy is one of its primary constituents, how is it possible use the term refer individuals who acknowledge some form of Jewish identity or association? If they claim that their Jewish practices prove their descent from those who are of Jewish descent in the female line, they are no longer secret. Another issue which needs be recognized and discussed, though this book does mention it in passing is that Jewish communities and rabbis recognize as Jews only converts Judaism, though what constitutes conversion is disputed, and those who are descended in rhe female line from Jews. The latter are Jews whatever the circumstances of their conception or indeed their religious upbringing and practice. A major plank in the argument put forward by those who do not accept that the Crypto-Jews are in fact descended from seventeenth-century Judaizers fleeing from the Holy Office is that the Jewish customs they practice constitute behavior learned from varied late-nineteenth-century Pentecostal and Adventist missionaries. In his attack on Judith Neulander s view that CryptoJewish practices were learnt in this way Kunin produces some very convincing arguments, in particular that some of the practices are not found in those particular versions of Christianity. One senses that Professor Kunin leans more the view that how Crypto-Jews look at themselves and interpret their lives is more significant than the historical facts of their descent. He argues that self-definition is central. He writes of Crypto-Jews that they regard the practice as expressive of their Jewish identity, then that is its meaning. However, is this not tantamount saying that if one wants be Jewish, then any of one's religious practices can be called Jewish? Professor Kunin underlines that the counter-arguments of Neulander and others challenge Crypto-Jews' sense of self. …

Jews and the Inquisition of Mexico: The Great Auto da Fé of 1649

Jews and the Inquisition of Mexico: The Great Auto da Fé of 1649

Jews and the Inquisition of Mexico: The Great Auto de Fe of 1649, as Related by Mathias de Bocanegra, S.J. Trans. and ed. by Seymour B. Liebman. Lawrence, Kan.: Coronado Press, 1974. 266 pp. $15.00

Jews and the Inquisition of Mexico: The Great Auto de Fe of 1649, as Related by Mathias de Bocanegra, S.J. Trans. and ed. by Seymour B. Liebman. Lawrence, Kan.: Coronado Press, 1974. 266 pp. $15.00 Get access Richard E. Greenleaf Richard E. Greenleaf Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Church and State, Volume 18, Issue 2, Spring 1976, Pages 364–365, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcs/18.2.364 Published: 01 March 1976

An Irishman before the Mexican inquisition, 1574-5

John Martin the Irishman was described by one of his shipmates as the unluckiest man in the English fleet. He himself, appearing in turn before the inquisition in Mexico, complained that he was ‘ the unluckiest mortal on board, as all he knew was how to sweep the ship, and everybody ill-treated him, and called him St Peter or St Patrick and a thousand other names ’. A little later, the inquisition scribe noted that Martin ‘ remained a while sighing and grief-stricken, and then said that he was surrounded by a thousand dangers in this trial which far from going in his favour appeared to be taking him on the road to the devil, and he wished to God he had not married in this country and brought trouble on others as well as on himself, because he saw that he was doomed to die ’. Again, on 1 February 1575, Martin told the inquisitors ‘ that he was tired of being admonished so many times and that he called God to witness that he wished he might be doomed body and soul if he had anything further to say, and although his tears might be of no avail here on earth they might still serve him with God ’. His gloomy prognostications were fully justified. At the second auto-da-fé in Mexico city, on 6 March 1575, Martin was garrotted and his body burnt: no other person was done to death on this occasion. Out of the hundred or so members of the English fleet captured by the Spaniards in 1568, only four were executed for heresy, and only two of these in New Spain. George Reaveley who died in the Mexican auto of 1574 has been termed ‘ one of the first martyrs of the protestant cause in America ’.

Literary-Historical Treasures in the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art

O NE OF THE TREASURES for the historian of the period from the sixteenth century through the early nineteenth century in Mexican and Latin American affairs is the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Institute's director is Dean Krakel, and its librarian and archivist is Martin Wenger. This collection consists of some 275 separate documentary items ranging in date from 1512 to the 1800's, and covering widely varying subjects, from Columbus and Cortes to Santa Anna. The largest single portion is from the former Conway Collection125 documentary units and some 21,000 pages of material. The remaining part-some 150 documentary units totalling about 5,000 pages-varies widely in content and date. A catalog of the documents has now been completed. Much of the material has never before been transcribed and put into modern Spanish for those who are unfamiliar with the calligraphy of this period. This work has been undertaken and is progressing. The part known as 'The Conway Papers' contains much material concerning the inquisition in Mexico and is made up of literally thousands of pages. One document is a register of cases and sentences for the period 1624-1632. It includes an index of names, and a summary of some 300 of the early cases, including those presided over by Moya de Contreras, first inquisitor of the Archbishop of Mexico, and by the Chief Inquisitor Bonilla, who was appointed in 1573. Many of the men famous in early Mexican inquisitorial history participated in these cases. Much of this material will shed further light on this period as it becomes available for assessment by qualified historians. Of the documents other than those in The Conway Papers, many will be of interest primarily to linguists, or to those concerned with

The Strange Story of a Sixteenth Century English Piece of Ordnance and the Inquisition of Mexico

The Strange Story of a Sixteenth Century English Piece of Ordnance and the Inquisition of Mexico

Inquisition in Mexico

Inquisition in Mexico