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4 Christian Matrimony and the Boundaries of African Self-Fashioning Order and classi¤cation are the beginning of mastery, whereas the truly dreadful enemy is the unknown.1 In 1584, an exceptionally dark black man entered the Sagrario, a parish church adjacent to Mexico City’s cathedral, and, in the presence of his small entourage , petitioned the ecclesiastical scribe for a marriage license. In voicing his request, the self-identi¤ed black man,Francisco,simultaneously proclaimed his nationality and Christian sensibility. “I am from the land of Biafara,” declared Francisco and then stated that he was single and wished to marry Catalina. At the conclusion of this testimonial, Catalina, a member of the entourage, reenacted the spectacle. As she announced her desire and single status, Catalina also revealed that she too was “from the land of Biafara.” The scribe recorded the testimony of the couple, but before presenting the ecclesiastical judge with the marriage license, he noted that Francisco and Catalina belonged to the same master.2 As the judge examined the petition, the master’s absence caused him no concern. He simply asked Francisco and Catalina if they acted in good faith and of their own volition. Assured of the propriety of the case, the provisor ordered Francisco and Catalina to offer proof of their single status and lack of impediments. At that moment, Andrés and Victoria stepped forward. Andrés, a 25-year-old, acknowledged having known Francisco ever since he had arrived from “his bozal country” eight years before. Andrés did not mention Catalina. But the presiding of¤cial assumed that if the Spanish-speaking black man, enslaved by the same master, had an awareness of existing impediments, he would have revealed them then. If he did not, he would face the Inquisition’s wrath for willful deception—a fate dozens had suffered in the decade since the Inquisition’s installation.3 Victoria, Francisco and Catalina’s second witness, simply noted that she too came from the “land of Biafara.” In lieu of speci¤c information about the nature and length of her familiarity with the couple, Victoria’s purported ethnicity legitimized her testimony about Francisco and Catalina’s eligibility for marriage. Consequently, the judge attached the customary proviso—a public reading of the banns in conjunction with mass in the prospective couple’s parish church—a ritual designed explicitly to elicit information about potential impediments from the couple’s friends, family members , or neighbors within twenty-one days.4 In spite of the ritualized nature of the proceedings,the ecclesiastical authorities acted rather perfunctorily. Matrimony constituted a Christian sacrament to which all “quali¤ed persons” could aspire—one that medieval canonists stipulated could be extended to pagans and contrite in¤dels,the extra ecclesiam, irrespective of their legal status.5 The provisor scrutinized Francisco and Catalina ’s petition like that of other Christians despite their status as slaves. On the basis of their names and actions, one can assume that Francisco and Catalina were Christians with more than a rudimentary understanding of the faith’s mystery and its ritualized proceedings. After all, by identifying themselves as “Francisco” and “Catalina,” they underscored their exposure to the baptismal font. As Christians, though enslaved, the couple had a right to a married life and could even enter a marriage contract without their master’s consent. In conformance with Christian norms—dating from the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) which the Council of Trent (1545–1563) had reaf¤rmed as a counterreformation measure—a parish priest simply needed the couple’s verbal consent that they wished to marry. After this declaration, the couple had to prove that they were both single and that no blood or spiritual kinship ties existed. An existing marriage or kinship ties constituted marital impediments. Spiritual kinship ties, forged through Christian rituals—sponsorship of baptism, con¤rmation, or marriage—however, were the most common impediments. In those cases, unless a couple received an ecclesiastical dispensation for existing impediments , a zealous priest would withhold the sacrament.With its customary rigor and by means of the marriage petition, the clergy questioned all couples about potential impediments. Couples carefully selected persons who could speak with intimate familiarity on their behalf. Invariably, they asked individuals with whom they had a long-standing relationship, if not actual or spiritual kinship ties, to serve as their matrimonial sponsors. Sponsors needed an awareness of the bride or groom’s genealogy to substantiate claims about the lack of impediments and of mutual consent...

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