In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Chapter one False start on 27 July 1578, the alcalde mayor of tepeaca, Jorge cerón carvajal, requested the prompt intervention of Fray rodrigo de seguera, the inquisition ’s commissioner for the Franciscan order in mexico, to resolve a crime in tecamachalco.1 The alcalde mayor told Fray rodrigo that on 21 July, Fray Jaime navarro, a Franciscan, found two sambenitos, two signs, and a “statue” (estatua de bulto) with insults against a town resident, hernando rubio naranjo , outside tecamachalco’s church. The friar immediately removed them and gave them to Fray cristóbal del Barrio, the prior in charge of the Franciscan monastery. (in his rush, Fray Jaime missed one sambenito nailed to the church’s facade, which Pedro Beristain, “the younger,” later removed upon his mother’s orders.)2 The alcalde mayor immediately launched an investigation into this “grave offense” against rubio naranjo. it would serve God and the king, the alcalde mayor told the Franciscan commissioner, if “such a great evil deed” were punished; “the just” should not suffer at the hands of “evildoers.” in order to complete his investigation into this “affair among laymen” and punish the culprits, the alcalde mayor needed the offending objects as a key piece of evidence. however, tecamachalco’s Franciscan prior refused to hand over the effigy and the sambenitos to the alcalde mayor, claiming that he did not have them. in a letter to commissioner Fray rodrigo, the alcalde mayor asked him to order the prior to turn in the sambenitos and the statue. rather than comply with the alcalde mayor’s request, Fray rodrigo personally brought the letter to the inquisition in mexico city and, on 30 July, explained to inquisitor licenciado alonso Fernández de Bonilla that he knew nothing more about the matter in the letter.3 realizing the gravity of the incident, licenciado Bonilla and the other inquisitor, licenciado alonso Granero Dávalos, immediately issued a decree ordering the alcalde mayor of tepeaca to surrender to the inquisition all information and the suspects 1578 30 related to his case.4 The strategy of tepeaca’s alcalde mayor had backfired: the holy office of the inquisition would now take over the investigation of the scandal in tecamachalco. What was the name of the crime that took place in tecamachalco over which the inquisitors claimed sole jurisdiction? it defied the usual categories of heresy, such as blasphemy and desecration, and sexually immoral acts— including bigamy and sexual solicitation by clergymen. This case was different . The alcalde mayor of tepeaca launched an investigation into the delito, or crime, of injuring a person’s reputation. in his letter to Fray rodrigo de seguera, the alcalde mayor stated that the effigy and the sambenitos in tecamachalco had gravely injured a “third party.” hernando rubio naranjo had woken up on 21 July 1578 to the news that someone had publicly besmirched his name. someone had branded him a Jew, which constituted a serious insult in early modern spanish society, whether in the iberian Peninsula or in its territories across the world. starting in the mid-sixteenth century, an increasing number of laws banned those unable to demonstrate “purity of blood” from offices, professions, and most honors (those with purity of blood had no Jewish or muslim ancestors). in the eyes of their neighbors and of the inquisition, the new christians remained suspect of secretly keeping their old faith. authorities widely accepted that calling someone a Jew constituted a punishable offense that might even excuse the defamed victim for taking revenge on the defamer. to defend one’s name and honor was to defend one’s life. Dishonor turned a person into a social outcast and, in some cases, made life unbearable. yet the inquisitors did not take the accusations that hernando rubio naranjo was a Jew seriously. calling someone a Jew had become a common insult, and the inquisition tried to stamp out this practice.5 The inquisitors learned that rubio naranjo was a thirty-five-year-old unmarried man who traded between tecamachalco and oaxaca, whose wealth was estimated at between three and four thousand pesos.6 (rubio naranjo would later describe a neighbor with four thousand pesos as a rich man.) in addition, rubio naranjo had family ties to the wife of a judge (oidor) of the audiencia of mexico.7 neither his wealth nor his family connections would be of much interest to the inquisitors; the inquisitors considered the scandal a grave offense, but their concern had little to...

Share