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13 chapter 1 Jesuit Struggles in Peru o n March 1, 1572, Francisco de Toledo sat down to write a long letter to King Philip II, reporting on the state of affairs in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Front and center in Toledo’s report were his concerns about the spiritual situation in the realm, in particular the conversion of the Andean natives. After describing the overall ecclesiastical situation and his own efforts toward the evangelization of the native communities by relocating them into fewer towns to be put under one doctrinero (priest), Toledo complained to the king about what he saw as the contemptuous attitude of the religious orders, in particular the Jesuits: “The members of the Society of the Name of Jesus work in this kingdom with the fervor I have described to Your Majesty, and although I truly understand that they are useful in the cities among the Spaniards and the service Indians, they do not know if by their statutes they are allowed to go out to the doctrinas and work in the conversion of the Indians where they are most urgently needed.”1 During the previous four years, the Jesuits had in fact resisted almost every effort made by Toledo to coax them into accepting the newly created parochial posts among the Peruvian natives, claiming that such a practice was contrary both to their pastoral methods and to their internal legislation . Despite the diplomatic tone of Toledo’s letter, the Jesuit refusal to take over the doctrinas quickly became a major source of tension between the order and the viceroy, who repeatedly made clear his disgust with what he took to be an open challenge to his authority and a blatant disregard on the part of the Jesuits toward what he saw as one of the most important responsibilities of the Crown in America. The escalation of this conflict between the Jesuits and Toledo during the first decade of Jesuit presence in Peru would force the newly arrived order into a process of soul-searching, the outcome of which led the Jesuits to refocus their goals and redefine their methods, thus changing the perception the Jesuits had of themselves and of their mission in Peru in the process. From the late 1570s onward, the Jesuits would gradually move away from seeing themselves as a primarily urban-based religious order (as Toledo complained they were) and start 14 Missionary Scientists to define themselves first and foremost as missionaries devoted to the salvation of native peoples. As we shall see throughout this book, this change in Jesuit selfperception had a profound impact not only in the subsequent expansion of the order on the continent, it also affected the content, methods, and objectives of Jesuit intellectual endeavors. The conflict between the viceroy and the Jesuits arose from the different goals the Crown and the Jesuit hierarchy had in mind for the presence of the order in Peru. Unlike the monastic orders, the Jesuit ministries in Europe were characterized by active engagement with the secular life of the cities where they were established.2 The order wanted to replicate this model in Peru. When the first group of six Jesuits arrived in Lima in 1568, their leader, Jerónimo Ruiz del Portillo , carried very specific instructions from General Borgia. They were to found a college in Lima and devote themselves to urban ministries such as preaching, confessing , and tending to the poor, leaving the city only to engage on itinerant missions among the population living in the countryside. In any case, Borgia insisted to Ruiz del Portillo, they would have to reside in the same city as the viceroy and always return to it. Their outings were to be only temporary and never last more than a few months; the less time they spent outside the cities, the better.3 Following these directives as soon as they had established themselves in Lima, the Jesuits began preaching several times a week and they started ministering to the poor and the outcast, particularly the African slaves and the native communities living in the city. Following a general tendency of the Society of Jesus at the time, the Jesuits considered teaching at the College of Lima as their primary task.4 Ruiz del Portillo, in fact, spent more money buying books for the planned college than on religious articles and sacred vestments, and the first official activity the Jesuits conducted upon their arrival in Lima was a visit to Governor Lope García...

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