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

3 Policing Christians Persons of African Descent before the Inquisition and Ecclesiastical Courts The Spanish monarchy administered its realm largely through its judiciary. At the apex of what might well be termed the “judicial state” of the antiguo regimen stood the monarch, whose prime function, according to the medieval Siete Partidas, was to “govern” and maintain the empire in justice.1 Representing power was essential to reproducing domination.2 In keeping with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and at the behest of Charles V and Philip II, New Spain’s secular clergy manifested greater vigilance over the laity during the second half of the sixteenth century.3 As the Old World population in the Indies expanded due to voluntary and involuntary migration , royal and ecclesiastical of¤cials called for greater discipline. Though the idolatry of the indigenous population remained a concern, the secular clergy directed their attention at the expanding República de los Españoles. Despite mounting ecclesiastical vigilance, in®uential royal of¤cials such as Juan de Ovando, Rodrigo de Castro, Melchor Cano, and Bernardo de Fresneda believed that New Spain’s clergy could not enforce the orthodoxy on which their Catholic sovereign’s dominion rested. England’s imperial ambitions—to foster a growing Protestant presence in the Atlantic world—and the imagined converso (descendants of baptized Jews) menace heightened royal concerns.4 In 1569, alarmed by the threat of Protestant and converso interlopers, Philip II extended the jurisdiction of the Holy Of¤ce of the Inquisition to his New World dominions. As an instrument of Catholic renewal, the Inquisition focused on exorcising the heresies that threatened the Catholic realm and its faithful. As Catholic stalwarts, the Habsburg emperors and rulers of Castile— especially Charles V and Philip II—linked their authority as sovereigns with the cause of the Roman Church and spearheaded the Catholic offensive in Europe against the growing Protestant minority. Protestant interlopers presented more than a threat against orthodoxy. As they ignored the ¤fteenthcentury papal accords, the Protestants challenged the Castilian sovereign’s dominion and the ideology—Catholicism—on which it rested. As a threat to Catholicism and papal authority, they undermined the very source of Spanish and Portuguese imperial expansion. In the context of the Protestant Reformation and Catholic renewal, royal and ecclesiastical authorities labeled the schism as heretical and a rebellion against their sovereign’s authority.5 According to Richard Greenleaf, “The line between heresy and treason became very vague, and since heretics robbed the community of its faith, sacraments, and spiritual life, it was deemed just to execute them as traitors and fomenters of social revolution.”6 In Spain and its New World dependencies, the Inquisition tried to stave off any threat to the sovereign’s authority. Aimed in the ¤rst instance against foreign enemies of the faith, the ominous tribunal also sought to imbue New Spain’s Catholic laity with awe for Crown and clergy. Though Protestants and then conversos represented the stated foe, the composition of the Christian commonwealth underscores another menace. As the majority among New Spain’s República de los Españoles, persons of African descent constituted an implicit threat to Spanish rule. In Mexico City in 1571, the site and year of the Inquisition’s installation, the variously de¤ned persons of African descent numbered 11,645 while Spaniards totaled 9,495.7 Martín Enríquez, New Spain’s viceroy from 1568 to 1580, viewed these ¤gures with alarm. According to the cultural historian Irving A. Leonard, Viceroy Enríquez believed that “the social effects of the rapidly growing Negro element constituted the gravest problem of the realm.”8 Miles Philips, an Englishman who resided in New Spain during this period, candidly observed that “the Negros also doe daily lie in wait to practise their deliverance out of that thraldome and bondage, that the Spaniardes doe keep them in.”9 Twenty years after Viceroy Luís de Velasco’s dire warning about the slave trade, persons of African descent had, in the eyes of of¤cials and some observers, ¤nally “put the land in confusion .” If the Inquisition intended to instill order in the realm, it had to inspire awe and quiescence in the Christian commonwealth’s African majority. The specter of insurrection magni¤ed the anxiety of Spanish elites and of¤cials about the growth of the African population. In addressing this perceived threat, of¤cials typically passed ordinances that prevented Africans and their descendants from associating in large numbers or at night...

Share