CHAPTER VIII.

THE ECCLESIASTICS IN GUATEMALA.

1529-1541.

FRANCISCO MARROQUIN ARRIVES AT SANTIAGO—HE IS APPOINTED BISHOP—GODLESSNESS OF THE COLONISTS—THE PRELATE INVITES LAS CASAS TO JOIN HIM—MARROQUIN'S CONSECRATION IN MEXICO—THE CHURCH AT SANTIAGO ELEVATED TO CATHEDRAL RANK—DIFFICULTY IN COLLECTING THE CHURCH TITHES—THE MERCED ORDER IN GUATEMALA—MIRACULOUS IMAGE OF OUR LADY OF MERCED—BIBLIOGRAPHICAL.

When Pedro de Alvarado was laying waste the fair province of Guatemala with fire and sword during the early years of the conquest, he paid little heed to the presence of the priestly order. One of the friars, named Pontaz, of whom mention has before been made, took up his abode at Quezaltenango, and there lived in security, instilling faith and hope into the native heart,[VIII‑1] while another, Juan de Torres, for a time at least, labored in the vineyard under less easy circumstances at Patinamit. The spiritual wants of the Spaniards themselves were ministered to by the army chaplains and parish priest. But the clerical staff was not large enough to attend to the religious welfare even of the colonists. On the 5th of November 1529, the cabildo of Guatemala represented to the royal officers that half the colonists, being usually engaged in war, required the services of the clergy during their campaigns, while the population of the city at that time was such that two friars at least ought to reside there. They requested, therefore, that a suitable number of ecclesiastics and a sacristan be appointed with fixed salaries, and that the necessary church furniture and ornaments be supplied. This demand was made with some urgency, and the treasurer and auditor were given to understand that, if it were not complied with, the tithes would be retained and devoted to that purpose; whereupon his Majesty's officers declared that they were willing to grant the tithes for the year then current, but that future necessities must be provided for in accordance with the orders of the king.

[Sidenote: MARROQUIN.]

The spiritual needs of the community were partially relieved by the arrival, in 1530, of the licentiate Francisco Marroquin, who accompanied Alvarado on his return to Guatemala during that year. A few months later he was appointed to the benefice of Santiago, and after he had taken the customary oaths the cabildo assigned to him an annual salary of one hundred and fifty pesos de oro per annum.

Of patrician birth, and possessing talents of no common order, the licentiate gave promise during his early manhood of a useful and honorable career, and not until in after years he had dwelt long among communities where lust of power and greed for wealth permeated all classes of society, did the darker phase of his character appear. After receiving an education befitting his rank and ability, he graduated as professor of theology in the university of Osma, and was ordained a priest. Meeting with Alvarado at the court of Spain, he was so impressed with his glowing descriptions of the marvels of the New World that he requested permission to accompany him on his return to Guatemala. On arriving at Santiago he at once assiduously applied himself to the study of the native languages, and soon became especially proficient in the Quiché tongue.[VIII‑2] Marroquin's appointment was confirmed by the bishop of Mexico, by whom he was also made provisor and vicar general of the province, and such was the zeal and capacity with which he tended the spiritual and material needs of his flock that in 1533 he was appointed by the emperor to the see of Guatemala. In December of the following year his appointment was confirmed by his holiness Paul III.[VIII‑3]

The chief anxiety of the newly appointed prelate was to provide a sufficient number of ecclesiastics for the requirements of his extensive diocese. The secular priests residing in Guatemala at this period as we have seen were inadequate to the great work of conversion which he contemplated, and he felt the necessity of aid from those of the established orders. Besides those who first came, a few friars had, indeed, visited the province, but found there no abiding-place.[VIII‑4] In 1529, or possibly at an earlier date, a convent was founded near Santiago by the Dominican friar, Domingo de Betanzos,[VIII‑5] who travelled on foot from Mexico with a single companion. At the beginning of the following year however he was recalled, and as there was no one of his order qualified by rank to take his place he locked up the building and intrusting the keys to the padre Juan Godinez retraced his steps.

Thus Marroquin was left to contend almost alone with the idolatry of the natives and the godlessness of the colonists. The work was difficult and progress slow. The settlers were too absorbed in other matters, in house-building, gambling, and drinking, to give much heed to religion. The church was unattended, the church rates were unpaid, and the neglect became so general that eventually laws were passed to enforce due observance of religious rites. In May 1530 it was publicly cried in the streets of Santiago that, by order of the governor and the cabildo, all the artisans of the city must, on the day of Corpus Christi, walk in procession before the holy sacrament, as was customary in Spain. The penalty for non-compliance was fixed at thirty pesos, one half of the amount being assigned to the church and the remainder to the city. In February 1533 a law was passed making attendance at divine service compulsory, every citizen being required to attend mass on Sunday, under penalty of three days' imprisonment or the payment of three pesos de oro. This measure of course served but to widen the breach between the bishop and his flock, and in June of the same year we learn that the regidor Antonio de Salazar stated to the cabildo, that there were no means of paying Marroquin the stipend allotted to him. Notwithstanding all discouragements, however, he resolved that the settlers should not lack for spiritual guidance.

[Sidenote: LAS CASAS.]

At the beginning of the year 1536 Bartolomé de Las Casas was residing at Leon, there engaged in a controversy with Rodrigo de Contreras, the governor of Nicaragua, the story of which will hereafter be related. In 1531 he had passed through Santiago on his way to the South Sea, and Marroquin had then an opportunity of making the acquaintance of the great apostle of the Indies. In common with the more enlightened of the colonists he would fain have had him take up his abode in their midst. But Las Casas was bound on one of his many missions of mercy, though his efforts were destined to prove futile. He was journeying toward Peru, armed with a royal cédula forbidding the conquerors in that land, and all their followers, to deprive the natives of their liberty under any pretext whatever. No entreaties could induce him to abandon his undertaking, and embarking at Realejo he reached his destination at the end of the year. There, what man could do, he did; but such were the political disturbances then prevailing that his efforts were lost. Urged by members of his own order, he reluctantly abandoned the field and returned to Nicaragua.

To him the prelate now applied for aid, representing the sore need of a larger force of ecclesiastics, and begging him to come to Santiago and reopen the deserted convent. The invitation was accepted, and Las Casas with his fellow Dominicans established their order permanently in Guatemala.

But Marroquin was not yet satisfied. At this early period in his career he was an enthusiast in the missionary cause, and he now resolved to go to Spain and beg assistance of the emperor. But first he must proceed to consecration, and on the 12th of January 1537 he set forth for Mexico, where, about two months later, the ceremony, the first of the kind that occurred in the Indies, was conducted with due solemnity and splendor.[VIII‑6]

[Sidenote: ORGANIZATION OF THE DIOCESE.]

The bishop's labors were now directed to the elevation of the parish church of Santiago to cathedral rank. He therefore proceeded to frame the constitution and complete the establishment of his diocese in accordance with the commission granted to him by Paul III. He prescribed that the dignitaries of the church should include a dean, an archdeacon, a precentor, a chancellor, and a treasurer. He established ten canonries and six prebendaries. He defined the church revenues; ordained that preferment to minor benefices should be open to those born in the country, whether of Spanish or native race, and that the appointments to them should pertain to the bishop. Divine services were to be celebrated in the manner observed in the cathedral of Seville. Prebendaries were to have a vote in the chapters, and these were to be held on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays general church matters were to be discussed, and on Fridays internal discipline was to be considered.[VIII‑7]

When on the point of departing for Spain, the bishop was advised by his friends that the journey would be attended with great risk; for already the North Sea was infested with pirates, and a large number of Spanish vessels had been captured by French corsairs. Moreover the expenses he had incurred in Mexico had drawn heavily on his slender purse, and he did not wish to return to his native country wholly destitute of means. Resolving therefore to abandon his voyage, he forwarded his power of attorney to Juan Galvarro, the procurador of Santiago at the court of Spain, instructing him to send to Guatemala a number of ecclesiastics and to pay their passage and outfit. He also addressed a letter to the emperor,[VIII‑8] informing him of the great need of missionaries, and stating that he had asked aid both from Mexico and Santo Domingo, but had received none, although it had been promised.

During the early part of the year Charles had already appointed the cathedral prebendaries. Marroquin remarks that his Majesty was somewhat hasty in the matter, and not sufficiently considerate toward those who had so long shared with himself the labor of supporting the church at Santiago. These, he declares, it would be unreasonable for him to dismiss, though he is at a loss to conjecture whence the means to support his diocese would be derived. He well knew the perverse temper of the colonists and their antagonism to the cause of the church. Nevertheless he forwarded to the cabildo a provision handed to him by the viceroy Mendoza ordering the church tithes which were usually paid in kind to be delivered by the natives direct to the bishop at places where their value would be real and available.[VIII‑9] His mind was full of doubt as to the manner in which this regulation would be received by the encomenderos. The tone of his letter indicates misgiving, united with a rare spirit of self-negation, and he appears rather as a pleader than as a claimant for his rights.[VIII‑10] "You will pay," he says, "what is due in a proper manner; if not, I command that no scandal be raised about it."

Nor were his apprehensions unfounded. The settlers in Guatemala were a stiff-necked people. They would not go to church, and they did not intend that the delivery of the tithes should cost them anything if they could avoid it. They could not spare their Indians to carry the tithes a distance of many leagues to the places appointed. The bishop must send for them. They and not the ecclesiastics had conquered the province, and they did not see that either God or the emperor had any claim upon it. The cabildo immediately appealed to the viceroy, and meeting with no sympathy in that quarter addressed themselves directly to the emperor.[VIII‑11] Their representations gained for them some concessions, whereupon they pressed the matter further and protested against paying tithes at all. Though the bishop was now at a loss whither to turn to obtain the means for carrying out his various plans, he none the less labored with unceasing perseverance,[VIII‑12] and on his return to Guatemala, at the end of 1537, brought with him two friars of the order of Merced, Juan Zambrano and Marcos Perez Dardon.[VIII‑13]

[Sidenote: THE FRIARS OF LA MERCED.]

After the conquest of Mexico, certain members of this order obtained the royal permission to proceed to the newly discovered countries for certain charitable purposes. When the subjugation was completed many of them settled in towns built by the Spaniards, but no convent of their order existed in New Spain at a very early date. To Bishop Marroquin they are indebted for the establishment of their first monastery in North America. This was founded in 1537[VIII‑14] at Ciudad Real in Chiapas, and in the following year frailes Zambrano and Dardon organized a similar institution in Santiago.

When, as will be hereafter told, the city of Santiago was almost destroyed by inundation in 1541, the friars of La Merced, then six in number, were compelled for a time to remain amid the ruins of the deserted city, for such was the indifference of the settlers that no land was assigned to them in the site afterward chosen. Finally, through the efforts of the bishop, an allotment was granted, and in the erection of their new convent they were greatly assisted by the Dominicans, who subsequently transferred to them several of the Indian towns under their charge. From this time they increased in number, gradually extended the field of their labors in Guatemala, and having districts assigned them by the bishop were enabled in after years to found convents in various parts of the country.[VIII‑15]

* * * * *

In the church of their order at Santiago was an image of Our Lady of La Merced, for which miraculous properties were claimed. The story as related in documents in the archives of the convent is as follows: As a westward-bound vessel was about to sail from the port of Santa María in Spain, a person dressed in the garb of a traveller approached the captain, and placing in his hands a closed box charged him to deliver it unopened to the superior of the convent in Guatemala. The aspect and bearing of the man impressed the seaman, and he faithfully discharged the commission. On receiving the casket, the superior carried it to the church, accompanied by the friars, and having opened it in their presence, the sacred effigy was disclosed. Great was their rejoicing at this unexpected boon; but their happiness was complete when they marked the divine serenity of the countenance, and perceived that an exquisite fragrance was exhaled from the holy image. Ere long one of their number noticed that from a wound in the right side a strange fluid oozed. Divine manifestation was recognized, and many of the afflicted were cured of their diseases by the application of the ichor.[VIII‑16]

* * * * *

Domingo Juarros may be considered the leading Guatemalan historian of modern times. He was born in the old city of Guatemala in 1752, and died in 1820. He wrote very fully on the subjugation of his country by the conquerors. Although his work is called the history of Guatemala city, it gives in reality the history of all Central America, and provides lists of all prominent officials, civil and ecclesiastical, and biographical notices of leading men, whether soldiers, priests, or rulers. The first volume treats of geography, settlements, church matters, and the history of Guatemala city. The second is devoted to the ancient records of the country, its conquest and settlement. The author was a secular presbyter and synodal examiner, and quite an able and intelligent man. His connection with the clergy and his rank gave him access to both ecclesiastical documents and government records. His work is full and clear, and displays considerable research, but unfortunately he follows Fuentes too closely, and this latter author's partiality to the conquerors renders him too biassed to be faithful as an historian. Yet Juarros frequently displays compassion for the Indians, is always ready to retract an error when he detects himself making one, and is ever cautious against dogmatic assertion. He draws largely from Remesal and Vazquez, and quotes several other of the earlier authorities; but strangely enough, while mentioning the manuscripts of Gonzalo de Alvarado and Bernal Diaz, and of writers in the Quiché, Cakchiquel, and Pipil tongues, he does not allude to Alvarado's letters to Cortés. This omission, and his numerous direct disagreements with Alvarado's own statements, lead to the inference that neither Juarros nor Fuentes consulted these despatches. Juarros' work is remarkably free from church bias. Though a priest he censures undue zeal or carelessness on the part of friars. Miracles receive attention, however, and so do stories of giants and other marvels. His arrangement with regard to the order of events is bad, and the want of logical sequence gives the work an appearance of incompleteness. The first edition was published in Guatemala by Don Ignacio Betela, and the two volumes appeared respectively in 1808 and 1818. A later issue was published in the same city in 1857. J. Baily translated the first publication into English, in a slightly abridged form, which was issued in London by John Hearne in 1823. In this edition omissions and inaccuracies may be noticed.

[Sidenote: FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ.]

Francisco Vazquez, the author of the _Chronica de la Provincia del Santissimo Nõbre de Jesvs de Gvatemala_, was a friar of the Franciscan order, retired lecturer, calificador del Santo Oficio, and synodal examiner in the diocese of Guatemala. His work was published in the city of Guatemala in 1714, and according to the title-page and preface there was, or was to have been, a second volume, consisting of two books, the existing one containing three. This work, which is rare, although mainly devoted to chronicling petty details of the labors of obscure friars, throws much light upon the early history of Guatemala during the conquest and subsequently down to the end of the sixteenth century. The author, having had access to the city archives at the early date at which he wrote, was able to avail himself of documents which have since disappeared. Fortunately he quotes such evidence frequently, thus enabling the historian to establish historical facts which otherwise, in the face of conflicting assertions of chroniclers unsupported by evidence, he would be unable to do. Vazquez has undoubtedly borrowed much material from Remesal, giving him little or no credit, while he mercilessly exposes his real or supposed errors. The jealousy which existed between the Franciscan and Dominican orders was the cause of this unfairness. In his opening declaration the author protests that, when he applies terms of praise to any who figure in his history, he is but giving the common and general estimation. This will hardly apply to his adulation of Alvarado and other conquerors, and his eager defence of their actions. It is not easy to find in the old chroniclers, clerical or secular, an uncompromising champion of their conduct, in face of the reliable and varied evidence of the cruelties practised by them. In defence of the conquerors he asserts that the vices and cruelties of a few were attributed to all; and without one symptom of feeling for the natives, maintains that their refusal to receive the faith was the cause of the incessant warfare. On this subject he writes: "It causes me much pain, disgust, and affliction to read some books which attempt, with artificial piety, to persuade us that the Indians were innocent and inoffensive lambs, and that the Christians were cruel furies, it being certain that these races while in a condition of paganism were greater butchers than blood-thirsty wolves, more cruel than lamiæ, harpies, and infernal furies, and, were it not for subjection and fear, they would neither have become Christians nor now remain so." 29-32. The matter contained in his work is badly arranged; the sentences drawn out to a puzzling length, a fault which, in addition to a lack of proper punctuation, renders the recital of facts frequently confusing. Information of the neighboring provinces can, in a less degree, be obtained from this volume.