Mexican Inquisition - Arrival of Inquisition

Arrival of Inquisition

At the time of the discovery and conquest of the New World, Cardinal Adrian de Utrecht was the Inquisitor General of Spain. He appointed Pedro de Cordoba as Inquisitor for the West Indies in 1520. He also had inquisitorial powers in Mexico after the conquest but did not have the official title. When Juan de Zumarraga became the first Bishop of Mexico in 1535, he also had these duties. One of Zumarraga’s first act as inquisitor was the prosecution of an Aztec lord who took the name of Carlos upon baptism. He was likely a nephew of Nezahualcoyotl. Zumarraga accused this lord of reverting back to worship of the old gods and had him burned at the stake on 30 November 1539. However, this persecution was not considered prudent by either the Spanish secular or religious authorities and Zumarraga himself was reprimanded for it. For a number of reasons persecution of the Indians for religious offenses was not actively pursued. First of all, since many native practices had parallels in Christianity, and since this “paganism” was neither the Judaic or Islamic faiths that Spanish Christians had fought so zealously against, ecclesiastical authorities opted instead to push native practices in Christian directions. Also, many of the monks sent to evangelize the native peoples became protectors of them from the extremely cruel treatment at the hands of secular authorities. This would contrast sharply with treatment of European heretics later in the colonial period. However, as a practical matter it was probably not prudent to pursue such rigid enforcement in an environment where native peoples vastly outnumbered the European conquerors, who also needed to rule through indigenous intermediaries.

This is part of the reason why the Inquisition was not formally established in New Spain until 1571. However, this is not to say that Inquisition-like tactics were never used after the Aztec lord Carlos’ execution. Antagonism with the Spanish led to the Maya resistance in the Yucatan in 1546–1547. The failure of this movement prompted more aggressive evangelization, with the Franciscans finding out that despite their efforts much of traditional beliefs and practice survived. They, under the leadership of Fray Diego de Landa, decided to make an example of those they considered back-sliders without regard to proper legal formalities. Large numbers of people were subjected to torture and as many of the Maya sacred books as could be found were burned.