Franciscans and Jesuits

Differences between Nouvelle-France Jesuits and Nuevo México Franciscans probably had less to do with beliefs of their founders than with ways their orders served the kings upon whom they were dependent.

In Spain, all priests, regardless of order, were expected to serve as arms of the Inquisition. They were trained to spot signs of covert Jewishness. Parishioners, like Leonor Domínguez, learned to maintain outward manifestations of faith, even when under duress. Everyone judged the Españolness of others.

When Franciscans came north with Juan de Oñate and Diego de Varga they did nothing to convert sedentary pueblos. Military leaders pacified settlements, then assigned priests to administer them. That meant transforming adults and older children into laborers who behaved like Españoles. Priests were expected to report any seditious behavior.

Natives weren’t actually accorded the status of Españoles, but were defined as children being guided by fathers. Their marriages weren’t scrutinized in the same way. Angélico Chávez said, they didn’t submit diligencias matrimoniales.

When priests found kivas and dances persisted before the Revolt, they didn’t try to persuade. They asked the state to intervene. When they discovered pueblos hadn’t altered their marriage ways, the 1714 governor, Juan Flores Magollón, "ordered that married couples in Indian pueblos should live together rather than with their individual parents, as was the custom." He saw it as a "reversion to Indian habits that the Spanish were trying to break."

Explorers in New France found no easily exploitable natural resources. They did find fur. They were able to convert native bands into commercial hunters who traded pelts for European goods. Traders had no choice but to learn the languages and trading rituals of natives. If the priests wanted to convert mobile societies, they had to follow traders and persuade by example.

In 1700, when the War of Spanish Succession began, alliances with native groups became critical to the military success of France, England, and Spain. When the missionary François-Jolliet de Montigny settled with the Taensa near the confluence of the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers in 1703, he didn’t destroy their temple.

When a smallpox epidemic ravaged the village, he baptized dying infants and those adults he believed understood the purpose of his prayers. When the chief died, he didn’t interfere with the death rituals. He only acted to persuade people not to make human sacrifices.

He was away when the temple burned and women began throwing infants into the fire. It was only then other Frenchmen in the village contravened native customs.

Like the coureurs and priests Juan de Ulibarrí was expected to provide information on indios bárbaros when he went to El Cuartelejo for the governor. He reported the Jicarilla "were very good people; that had not stolen anything from anyone, but occupied themselves with their maize and corn fields which they harvest, because they are busy with the sowing of corn, frijoles, and pumpkins."

After talking with the El Cuartelejo, he wrote: "The first thing is they are more inclined toward our Catholic faith than any of those that are thus reduced." He added, "at the end of July they had gathered crops of Indian corn, watermelons, pumpkins, and kidney beans [...] So that, because of the fertility of the land, the docility of the people, and the abundance of buffalo, and other game, the propagation of our holy Catholic faith could be advanced very much."

Compare that to the 1673 meeting between the Jesuit priest, Jacques Marquette, and the Illinois. He described the calumet dance in detail, and noted: "They have several wives, of whom they are Extremely jealous; they watch them very closely, and Cut off Their noses or ears when they misbehave." Of their food, he said:

"They live by hunting, game being plentiful in that country, and on indian corn, of which they always have a good crop; consequently, they have never suffered from famine. They also sow beans and melons, which are Excellent, especially those that have red seeds. Their Squashes are not of the best; they dry them in the sun, to eat them during The winter and the spring."

He adds, "Their Cabins are very large, and are Roofed and floored with mats made of Rushes" and "They are liberal in cases of illness, and Think that the effect of the medicines administered to them is in proportion to the presents given to the physician."

It was perhaps too much to expect soldiers to make the same kind of ethnographic observations as priests. It wasn’t simply that the ones were more educated than the others. The ability of a good military leader to locate water in barren lands and ensure the safety of hundreds of horses in treacherous terrain was simply different.

Ulibarrí had a priest with him. So far as I know, he made no report. He stayed with the Spaniards when Ulibarrí was meeting with El Cuartelejo leaders. It was only after the chief took them to a cross that Domingo de Aranz appeared to consummate the pacification and intone "the Te Deum Laudemus and the rest of the prayers and sang three times the hymn in praise of the sacrament."

They were given a hymn of praise, but not a full mass. They weren’t yet professors of the faith.

Notes: Montigny was one of the missionaries sent by the Séminaire des Missions Étrangères in 1698; see posting for 17 May 2015.

Chávez, Angélico. New Mexico Roots, Ltd, 1982.

Flores Magollón, Juan Ignacio. Order, 30 April 1714, quoted by Frederic J. Athearn in A Forgotten Kingdom, 1978. The translation does not indicate which pueblo was involved.

Gallay, Alan. The Indian Slave Trade, 2002; on Montigny.

Marquette, Jacques. Journal included in Claude Dablon’s "Le Premier Voÿage Qu’a Fait Le P. Marquette vers le Nouveau Mexique," translated by Reuben Gold Thwaites in The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, volume 59, 1899.

Ulibarrí, Juan de. Diary of expedition to El Cuartelejo, 1706, in Alfred B. Thomas, After Coronado, 1935.