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The Inquisition Brotherhood: Cofradía de San Pedro Martir of Colonial Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Richard E. Greenleaf
Richard E. Greenleaf*
Affiliation:
Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana
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Extract

As part of its religious, social and political mission, personnel of Mexico's Holy Office of the Inquisition were organized into a brotherhood, the Cofradía de San Pedro Martir, patron saint of the Inquisition. Although the Inquisition had functioned in New Spain from 1522, the brotherhood was not formally established until 1656. San Pedro Martir differed in many respects from other urban and rural confraternities in the viceroyalty. An outgrowth of Cruce-signati in the medieval inquisition, the Cofradía founded by Pope Innocent IV in 1252 after the murder of Inquisitor Peter Martir of Verona, came to Spain in the late fifteenth century. In the Iberian peninsula “Colegios de Familiares” formed and later developed into Cofradías whose membership was drawn from the Familiatura, a body of non-salaried Inquisition police known as Familiares.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , October 1983 , pp. 171 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1983

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References

1 Lavrin, Asunción, “Worlds in Contrast: Rural and Urban Cofradías in Mexico at the End of the Eighteenth Century,” Paper presented to Conference on “The Church and Society in Latin America,” Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 30, 1982 Google Scholar and “La Congregación de San Pedro: Una Cofradía Urbana del México Colonial 1640–1730,” Historia Mexicana, Vol. 29 (1980) pp. 562–601, stress the diversity of rural and urban confraternities as well as their ethnic and class differences, wealth, religious activities and social significance. These works contain complete bibliography on Cofradías in Colonial Mexico. The nature of Cofradías is aptly described by González Ponce, Enrique B. in his introduction to Catálogo del Ramo Cofradías y Archicofradías (México, D.F.: Archivo General de la Nación, 1978), pp. 1–6.Google Scholar

2 There is no general study of the Cofradía de San Pedro Martir in Spain or in the New World. Lea, Henry C., A History of the Inquisition of Spain (4 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1908), Vol. 2, pp. 232–234 Google Scholar provides brief notes on the Cofradía’s origins; Kamen, Henry, The Spanish Inquisition (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965), p. 145 Google Scholar mentions the Hermandad or Congregation of San Pedro Martir in Spain.

3 The Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (AHN) contains several legajos of documents on the Cofradía de San Pedro Martir in the Tribunal de Corte of The Suprema (Consejo de la Suprema y General Inquisición) in AHN, Inquisición, Libros 6, 7, 8; in the Tribunal of Córdoba in AHN, Inquisición, Libro 32; Tribunal of Sevilla in AHN, Inquisición, Libro 72 and Legajo 5289; Tribunal de Toledo in AHN, Inquisición,. Legajo 4798; Tribunal de Valencia in AHN, Inquisición, Legajo 4671; and in a branch of the Cofradía in Murcia in AHN, Inquisición, Libro 500.

4 See studies of this period by Greenleaf, Richard E., Zumárraga and the Mexican Inquisition 1536–1543 (Washington, D.C.: Academy of American Franciscan History, 1962)Google Scholar and The Mexican Inquisition of the Sixteenth Century (Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico Press, 1969).

5 Medina, José Toribio, Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición en México (México, D.F.: Editorial Navarro, 1954), p. 23.Google Scholar

6 Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico (AGN), Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 132, f. 217.

7 AHN, Inquisición, Libro 497, Carta acordada 204.

8 See printed Compendio de Indulgencias Concedidas a Los Ministros y demás Personas, Que se Emplean en el Servicio del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición 1238–1611 in AGN, Inquisición (Archivo Provisional), Legajo 29, exp. 32; Ibid, Legajo 2 has a “Compendio de las Indulgencias concedidas a los Ministros Internos del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición de Mexico” which specifies that they apply to both the Familiatura and the Cofradía de San Pedro Martir, and which lists all benefits, privileges and exemptions—some twenty categories—of the “Familiatura Fuero.”

9 The instructions for setting up an Inquisition bureaucracy in Mexico are set forth in “Instrucción a los Inquisidores do la Nueva España, Madrid 18 agosto de 1572,” AGN, Catálogo del Ramo de Inquisición. Tomo I (México: Archivo General de la Nación, 1979), pp. 12–21; AHN, Libro 252.

10 See Greenleaf, Richard E., “Antonio de Espejo and The Mexican Inquisition 1571–1586,” The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, Vol. 27 (1971), pp. 271–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For the parallel situation in Spain see Bennassar, Bartolomé, “Aux origines du caciquisme: Les familiers de l’Inquisition en Andalouise au XVIle siècle,” Caravelle, Vol. 27 (1976), pp. 63–71.Google Scholar

11 See the excellent financial study of Phipps, Helen, “Notes on Medina Rico’s ‘Visita de Hacienda’ to the Inquisition of Mexico,” Todd Memorial Volumes (3 vols., New York: Columbia University Press, 1930), Vol. 2, pp. 79–89,Google Scholar and the observations in Inquisition finance in Greenleaf, Richard E., “The Inquisition in Colonial Mexico: Heretical Thoughts on the Spiritual Conquest,” Religion in Latin American Life and Literature, eds. Brown, Lyle C. and Cooper, William (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 1980), pp. 70–82.Google Scholar For the so-called Grand Complicity or Jewish Conspiracy in Mexico see the works of Liebman, Seymour B., “The Great Conspiracy in New Spain,” The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, Vol. 30 (1973), pp. 18–31 CrossRefGoogle Scholar and The Jews in New Spain (Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1970), pp. 215–235, and Hordes, Stanley M., “The Inquisition as Economic and Political Agent: The Campaign of the Mexican Holy Office against the Crypto-Jews in the Mid-Seventeenth Century,” The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, Vol. 39 (1982), pp. 23–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 “Reglas y Constituciones que han de guardar los Señores Inquisidores, Fiscales, Scretarios, Officiates, Calificadores, Consultores, Abogados, Comissarios, Notarios, Honestas personas, Capellanes, Familiares y otros qualisquier Ministros del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición de esta Ciudad de México de la Nueva España, como Cofrades de la Noblissima y Santa Cofradía de Señor San Pedro Martir, principal Patrono, y Fundador de el Santo Oficio de la Inquisición. México, 1657–1820,” Hans P. Kraus Collection of Hispanic American Manuscripts, Library of Congress, Document 151A. This is the official record book, in manuscript, of the Cofradía. A printed version with the same title was issued by La Imprenta del Secreto del Santo Oficio por la Viuda de B. Calderón, 1659. Copies of the imprint are available in the Kraus Collection, Library of Congress and the Latin American Library of Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.

13 “Reglas y Constituciones,” Chapters 1,2,5 describe in detail the Inquisition’s mission to combat heresy and the place of Cofradía San Pedro Martir in preserving the posture of orthodoxy in New Spain.

14 AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 132, f. 4.

15 “Reglas y Constituciones,” Chapter 4.

16 See the conversion and education aspects of Holy Office procedures in Greenleaf, Richard E., “North American Protestants and the Mexican Inquisition, 1765–1820,” A Journal of Church and State, Vol. 8 (1966), pp. 181–196.Google Scholar

17 “Reglas y Constituciones,” Chapters 6-10. See the more ornate handbook for proceedings of the Madrid Tribunal’s Cofradía: Estatutos y Constituciones de la Ilustre Congregación del Señor San Pedro Martir Compuesta de Señores Inquisidores y Ministros del Santo Oficio, Subalternos del Consejo de S. M. de la Santa General Inquisición y Tribunal del Corte (Madrid: Joachin Ibarra, 1792).

18 Other than the official “Reglas y Constituciones” of the Cofradía which contain reports of meetings from 1656 to 1820, financial records have been uncovered by the author in the following branches of the archives: Cofradías y Archicofradías, Inquisición, Real Fisco de la Inquisición, Intendentes, Temporalidades, Bienes Nacionales, Justicia Eclesiástica—all in Mexico; and AHN, Inquisición, AGI, Indiferente in Spain.

19 “Reglas y Constituciones” Transaction of August 14,1664 (without page numbers) contains the inventory. Canon Antonio Ortiz de Zuñiga through the good offices of Bishop Bartolomé González Soltero in 1643 donated the following to San Pedro Martir: A residential lot with house; an image of San Pedro Martir on a ceremonial vestment worn by bishops; some elaborately decorated wooden biers; an embroidered velvet pillow; two gilded keys to be placed on the pillow; a richly decorated standard with velvet covering; four small cushions with velvet coverings for the biers. Other donations included: a silver reliquary from the Philippines; four wooden Horquillas and a lectern given by Lic. Francisco López Sanz who also donated a marble altar; two silver ballot boxes and two silver containers used for elections; a relic of San Pedro Martir donated by Rev. Juan de Burgos, Calificador.

20 AGN, Cofradías y Archicofradías, Vol. 17, exp. 5.

21 “Reglas y Constituciones,” Transactions of January 7, 1665; May 7, 1672.

22 AGN, Cofradías y Archicofradías, Vol. 17, exp. 4.

23 AGN, Cofradías y Archicofradías, Vol. 17, exp. 4.

24 “Reglas y Constituciones,” Transaction of January 7, 1669.

25 AGN, Cofradías y Archicofradías, Vol. 17, exp. 4. The Inquisitors themselves set an example to emulate. Senior Inquisitor Pedro Medina Rico contributed 200 pesos, Inquisitor Juan Saenz de Mañozca 300 pesos, Inquisitor Estrada 100 pesos. Accountant Pedro Soto López gave the largest amount—500 pesos—followed by a total of 454 pesos from the lesser officials.

26 AGN, Cofradías y Archicofradías, Vol. 17, exp. 1 has accounts for the years up to 1664; Ibid, Vol. 17, exp. 2 contains expenses for most years from 1668 to 1741.

27 The Cofradía del Señor San Pedro Martir of The Tribunal de Corte of the Inquisition in Madrid charged an initiation fee (propina) of 120 reales for non-Holy Office functionaries and of 90 reales for Ministers of other Tribunals. Annual dues were 200 reales. If one couldn’t afford to be Hermano Mayor the treasury would grant him 3,000 reales yearly to accept. Estatutos y Constituciones, pp. 19–22.

28 “Reglas y Constituciones,” Meeting of January 9, 1702.

29 AGN, Edictos del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición, Vol. 2, fol. 150–151.

30 AGN, Cofradías y Archicofradías, Vol. 17, exp. 4.

31 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 746, exp. 1.

32 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1419, exp. 6, f. 341. Fora thoroughgoing description of how Chaplaincies were founded and how they operated see Costello, Michael P., “A Capellanía in Mexico 1665–1779: A Case History,” Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 42 (1976), pp. 604–617.Google Scholar

33 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1419, exp. 6, f. 339ν.

34 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1419, exp. 6, f. 341ν.

35 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1419, exp. 6, fs. 339ν–440.

36 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1177, exp. 4.

37 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 420, pp. 173–279, “Censos Impuestos a favor de la Cofradía de San Pedro Martir 1749–1755.” These accounts, particularly of feast days, continue those in AGN, Cofradías y Archicofradías, Vol. 17, exp. 2, which covers 1668–1741.

38 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 999, exp. 1.

39 AGN, Temporalidades, Vol. 121, exp. 6.

40 AGN, Cofradías y Archicofradías, Vol. 17, exp. 3.

41 Financial records of the Cofradía are strangely sparse after 1764, and until 1788. It is fair to speculate that the Holy Office was already wary of the new monarch Charles III (1759–1788) who was soon to move against the Jesuits, diminish the influence of the Inquisition, tax the Church, and question the utility of Cofradías.

42 “Reglas y Constituciones,” Meeting of January 7, 1741.

43 Ibid. Meeting of January 3, 1753.

44 Kamen, , The Spanish Inquisition, p. 145.Google Scholar

45 “Reglas y Constituciones,” Meeting of January 7, 1772.

46 “Reglas y Constituciones,” Meeting of January 7, 1774.

47 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1190, exp. 7.

48 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1190, exp. 10.

49 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1190, exp. 9.

50 AHN, Inquisición, Legajo 2292, exp. 1.

51 “Reglas y Constituciones,” Meeting of January 7, 1804.

52 See Farriss, Nancy M., Crown and Clergy in Colonial Mexico, 1759–1821. The Crisis of Ecclesiastical Privilege (London: Athlone Press, 1968).Google Scholar

53 See Greenleaf, Richard E., “The Mexican Inquisition and The Enlightenment 1763–1805,” New Mexico Historical Review, Vol. 41 (1966), pp. 181–196,Google Scholar and by the same author “The Inquisition and The Indians of New Spain: A Study in Jurisdictional Confusion,” The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, Vol. 22 (1965), pp. 138–166. Immunities of the Familiares began to be limited as early as 1760, Lea, Henry C., The Inquisition in The Spanish Dependencies (New York: MacMillan, 1922), p. 269.Google Scholar

54 See Greenleaf, Richard E., The Roman Catholic Church in Colonial Latin America (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1971), pp. 151–194,Google Scholar and Costeloe, Michael P., Church Wealth in Mexico (Cambridge: University Press, 1967).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55 AGN, Cofradías y Archicofradías, Vol. 18, exp. 6; exp. 19; Historia, Vols. 312, 314; Clero Regular y Secular, Vol. 72, exp. 20, fs. 383–500.

56 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 765, exp. 8.

57 Bauer, Arnold J., “The Church in the Economy of Latin America: Censos y Depósitos in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” Paper Presented to Conference on “The Church and Society in Latin America,” Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 30, 1982.Google Scholar

58 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1177, exp. 4; and AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 132, fs. 217 ff.

59 Senior Inquisitor Bergosa y Jordán was named Chaplain and served until 1801 when he was promoted to the Bishopric of Oaxaca. There are records of succession of Capellanes until 1818 in this expediente, Ibid. It also appears that more capital was added to the interest base after 1800.

60 AGN, Archivo Provisional de la Inquisición (Serie Greenleaf), Caja 25. For notes on the Archivo Provisional and the Serie Greenleaf, see Greenleaf, Richard E., “The Archivo Provisional de la Inquisición (México). A Descriptive Checklist,” The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, Vol. 31 (1974), pp. 206–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

61 “Reglas y Constituciones,” meeting of January 7, 1804, contains reprimands of Hermanos Mayores for excessive expenditure.

62 Costeloe, , Church Wealth in Mexico, pp. 111–113 Google Scholar has succinct data on the Consolidación. See also Lavrin, Asunción, “The Execution of the Law of Consolidación in New Spain: Economic Aims and Results,” Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 53 (1973), pp. 27–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

63 AGN, Consolidación, Vol. 1, exp. 12.

64 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1439.

65 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1455, f. 116–121.

66 Medina, , Historia del Tribunal, p. 458.Google Scholar

67 These inventories and the accounts of the 1820 abolition are collected in an entire volume of records in AGN, Intendentes, Vol. 42.

68 AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 3014, exp. 10, ramo 2; see also AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Vol. 67, exp. 42.

69 A breakdown of the Capitales Impuestos (Sums drawing Interest) is found in AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Legajo 67, exp. 14.

70 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1455, f. 125.

71 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1456, exps. 1–7. See also AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1453, exp. 2 for reports to the Intendant of these continuing payments.

72 AGN, Intendentes, Vol. 42, exp. 25.

73 AGN, Archivo Provisional de la Inquisición (Serie Greenleaf), Caja 25.

74 “Reglas y Constituciones,” Meetings of January 19, 1815; January 7, 1816; January 7, 1817; January 7, 1818.

75 AGN, Archivo Provisional de la Inquisición (Serie Greenleaf), Caja 25.

76 AGN, Inquisición, Voo. 1460, exp. 5, fs. 69–70.

77 AGN, Clero Regular y Secular, Vol. 184, exp. 2.

78 AGN, Temporalidades, Vol. 32, exp. 3.

79 Lea, , The Spanish Inquisition, Vol. 2, pp. 283–284,Google Scholar citing [currently] AHN, Inquisición, Libro 559 and Legajo 1473.

80 AHN, Inquisición, Legajo 1742, exp. 3.

81 Medina, , Historia del Tribunal, p. 505.Google Scholar

82 AGN, Temporalidades, Vol. 65, exp. 7.

83 AGN, Minas y Azogues, Vol. 219, exp. 27; See also AGN, Intendentes, Vol. 42, exp. 33.

84 AGN, Temporalidades, Vol. 65, exp. 9.

85 AGN, Intendentes, Vol. 42, exps. 4 and 33.

86 AGN, Temporalidades, Vol. 32, exp. 3.

87 AGN, Temporalidades, Vol. 32, exp. 4. A second remate was held in 1824 which netted the treasury only twenty-five additional pesos!

88 AGN, Archivo Provisional de la Inquisición (Serie Greenleaf), Caja 25.

89 Luis Mora, José María, México y sus Revoluciones (México, D.F.: Editorial Porrúa, 1950), Vol. 3, p. 350.Google Scholar

90 AGN, Justicia Eclesiastica, Vol. 132, fs. 4–11.

91 AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 3014, exp. 10, ramo 2 and AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Legajo 67, exp. 14.

92 AGN, Temporalidades, Vol. 32, exp. 1.

93 Centro de Estudios de la Historia de Mexico (CONDUMEX), Fondo 48–1, exp. 20.

94 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1419, exp. 6, fs. 337–341.

95 AGN, Real Fisco, Vol. 27, exps. 3 and 4.

96 AGN, Intendentes, Vol. 42, exp. 21.

97 This seems to have been the case in 1808 when the Cofradía transferred an important piece of urban real estate to the Vergara pious fund, a building worth 24,800 pesos. AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Legajo 67, exp. 42, fs. 2–2v.

98 These calculations are based on the 1813 audit as compared with the 1820 audit and adjusted for sums left out of both. See primarily AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 3014, exp. 10; AGN, Intendentes, Vol. 42, exp. 4; AGN, Temporalidades, Vol. 32, exp. 1; AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Legajo 67, exp. 14; and AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 132, fs. 4–11.

99 AGN, Intendentes, Vol. 42, exp. 27.

100 “Letter of September 26,1822,” AGN, Intendentes, Vol. 42, exp. 33. He continued to insist that San Pedro Martir and Vergara properties were not part of Holy Office possessions.

101 AGN, Real Fisco, Vol. 27; exp. 3.

102 AGN, Temporalidades, Vol. 65, exp. 10.

103 AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1419, exp. 6, fs. 337–341.

104 When the final abolition of the Inquisition came in 1820, its archive of trial records and administrative affairs were remanded to the Archbishopric. The financial records of the Real Fisco de la Inquisición were confiscated by the Intendant. Years passed before they were put in order.

105 The Juzgado de Capellanías of the Archbishopric had been under orders since 1824 to retain interest on capellanías held by people outside the Republic. Costeloe, , Church Wealth in Mexico, p. 58.Google Scholar This order was not enforced vis-a-vis the Holy Office.

106 AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 132, fs. 217–238.

107 A careful search of the files would have turned up the desired copy. Today it is in AGN, Inquisición, Vol. 1177, exp. 4.

108 A fascinating sidelight to this entire matter is recorded in October 1837, when Lucas Alamán applied for a 4,000-peso loan when he learned a pious fund was to be redeemed. Costeloe, , Church Wealth in Mexico, pp. 69–73.Google Scholar

109 A thoroughgoing study of Inquisition wealth and what happened to it in the nineteenth century is part of the forthcoming work of Richard E. Greenleaf, “The Inquisition in Bourbon Mexico.”

110 See Greenleaf, Richard E., “The Inquisition in Colonial Mexico: Heretical Thoughts on The Spiritual Conquest,” pp. 70–82.Google Scholar

111 See Greenleaf, Richard E., “The Mexican Inquisition and The Masonic Movement: 1751–1820,” New Mexico Historical Review, Vol. 44 (1969), pp. 92–117.Google Scholar

112 These attitudes are examined in Greenleaf, “The Mexican Inquisition and The Enlightenment,” pp. 181–184, 189–191.

113 Lea, , The Inquisition of Spain, Vol. 4, p. 432.Google Scholar

114 Arnold J. Bauer, “The Church in the Latin American Economy: Censos and Depósitos in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.”

115 Brading, David A., Haciendas and Ranchos in the Mexican Bajío: León 1700–1860 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), p. 91.Google Scholar