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A. Acts of the III Mexican Council1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Ernest J. Burrus
Ernest J. Burrus*
Affiliation:
Institutum Historicum S. J., Rome, Italy
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Extract

En la ciudad de Mexico, sabado veynte y seis dias del mes de henero de mill e quinientos y ochenta y cinco años, el sancto concilio provincial mexicano, canonicamente congregado, presidiendo en el el Ill.mo don Pedro Moya de Contreras, Arçobispo desta dicha ciudad, y assistiendo en el, en nombre de su Magestad, como Visitador, Governador y Capitan general que es desta Nueba España y Presidente del Audiencia Real, que en ella reside, y los reverendissimos obispos sufraganeos convocados, conviene a saber: don fray Gomez de Cordova, Obispo de Guatemala; don fray Joan Medina, Obispo de Mechoacán; don Diego Romano, Obispo de Tlaxcala; don fray Gregorio de Montalvo, Obispo de Yucatán; don fray Domingo de Alçola, Obispo de la Nueba Galizia; y don fray Bartholomé de Ledesma, Obispo de Guaxaca.

Type
Documents
Information
The Americas , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , October 1958 , pp. 179 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1958

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Footnotes

1

The Bancroft Library possesses the following manuscripts pertinent to the four Councils: MM 59 is a manuscript copy of the printed edition of the 1771 catechism; MM 68 is the original, with signatures and seal, of the IV Council catechism; MM 69–70 are the acts of the IV Council; MM 732 contains a summary of MM 70, five books of decrees with a marginal commentary; MM 266 contains the acts of the 1555, 1565, and 1585 Councils and according to the original index once contained (folios 20–33) the III Council catechism; MM 267 contains the Spanish original of the five books of decrees of the III Council; MM 268 contains the original minutes of the III Council, the various memorials requested by the Council or submitted to it and (folios 445bis–455v) the III Council catechism with corrections; MM 269 deals especially with the promulgation of the decrees drawn up by the III Council but also several important treatises on moral and legal topics.

The Museo Nacional, Colección Antigua mss. 526–527 also has information. Ms. 526 contains numerous acts and documents omitted in the Bancroft documents, especially in regard to the suppression of the Society of Jesus and the supplanting of the Ripalda catechism; it contains both the III and IV Council catechisms (folios 316–323, and 324–345v, respectively). Ms. 527 contains opinions of royal officials regarding the IV Council.

The following document is taken from Bancroft Library, MM 268, folios 71–72. It is all in the handwriting of Juan de Salcedo, Secretary of the III Mexican Council. Permission to publish it was kindly given by the Bancroft Library through its Director, Dr. George P. Hammond.

References

2 Pedro Moya de Contreras was archbishop of Mexico City from November 10, 1573 until January 7, 1591 and Viceroy of New Spain from September 25, 1583 until October 17, 1585 (Alegre, F.J. S.J., Historia de la Provincia de la Compañía de Jesús de Nueva España, 1 [Rome: Institutum Historicum S. J., 1956], 33,Google Scholar 36).

3 In the original manuscript, marginal captions are given for each paragraph: Ia pe; 2a pe; 3a pe.

4 The original of the III Council’s catechism (Bancroft Library MM 268, folios 453v–454) adds a fourth part: “ Lo que se ha de enseñar a los que en enfermedad peligrosa se baptizan y assi mismo a los viejos y rudos que no son capaces de catechismo mas largo.” This fourth part of the III Council’s catechism contains the instructions of Father Juan de la Plaza, which were ultimately printed in the manual for priests.

5 As has been stated in the article, all editions of the acts of the III Council presuppose that the catechism ordered by the same Council was actually published and was available. They prescribe that only this catechism was to be used: this may have helped form the opinion that it had been printed and was the one in common use. Thus Pérez de Rivas, op. cit., II, 34: “ De este Concilio resultó que el mismo Padre [Juan de la Plaza] hiciese aquel catecismo de los niños que comúnmente ha corrido en la Nueva España”; and Varones ilustres, no. 15, folio 48v Vida del Padre Juan de la Plaza, in the Museo Nacional (Arch. Gen. IXbis) : “… y aun dizen que aquel catechismo que salio deste Concilio ν ha corrido en la Nueva España lo compuso el Padre Plaza. …”