Weckmann Edad Media y America-Speculum

The Middle Ages in the Conquest of America
Author(s): Luis Weckmann

Source: Speculum, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Jan., 1951), pp. 130-141
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2852087
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THE MIDDLE AGES IN THE CONQUEST
OF AMERICA*
BY LUIS WECKMANN
THE purpose of this paper is not so much to present to the membe

Academy any particular point as to call their attention to the numerous m
survivals scattered throughout the early and middle history of Lat
to which, for no apparent reason, little or no attention has been pa
mediaevalist it is interesting to note that there exists a natural continuit
the Middle Ages in Europe - and especially the Spanish Middle A
the early institutional and cultural life of the Ibero-American colonie
to prove, the Middle Ages found their last expression on this side of the
where, after the termination of the mediaeval period in Europe, an
setting for the development of mediaeval ideals existed for an exten
in the Spanish New World while, contemporarily in Europe, the Re
formation and the so-termed Italian Renaissance were causing the ab
of the essentials that sustained mediaeval Christendom.
Although Renaissance thought has its importance in the shaping of early
Latin American civilization, and some of the conquerors, notably Cortes, were
Renaissance men in their fondness for the visible, material things - grandeur,
wealth, fame - it is nonetheless true that some old mediaeval trends, perhaps
nowhere stronger than in Spain, the land of perennial crusading, greatly in-
fluenced the early course of Latin American life. That should not surprise anyone.
Forced to remain long in the background of European evolution, due to her al-
most constant state of warfare, Spain realized, later than any other country in
western Europe, the flowering of her mediaeval civilization. Thus, Spain was able
to transmit to America, as a living product and not as a dead tradition, many of
her mediaeval accomplishments. There was no waning of the Middle Ages in
Spain as there was during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in the rest of
Europe. Spain found herself in the autumn of the Middle Ages during the first
two centuries of her modern history, when, against insurmountable odds, she
strove to keep alive and dominant such mediaeval ideals as those embodied in
the ecclesia universalis and in the universal empire. The conception of a uni-
versal empire, the Company of Jesus, the new mysticism of St Theresa and of St
John of the Cross, the new scholasticism of Vitoria and Su&rez, the romance of
chivalry, the Romancero and the theater represented the late fruits which the
Spanish mediaeval spirit produced well into the modern age.'
Columbus, the first link between the Old World and the New, stands in a
clearer light, perhaps, if we envisage him not so much as the first of the modern
explorers but as the last of the great mediaeval travelers. Although there is no
doubt that Columbus' mind was affected by Renaissance trends, we can still
* This paper was read at the twenty-fifth annual meeting of the Mediaeval Academy of America,
held in Boston, on 14 April 1950. The author wishes to thank Mr Maurice L. Stafford and Dr Lorna
Lavery Stafford, of Mexico City College, for their help in revising the English version of this paper.
130
The Middle Ages in the Conquest of America 131
say that this man, the spiritual heir of Marco Polo, was impelled by mediaeval
quests and geographical puzzles towards the exploration of new routes of naviga-
tion. Was it not on the basis of Marco Polo's report (on his first voyage Columbus
took with him Marco Polo's writings2), even if this was complemented by newer
works, that he set out to find the fabulously rich islands, off the coast of Asia,
so lavishly and imaginatively described by the Venetian? Still other mediaeval
legends concerning the existence of islands to the West and current in Columbus'
days were known to him and in part impelled him to the undertaking of his
voyages. Antillia (whence Antilles), St Brandan's Isle, Brasil, the Island of Seven
Cities, were among those legendary isles.3 Columbus never outgrew these geo-
graphical conceptions. In all his travels, when navigating through the Antilles
or bordering the coasts of the American mainland, he thought (as his diary shows)
that he was visiting the many islands which, as he said, were depicted in mediae-
val maps at the end of the Orient in the vicinity of Cathay.4 The discoverer
writes in the letter of his Fourth Voyage5 that he reached on 13 May (1503) the
province of Mago (mentioned by Marco Polo) adjacent to Cathay, although he
was skirting the coastline of Central America. Before his final homeward voyage
Columbus wrote to the pope that he had taken, in the name of Spain, 1400 islands
and 333 leagues of the continent of Asia, besides many other great and famous
islands. This island, he adds, referring to Espanola, is Scythia, is Tarsis, is Ophir,
and Ophaz and Cipango.6 If such were the geographical convictions of the dis-
coverer, what then is strange in the fact that the papacy, barely a few months
after the discovery, divided these newly-found lands, mainly islands, between
Spain and Portugal on the basis of the then uncontested doctrine that all islands
belong to the Holy See, a curious mediaeval theory whose ultimate basis lay, as
I have tried to prove7, in the 'Donation of Constantine'? The fact that the so
much misunderstood Alexandrine bulls of 1493 find their support in what we can
term 'the most illustrious forgery of the Middle Ages' could not have given our
continent a more mediaeval baptism. This quest of the islands, so rich in spices
and pearls and precious metals, lures the imagination not only of Columbus but
also of many later Spanish travelers. Cortes in his Cartas de Relaci6n makes
allusions to them, to the wealth and secrets and 'admirable things' they hide.8
In South America, Gonzalo Pizarro headed an expedition in 1539 to find the rich
lands of cinnamon and precious metals reported to exist beyond the mountains
to the east of Quito.9
Perhaps most poignantly mediaeval of all was the conviction displayed by
Columbus in the course of his third voyage, when he firmly asserted that he had
found nothing less than the Terrestrial Paradise. To support his assertion, he
quotes, in genuine mediaeval fashion, the opinions of St Isidore, of the Venerable
Bede, of the 'master of scholastic history' (i.e., Petrus Comestor), of St Ambrose
and of Johannes Scotus, all of whom had placed the earthly Paradise in the East.
The earth, Columbus claims, is pear-shaped and Paradise lies in its highest
summit. He reports that he was able to locate the Terrestrial Paradise after
having encountered the mouths of the four rivers of Genesis that proceed from
the Tree of Life, when he mistook the delta of the Orinoco river for the paradisi-
132 The Middle Ages in the Conquest of America
acal streams.'1 The site of Paradise was so rich, asserted the discoverer, that
with its wealth he could finance an army of 100,000 infantrymen and 10,000
cavalrymen with which the old mediaeval goal of recovering the Holy Sepulchre
could be attained.11 Columbus also rejoices at the thought that he has found a
new land where the Lord can be served by the divulgation of His Holy Name
and Faith among so many new peoples, a truly mediaeval attitude.12 In other
minor details, such as in the method of time computations, in Columbus'
writings as well as in those of his pilots and staff, and in the diaries of subsequent
explorers, mediaeval usages are likewise followed.13
The mediaeval world was surrounded by a realm of fable. Beyond the known
lands there existed others, populated in mediaeval fantasy (drawn, it is true,
from ancient sources, and distorted) by all kinds of mythical beings, monsters,
enchantments so charmingly depicted in mediaeval mappaemundi. Such were, for
instance, the giants, pygmies, gimnosophists, sciopodies, Amazons, cinocephali,
boys with white hair, people who lived only on smells, headless beings with eyes
on the stomach, bearded women, etc., so dear to the mind of St Isidore, together
with griffons, dragons, the Sea of Darkness, the Land of Prester John. As the dis-
coverers of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries came to venture to the
edges of the world it was supposed that, sooner or later, they would encounter
some of these mythical figures whose existence was, at least for a great number
of them, beyond dispute. Of special prominence in the early history of Latin
America is the quest for the Amazons, which seemed to have fascinated practically
every conqueror and which has left a permanent souvenir in the names of the
mightiest river of the continent and of the northernmost of Spain's provinces
in America: California. Columbus already, in his second voyage, refers to a cer-
tain island, Madanina, inhabited, according to Indian versions, only by women,
information that is put down soberly and sceptically by the historian of the
Indies.14 Cortes, in a letter to the king in 1524, refers to what is now Lower
California - presumably an island and at that time unvisited by Spaniards -
saying that it was inhabited only by women who, at given times, received visits
of men from the mainland. Of the issue only female children were kept, the males
being disposed of.15 The very name 'California' apparently derives from an island
of Amazons, ruled by Queen Calafia and mentioned in Las Sergas de Esplandidn,
a Spanish romance of chivalry and sequel of the famous Amadis de Gaula.16 The
same year Cortes instructs his lieutenant and cousin, Francisco Cortes, whom
he is sending to Colima, to search out the truth concerning the rumors of the
existence of Amazons in that province.17 When the self-willed and despotic
president of the first Audiencia of New Spain, Nufno de Guzman, flees from the
king's justice for his misrule he heads for the Mexican Northwest with an un-
authorized military expedition in an attempt to locate the kingdom of Cihuatlan,
legendary land of the Amazons, in order, by this exploit, to justify himself in the
eyes of his displeased sovereign.'8 Even before that, as early as 1518, Juan Diaz
believes in the existence of Amazons in the 'island' of Yucatan.19 Other conquerors
seek for those evasive women in Colombia20 and in the Plata region.21 A secretary
of the Royal Council, traveling in South America, and Pedro de Valdivia agree
in their belief that the Amazons really live somewhere in Chile.22 Finally,
Orellana boasts of having seen them along the banks of the river which now bears
their name.23
The Amazons, however, did not monopolize the imagination of the conquerors;
giants, too, were believed to have lived or to live still in the Antilles. Such is, at
least, what Diego Ordaz maintains in the early sixteenth century.24 The governor
of Cuba, Velazquez, believes in the existence of strange beings with great flat
ears and others with dog-like faces which he wants Cortes to locate in Aztec
lands;25 in Cibau, apparently, there are human beings still adorned with tails;26
somewhere else there are to be found hairless persons27 and as late as the middle
of the sixteenth century, according to an ancient legend, a dragon terrified every
afternoon the peaceful dwellers of the city of Puebla until the monster was killed
by a gallant knight. The memory of this deed still lingers in the old 'house of the
one who killed the animal' in that locality. Although explorers express their dis-
appointment at not finding the monsters they had hoped to encounter,28 some of
these mythical creatures have remained as motifs in early Latin American art
like the four figures of cinocephali adorning the fountain of the Franciscan con-
vent of Tepeaca in Puebla.29
The Fountain of Youth is another of those fascinating myths that lure the early
Spanish discoverers. Pedro Martir de Angleria, the protohistorian of America,
makes a passing reference to it as existing somewhere in the Caribbean, although
he expresses his disbelief in its existence.30 L6pez de G6mara, without com-
mitting himself one way or the other, also mentions it.31 The aged and experienced
Ponce de Le6n - perhaps because of his years - firmly believes in this Fountain
and goes forth to seek it after being informed that it is located in a certain island
called Bimini.32
Among the other recurrent legends of early American exploration, El Dorado,
the gilded man whose kingdom was so rich that his subjects painted him every
day with gold and washed him off at night,33 and Quivira and the Seven Cities
of Cibola, founded by seven mediaeval bishops, have conspicuous places, the
second legend having led to Coronado's discovery34 of the American Southwest,
where to this day New Mexico's folk plays represent a survival of mediaeval
mystery plays. L6pez de G6mara, author of the Historia General de las Indias,
the first seven chapters of which are in spirit and in form still mediaeval, weigh
the reasons advanced by the fathers of the church and by ancient writers for
and against the existence of antipodes. After wearisome references to Lactantius,
St Augustine, St Isidore and others, the author finally accepts the probability of
their existence in the New World,35 after which he passes on to discuss the belief
of the inhabitants of Iceland that Purgatory is to be located under their island.3
Among the fabulous beings which the imagination of the Spaniards places some-
where in America, room is reserved for the Devil himself. According to G6mara,
the Devil is the principal god worshipped in a certain island of the Caribbean
Sea where he appears many times and 'even speaks' to his devotees.37 To balance
this, we also find the Apostle Saint James, the Patron Saint of Spain, fighting
side by side with the Spaniards in many of their military engagements.38 The
New World is, no doubt, a land of hidden marvels, of untrodden mysteries; the
land, as Columbus said, of Alpha and Omega, where the sun rises and where the
sun sets,39 the beginning and end of the earth.
That the Spaniard of the sixteenth century was naturally prone to believe in
such marvels can be explained in part by the fact that the romances of chivalry,
partially outmoded in the rest of Europe, were still very popular among Spanish
readers. Ferdinand Columbus, son of the Discoverer, heads the list of prominent
men in the history of the New World who were attracted by this type of reading.40
When the army of Cortes, after an exhausting march, finally catches its first
glimpse of the city of Tenochtitlan, strange and beautiful, mirroring its colors in
the lake upon which it was built, Bernal Diaz, the soldier-chronicler of the ex-
pedition,41 merely comments: 'We were astonished and told ourselves that this
seemed like a thing of enchantment, such as they related in the book of Amadis,'
after which the conquering army entered the Aztec capital with all the trappings
of mediaeval splendor. Later on, when a rebellious soldier is condemned to death
he finds no better way to express his disagreement with his sentence, which he
attributes to tyranny rather than to justice, than to hope that sometime, in a
better future, the Twelve Peers will rule - a reference to the Historia de Carlo-
magno y de los Doce Pares, a romance of chivalry first published in Spain in (the
date is very revealing) 1525.42
In some episodes of the civil and urban life of the early colony, such as the
dinner offered in 1538 by the first viceroy of New Spain to commemorate the
signing of a peace treaty between Charles V and Francis I of France, all the
splendor of the most magnificent of all mediaeval courts, that of the dukes of
Burgundy, was reproduced. On this occasion, the pieces de resistance were huge
pastries filled with live quail and rabbits. The mises en scene, a favorite device
of the Burgundian dukes to entertain their guests and to display their wealth
and magnificence, were also continued in New Spain where, for example, the
main square of Mexico City would be converted into a lake and a naval battle
fought around a fortress built on an artificial island, the whole episode represent-
ing the siege of Rhodes by the Turks.43 Nothing strange in this, if it is remembered
that Charles V of Spain, himself born in Ghent, was the heir of Burgundian
policies and of Burgundian grandeur through his father, Philip the Fair.
In the legal and institutional realm of early America the mediaeval imprint is
equally patent. The Spaniards of the period retained the ideal of a universal
empire, of whose present incumbent they were but servants. Charles V remained
for them the dominus mundi, the legitimate and God-ordained lord of the world.
Sometimes, they found no better reason than this to demand from Indian rulers
their submission to the king. Typical is the case of Francisco Pizarro in Peru,
and his counsellor, Fray Vicente de Valverde, both of whom informed the last
of the ruling Incas that they were the envoys of the pope and the emperor, the
lords of the world, who demanded his submission to their authority.44 In the
legal terminology of this and of later ages we find many feudal reminiscences too:
the Indians are regarded as 'vassals', a somewhat ideal conception badly shattered
by reality;46 in the creation of titled estates with which the conquerors were re-
warded, in the terminology used in the documents of donation with their mention
of woods, pools, meadows and so forth, all are mindful of feudal Europe. The oath,
a basic institution of the feudal age, where it sustained the very fabric of society,
plays an important role in appeasement of internal quarrels, and in setting up
alliances between the conquerors. When, for instance, Almagro and Francisco
Pizarro were reconciled at Cuzco, they attended mass together and, joining hands
over the consecrated host, swore not to malign one another, not to send separate
reports to the emperor, and to share equally all profits - a scene which recalls
the famous story of the oath exacted from King Alfonso VI by the Cid46 and which
proved, may I add, equally ineffective.
The pastimes of the conquerors are still those of a feudal class: tournaments,
tourneys of canes (juegos de caias), hawking, etc., all of which presupposed a
mounted nobility. When Las Casas had in mind his scheme of colonization in
South America, at Cumana, he founded an order of 'Knights of the Golden Spur'
to finance it.47 Other usages, such as the cutting of boughs from trees in token of
taking possession of the land and the reservation of hidden treasures to the king,
the 'royal fifth', are also reminiscent of feudal practices. The derecho de lanzas
paid to the king by the early encomenderos corresponds in general to a feudal
scutage. The encomienda system itself, by placing a certain number of natives
under the protection and guide of a Spaniard, could be considered feudalistic
because conceived in the spirit of patronage, so characteristic of the feudal
world. But since land tenure was not included in this system, the encomienda
was deprived of what could have been its most feudal characteristic. Still, a
contemporary Mexican scholar, Federico G6mez de Orozco, thinks it possible to
trace the encomienda back to mediaeval Spain, where conditions similar to those
in sixteenth-century New Spain were created as the Christian kingdoms of the
peninsula in their southward expansion were faced with the problem of a newly
subjected class of non-Christians, and these new vassals of the crown were placed
in trust (en encomienda) with the military orders which were made responsible
for their spiritual welfare. Another thought should be given to the Capitaneas or
administrative divisions of Brazil in the colonial era that resemble very strongly
the type of administration prevalent during the late Middle Ages in the Madeira
and Azores islands; and the sesmarias, the Portuguese mediaeval form of land
grant introduced in Brazil after 1500, cannot pass unmentioned. Also, the
mediaeval Spanish institution of the municipality - of ancient extraction but
fortified by the role the townspeople played in the War of Reconquest - the
cabildo abierto, already obsolete in the peninsula, was revived in America by the
conquerors, eager to preserve for themselves and for their descendants a voice
in the internal government of the colonies.48
Perhaps nowhere else is more visible the imprint of the Middle Ages in America,
and especially in Mexico, than in the realm of art. Military architecture in the
beginnings of the sixteenth century, the early fortresses and castles built by the
first conquerors, with their moats, drawbridges and turrets, such as the
castles of Ulua and Acapulco, are still genuinely mediaeval, and the same can be
said of such walled cities as Campeche. In regard to religious edifices, conventual
architecture of the first and even of the second half of the sixteenth century
might be classified, according to Manuel Toussaint, Mexico's leading critic of
Colonial art, as a mediaeval survival. It can be said, adds that authority, that
the great fortified temples and convents of this period stand as the final expression
of the Middle Ages in the world.49
Mediaeval Spanish architectural styles - Gothic, Moorish and even Roman-
esque, not in its pristine purity, it is true, inasmuch as no preconceived plan was
followed and Indian ingenuity was an important new factor - are transmitted to
America. I am going to give very briefly some examples taken from Toussaint's
recent Historia del Arte Colonial en MExico.
The convent of Tepeaca (finished in 1580) still mirrors the Middle Ages with
all their rudeness and vigor.50 Mediaeval Gothic or, to be more exact, Isabeline
Gothic elements are still prevalent in the Franciscan convent of Zacualpan de
Amilpas5' and in the convent of Yecapixtla (built by the Franciscans between
1535 and 1540), the monument which preserves perhaps the greatest num-
ber of Gothic survivals in New Spain.62 When the structures of these imposing
early monastery-fortresses do not follow any architectural style in particular,
Gothic elements are concentrated in the facade and especially in the portal, as
in the very rich facade of the convent of Huaquechula (Puebla), where, in addi-
tion, exists a relief of mediaeval character depicting the Last Judgment and an
'open' chapel whose inner vault is considered the richest example of a Gothic
ceiling to be found in Mexico.3 The facade of the Augustinian convent of Actopan
has many Gothic features such as the great curved arch of the lintel.4 Although
in some cases, e.g., Tepoztlan (second half of the sixteenth century), the facade
is already Plateresque, the sculpture retains a mediaeval air.65 In the cloister of
the convent of Acolman, Gothic-Isabeline elements are frequent, e.g., the columns
garlanded with apples which surround the lower cloister.6 The upper gallery of
the cloister of the Augustinian convent of Cuitzeo is crowned by a row of
gargoyles representing figures of fantastic monsters, each different and each with
a distinct Gothic flavor.67 In civil architecture, too, although to a lesser degree
than in ecclesiastical architecture, Gothic influences can also be detected.68
Many additional examples could be cited.
Mediaeval Moorish art also found its last expression in America, especially in
the construction of some 'open' chapels, suitable for the worship of a large
number of Indian neophytes; the best example is the royal chapel of Cholula, in
all architectural respects a mediaeval mosque.69 Mudejar elements are present in
some of the facades of sixteenth-century monasteries, with the geometrical
patterns which usually accompany Arabic art,60 and also in the wooden ceilings
or alfarjes and in the eight-sided pillars to be found in the earliest monasteries; as
well as in towers, public fountains and some private residences where mediaeval
Arabic influence can still be detected at the beginning of the eighteenth century.6
Perhaps the most striking phenomenon in relation to mediaeval architectural
survivals in America exists in the construction of Romanesque churches and other
buildings of Romanesque type. The church of the Franciscan convent of Patz-
cuaro is, essentially, a Spanish Romanesque church which could have been built
in the twelfth century.62 Romanesque chapels and capitals adorn many sixteenth-
century churches.63 This is not as surprising as it may appear: Romanesque
constructions in New Spain are not, strictly speaking, afterthoughts but follow
a 'natural' architectural evolution. Romanesque style took a deep and lasting
hold in those European countries that had long been a part of the Roman empire,
such as Spain and southern France, regions in which Gothic may be regarded more
or less as a foreign intrusion. Old Roman structural devices and constructions
remained alive - even though suffering alterations and decay - for many
centuries in the Mediterranean countries, and the fact that the Spanish cortijo
basically follows the plan of the Roman villa, which likewise is copied in the plan-
tation or hacienda of central and northern Mexico, is an eloquent proof of the
lasting character that the Roman genius gave to its edifices. The pattern of the
unwalled town with a fortified church featuring strong walls, ramparts, merlons,
narrow skylights, so familiar in the Mexican central countryside, has its precedent
in mediaeval mendicant practices, especially in southern France, like Spain a
Mediterranean land.64
In sculpture, in painting, and in the minor arts mediaeval influence is often
present. Such elements as decorative sculpture, pulpits, wooden reliefs, door
frames, rosettes, brackets, crochets and canopies in the frontispieces still have a
mediaeval flavor and some of the human representations, such as hunting scenes,
are undoubtedly copied from fifteenth-century Flemish and French tapestries.66
Gothic ironwork and metalwork in general, is also very numerous in the early
colony: many chalices, candlesticks (with drip-pans), staffs, nails, knockers,
and railings reveal a Gothic ancestry.66
The cultural atmosphere of sixteenth-century New Spain represents in many
respects an unfolding of mediaeval Spain. In the colleges, and notably in the
Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico founded in 1551 - whose constitu-
tions and organization were copied from those of Salamanca, and where graduate
gave each member of the cloister 'six fat hens, four pounds of cold viands and a
pair of gloves' after their reception67 - St Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus
reigned supreme at least until the eighteenth century. In the days of Carlos de
Sigtienza y G6ngora, the University of Mexico, in its government and curriculum,
was still an interesting and curious survival of European mediaevalism.68 The
early Mexican historiographers and, more notably so, the first Spanish historian
of America, followed the practice of the mediaeval chroniclers, in transcribing
in their writings material from older sources without bothering to acknowledge
their debt. There are traces, I believe, of Spiritual Franciscanism in the teachings
and writings of Friar Peter of Ghent, one of the first Franciscans to arrive in
Mexico and one of the most venerable figures of the early history of the Mexican
church. The councils of that period, needless to say, echoed those of contemporary
Europe.
Finally, before I conclude this paper, which pretends merely to point out the
existence of a potential field of study, I shall enumerate some other pheonmena
in the early, and even in the modern, life of Mexico which can be considered medi-
aeval survivals. Futher research could aid in the task of understanding the vital
powers that lie within many mediaeval institutions and ideas which enabled
them to outlive their own epoch in a different environment, not as mere antiques
but still full of energy and of potentialities.
Theology was in colonial days and even beyond, down to the Wars of Reform,
the queen and pinnacle of all university studies, with the Sententiae of Peter
Lombard the undisputed text in that field. Latin remained compulsory for uni-
versity work throughout the Spanish commonwealth until the days of King
Ferdinand VI,69 and to the study of Latin that of oriental languages and of
native languages was added as the result, I believe, of the impulse given in this
direction in mediaeval days by St Raymond Lull. The power and influence of
the church in colonial Mexico, especially that of the mendicant orders, was con-
siderable. A distinguished contemporary Mexican historian, Pablo Martinez del
Rio, has said 'not without exaggeration, of course' that the history of colonial
Mexico is the history of mediaeval Europe without the strife of the Investitures.
Religious festivities, the holidays par excellence until the nineteenth century
(and, to a certain extent, even today, especially in rural areas) combined in
many instances Christian purposes and pagan ceremonies in a process of syn-
chretism that the practical genius of the church fostered in Europe in the era that
followed the Germanic migrations. The old practice of the church in mediaeval
Europe of building Christian sanctuaries on the site of heathen sacred abodes,
was repeated in Mexico, where many a church of today is build upon a pagan
pyramid. Religious theater, especially that celebrated in the atria of churches -
in many instances to-day, the atrium of the local church, is still the center of
town life - is also remindful of mediaeval practices. The dominance of religious
themes in colonial painting, architecture and sculpture (and the fact that sculp-
ture was in many cases ancillary to architecture) as well as the noticeable activity
of the miniaturists in the sixteenth century and after, are very suggestive. The
Inquisition was not suppressed in Mexico until 1812. The great devotion to the
Virgin, even today the most cherished form of piety, would have been most
pleasing to St Bernard of Clairvaux.70
The mediaeval idea of law dominated the political and institutional life of
the colony: natural law is considered to be paramount and in case a royal or-
dinance sent from Spain contradicted it the royal command was not carried out
by the viceroys. This is, I believe, the explanation for the curious practice of the
viceroys, who, upon receiving a royal order that conflicted with natural precepts
or the customary law of the country, placed the documents upon their heads and
said: 'Let us obey them but let us not carry them out'.71 The problems of the sub-
mission of the Indians and of the status of their property were discussed on the
basis of the doctrines of the great theologians and canonists of the Middle Ages.
Beautiful legends such as the one that attributes to the manual intervention
of the angels the completion of the towers of the cathedral of Puebla dot here
and there colonial history and traditions. The military orders established them-
selves deeply on Mexican soil and were prominent in the conquest and settlement
of many areas as well as in the setting up of the structure of colonial society.
The landed nobility of early Mexico and her successor of independent days, the
class of landowners (both conservative and liberal) practically dominated the

economic life of the country, In this connection it should be remembered that
the last great attack on latifundia, with wholesale expropriation of estates,
where the conditions of the peasants were in many points similar to those of
mediaeval serfs, was carried out only fourteen years ago.
In geographical nomenclature, there was in Latin America a great recurrence
to religious names that range from the City of Our Lady of the Assumption and
the Port of the Triumph of the Cross to the promontory of the Eleven Thousand
Virgins.72 Even today typical mediaeval first names are widely used by the rural
classes of Mexico, some of which possess a sixteenth-century Castilian diction:
even one of our latest presidents, of humble parentage, had the charming mediae-
val name of Abelard.73 A comparative study of mediaeval guilds and the guilds
of New Spain (whose ordinances have been edited by Silvio Zavala) will, I am
sure, prove fruitful. In this connection too, the importance of fairs (usually held
in the atria of churches)74 as means of distribution corresponds to the economic
type of organization of mediaeval Europe. The peddler, too, is still a familiar fig-
ure in some Mexican rural areas.
As I have tried to point out, the study of mediaeval survivals in America is
a fascinating field of research, for the better understanding of the early history
of the New World and for its later currents and developments where mediaeval
ideas and practices are palpable even today, as well as for the better appreciation
of the intrinsic vitality and permanence of such ideas and practices which as
living forces were able to survive their own atmosphere and their own epoch and
to bear magnificent fruits in a different environment beyond the seas in the New
World which in many respects came to fulfill mediaeval expectancies.
MEXICO CITY COLLEGE
1 C. Sinchez-Albornoz, 'La Edad Media y America,' in Espaila y el Islam (Buenos Aires, 1943), p.
182.
2 De consuetudinibus et conditionibus orientalium regionum (Antwerp, 1485?). Cf. S. de la Ros
Libros y aut6grafos de Don Crist6bal Col6n (Seville, 1891), and H. H. Hart, Marco Polo (Palo Alto
1942), p. 442, n. 1.
3 Cf. J. Kirkpatrick, The Spanish Conquerors (1934), p. 6. On the Isle of St Brandan, cf. P. Gaffare
Histoire de la decouverte de l'Amerique avant Colomb (Paris, 1892), I, 205.
4 Navarrete, Colecci6n de documentos, etc., II, p. 58. A. P. Newton maintains that Columbus, in h
geographical ideas, was emphatically a man of the Middle Ages, and an uncritical one at that; th
discovery of the New World, he adds, was accomplished not with Greek or modern geographica
concepts but with mediaeval (Travel and Travelers of the Middle Ages [London, 1949], pp. 16, 18)
5 Crist6bal Colon, 'Carta de la Cuarta Navegaci6n,' in Navarrete, I, 296-313.
6 Kirkpatrick, op. cit., p. 34.
7 L. Weckmann, Las Bulas Alejandrinas de 1493 y la Teoria Politica del Papado Medieval: Estudi
de la Supremacia Papal sobre Islas, 1091-1493 (Mexico, Instituto de Historia, 1949).
8 'Carta Tercera de Relaci6n,' II (ed. Espasa, 1932), 50; cf. also the 'Carta Cuarta de Relaci6
p. 116, and the 'Carta Quinta de Relaci6n,' p. 244.
9 L6pez de G6mara, Historia General de las Indias, ch. cxliii; C. E. Chapman, Colonial Hispan
America: a History (New York, 1946), p. 58.
10 C. Colon, 'Carta de la Tercera Navegaci6n,' (October 1498), in Navarrete, I, 242-264; Chapma
op. cit., p. 15. According to Cosmas, the site of Paradise was located 'beyond the Ocean' (ed. M
Crindle, Hakluyt Society, 1897, p. 33). The four streams of Paradise, which emanate from the Tree
of Life are called Geon, Phison, Tigris and Euphrates by an anonymous writer of the ninth century
(in Geogr. Graeci Minores, II, 513). Cf. M. L. W. Laistner, The Decay of Geographical Knowledge and the
Decline of Exploration.
11 Chapman, op. cit., p. 30; Kirkpatrick, op. cit., pp. 4-5.
12 C. Col6n, 'Carta de la Tercera Navegaci6n,' loc. cit.
13 For instance, 'el primer domingo despues de Todos Santos,' as written by Diego Alvarez Chanca,
Columbus' physician, instead of 'el tres de noviembre (de 1493)' (Navarrete, I, 198-224).
14 Pedro Martir de Angleria, Decadas, I, ii, 3; vii, viii, 1; vII, x, 3.
15 Hernan Cortes, Cartas de Relaci6n, II (ed. Epsasa, 1932), 84-85.
16 Chapman, op. cit., p. 43. For another theory of the origin of the name 'California,' cf. R. Putnam
and H. I. Priestley, California: the Name (Berkeley, 1917).
17 'Instrucciones,' in Colecci6n de Documentos ineditos de descubrimientos y conquistas en America,
xxvI, 153.
18 Cf. 'Tercera relaci6n de la jornada de Nufio de Guzman,' in J. Garcla-Icazbalceta (ed.),
Documentos para la historia de Mexico, II (1866), 451.
19 H. R. Wagner (ed.), The discovery of New Spain by Juan de Grijalva (Pasadena, 1942), pp. 22, 207.
20 'Relaci6n del descubrimiento y conquista del nuevo reino de Granada,' by J. de San Martin
and A. de Lebrija, cited by I. S. Leonard, Books of the Brave (Cambridge, Mass., 1909), p. 57. I am
much indebted to this excellent book, which combines sound scholarship with literary attractiveness.
21 Ibid., p.6 22 Ibid. Ibid., pp. 62-63; Gomara, ch. cxlii.
23 Leonard, op. cit., p. 58. 24 Pedro M&rtir de Angleria, v, ix, 4.
25 Colecci6n de documentos ineditos para la historia de Espana (Madrid, 1842-95), I, 404, item 28,
cited by Leonard, p. 46.
26 C. Col6n, 'Carta de la Primera Navegaci6n,' in Navarrete, I, 167-175.
27 Ibid.
28 Columbus, for instance, writes: 'En estas islas, hasta aqui, no he hallado hombres monstrudos
como muchos pensaban,' loc. cit.
29 M. Toussaint, Historia del Arte Colonial en Mexico (Mexico, 1948), p. 51.
30 , x, X. 31 Ch. xli.
32 Cf. L. Olschki, 'Ponce de Le6n's Fountain of Youth: History of a Geographical Myth,' in
H.A.H.R., xxI (1941), 3, pp. 361-385. In mediaeval literature the Fountain of Youth is mentioned,
among other places, in the writing of the Pseudo-Mandeville (ed. Hamelius, I, 202-203) and in the
apocryphal letter from Prester John to the Emperor of Constantinople, attributed to Archbishop
Christian of Mainz, Barbarossa's Chancellor (cf. Sir E. Denison Ross, 'Prester John and the Empire
of Ethiopia,' in A. P. Newton, Travel and Travelers of the Middle Ages [1949], pp. 174-77, especially
p.176).
a3 Cf. Chapman, op. cit., p. 54.
a4 Cf. Chapman, op. cit., p. 43, and H. E. Bolton, Coronado; in the days of Prince Henry the Navi-
gator this legend was in vogue.
35 Ch. iv. 36 Ch. xi. 37 Ch. xxvii.
38 Cortes, among other conquerors, 'saw' the Apostle St James fighting at his
de Relacion,' I (ed. Espasa, 1942), 218; II (1932), 31; 'Carta Quinta de Relaci6n
a9 Pedro MArtir de Angleria, I, iii 3.
40 A. Huntington, Catalogue of the library of Ferdinand Columbus (New Yor
Leonard, op. cit., p. 21.
41 Author of the Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva Espana, a masterp
century historiography, of which there are many editions in various languages.
42 Anales de la Biblioteca Nacional [Buenos Aires], viii, 124, cited by Leonard, o
43 Bernal Diaz del Castillo was a witness of those celebrations.
44 Gomara, ch. cxiii (pp. 14 and 17 of Vol. II, ed. 1941).
46 Cf. Sanchez-Albornoz, Espafa y el Islam (1943), p. 191.
46 Kirkpatrick, op. cit., p. 176. 47 Ibid., p. 295. 48 Ibid., p. 277.
49 M. Toussaint, op. cit., p. 77. 60 Ibid., p. 79. 61 Ibid., p. 88.
62 Ibid., p. 88. 53 Ibid., p. 82. 54 Ibid., p. 113.
65 Ibid., p. 95. 56 Ibid., p. 89. 57 Ibid., p. 91.
68 Such are, for instance, the cases of the Merida house and the public fountain of Texcoco, al
mentioned by Toussaint (pp. 122, 26).
69 Ibid., p. 81.
60 Mudejar elements are noticeable in the 'Casa del Judio,' in the old house built in the Calle de
Amargura (today Argentina and Guatemala, in Mexico City), in the Moorish fountain of Chiapa
Corzo, etc. (ibid., pp. 122-124 and fig. 25).
61 One example of this can be seen in the facade of the Dominican convent of Chimalhuacan of th
second half of the sixteenth century (ibid., p. 97).
62 Ibid., p. 85 and fig. 80.
63 Among other constructions, where Romanesque reminiscences can be detected, it is sufficient t
mention the chapel of St Gertrude in the Dominican convent of Teposcolula, the capitals of
cloister in the monastery of Amecameca; and the 'open' chapel of Tlalmanalco (ibid., pp. 97, 48).
64 C. Kubler, Mexican Architecture in the XVIth century, i (1948) 95.
65 Cf. Toussaint, op. cit., pp. 47, 48, 50.
66 Ibid., p. 57, 58, 60, 61.
67 J. T. Lanning, Academic Culture in the Spanish Colonies (1940), p. 51.
68 I. A. Leonard, Don Carlos de Sigiienza y G6ngora (Berkeley, 1929), p. 182.
69 Chapman, op. cit., p. 197.
70 Both sides in the Mexican War of Independence (which in reality was a civil war) invoked th
protection of the Virgin and depicted her, under different advocations, in their respective banne
the royalists had the Virgen de los Remedios and the insurgents the Virgen de Guadalupe.
71 In Spanish: 'Obedezcase pero no se cumpla.' A precedent of this may be found in Spani
mediaeval law where there was an appeal 'from the misinformed king to the well-informed king.
2 The first-mentioned city is the capital of Paraguay; the seaport is located in Honduras. The first
city-fortress ever built by Europeans in America, founded by Columbus in Espanola in 1942, w
baptized 'the city of the Nativity (Navidad) of the Lord.' Religious names in American geographic
nomenclature are practically boundless.
73 President Abelardo L. Rodriguez, 1932-34. Other such names-Constantine, Toribius,
Euphemia, Lazarus - are common.
74 In Mexico, the fairs of Acapulco and Jalapa, held in the atria of churches, were famous in colonial
and early independent days.

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The Middle Ages in the Conquest of America

Author(s): Luis Weckmann

THE purpose of this paper is not so much to present to the membe

class of landowners (both conservative and liberal) practically dominated the

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