ON THE APTITUDE AND CAPACITY OF THE PEOPLES OR INDIANS

of the New World as it is called, to adopt faith in Christ, and how they may willingly
sustain it.

ROME In the year 1537

TO THE REVEREND FATHER, Fr. Tommaso Badia, Professor of Sacred Theology of

the Order of Preachers1 and worthiest Master of the Sacred Palace;

Fray Bernardino Minaya of the same holy order’s convent of Saint Dominic of the great
city of Tenochtitlan or Mexico of the Indies belonging to invincible Caesar, province of
Saint James2 by our observance.

Greetings.

Since, according to the teaching of the foremost of the Apostles, Satan in his cunning
always resents good works, and, with a grievous roar, circles around like «a lion
seeking someone whom he may devour»,3 the reason for his grieving is the loss of his
dominion over the peoples of the Indies as he sees how they might be snatched from his
jaws, and that, believing in Christ, they might be purified by being washed with His
blood in holy baptism.

It is not just the avarice of secular Christians which has ensured that these peoples may
not be instructed in Christ’s teaching, but something worse, the opinion of churchmen
affirming that these Indians are incapable of taking on the burden of the Catholic faith.
Yet the opposite state of affairs holds, along with the truth which conquers all and
overcomes, namely that they are human by nature. As a consequence of that, they have
souls with the potential for receiving punishment or for winning glory, and for such
ends as are between the two. What is more, many members of religious orders, as well
as I, have had experience of several years spent among them, which is itself is a witness,
so that the workers in the vineyard of the Lord may not cease from their holy apostolic
work as a result of that defamatory opinion being disseminated and imposed on the
Indians by the Devil’s artifice. It falls to me, among other worshippers of Christ, to
respond on their behalf in a matter of such importance. So that the testimony I have
received may be more effective and valid in the eyes of everyone, there is a direct letter
to his Holiness from Fray Julián Garcés, of the Order of Preachers, first Bishop of
Tlaxcala in the Indies, indicating what he discerns about the capacities of the Indians: of
that letter I am the bearer.

Now as one motivated by his principles and in order that the capacities of the Western
Indians may be made known more truthfully and clearly to all, I have humbly

1
The ‘Order of Preachers’ is a synonym for the Dominican Order, a Catholic order of friars founded by
Saint Dominic (1170-1221). The Dominican Order was deeply involved in Catholic missionizing in the
Americas from the earliest years. Tommaso Badia (1483-1547) was an Italian Dominican theologian
2
The Dominican province of Saint James (in Spanish: Santiago de Mexico) was founded by Domingo de
Betanzos (died 1549), who arrived in New Spain in 1526. It consisted of convents, religious houses, and
missions.
3
Bible: I Peter 5:8.

1
beseeched your Lordship that you might order and ordain by your office and the
authority of the Apostolic Seat that, as is fit, a letter of this sort be printed, together with
others which attest to and command the same things, by the reverend masters Fray
Juan de Zumárraga, of the Order of Minors and Bishop of Mexico, and the commander
Bernal Díaz de Lugo, councillor of the Caesar Charles’ Council of the Indies.4 You
deemed a duty of this kind to be pious and received from God and you very much
wanted to care for the salvation of so many souls, and in your humanity ordered it to be
accomplished. For that I greatly thank you, from Him who says «beware lest you scorn
one of these little ones», as you are deserving, and you will win a worthy prize. Most
worthy father, farewell.

ON THE VOLUNTARY AND GRATEFUL MANNER

with which the Indians, or Gentiles newly discovered by the most Christian Emperor
Charles, always Augustus, accept the word of God and embrace the orthodox and
Catholic faith, an oration.

I. TO OUR MOST HOLY LORD Pope Paul III, Fray Julián Garcés of the Order of
Preachers, first Bishop of Tlaxcala in New Spain of the Indies of Emperor Charles,
wishes eternal health.

What I have come to know about the new little flock herded to the holy Church and
acquired for you, most blessed father, it will be no burden to declare, as it will make
your spirit rejoice in the Lord our saviour. In order not to cause irritation by the
delivery of a lengthy prologue to you of all people, as you have to oversee so many
great concerns all over the world, I shall get to the point, even as I stand at the door.

The little children of the Indians have no obstinate hostility to the orthodox faith, and
they are not stubborn (like Jews and Mohammedans). Not only do they imbibe
Christian principles, they absorb them as if they are drinking them up: more quickly
and readily than Spanish children they learn thoroughly the articles of faith in order,
and the standard orations, and they keep hold of whatever is passed on to them by our
people. They are nurtured in the environment of the monasteries in classes and groups,
for lectures and instruction. From the wealthier ones, there are 300, 400 or 500 of them.
The size of each group is in due proportion to the size of the cities and towns and to the
greatness of the number of citizens or those living in the vicinities.

They are not rowdy, quarrelsome, contentious, difficult, haughty or offensive, but
placid, timid, disciplined, highly obedient to their teachers, accommodating to their
colleagues and they are not complaining, sharp-tongued or abusive. They are indeed
free of all the vice with which our own children are plagued, considering inclinations at
that age. They are very much disposed to generosity: it makes no difference whether
you give something to one of them or to many of them, because they take pains to share
4
Despite this request, letters by Zumárraga and Lugo were not included in the 1537 edition. The ‘Order
of Minors’ is a synonym for the Franciscan Order, a Catholic order of friars founded by Saint Francis of
Assisi (1182-1226).

2
what is given to one with every other. Their frugality is remarkable, they are not given
to drinking, nor gluttonous; they have a moderation and restraint instilled and virtually
inborn, whether indeed one is to see them walking along in an orderly file, whether
they are bidden to sit or stand up, or to kneel down on hassocks on bended knee.

Other than their tla cuali (for so they call the common meal) after the word for bread, or
tlaxcali, they demand nothing strenuously. They have all our produce, that is to say,
those things for which seeds have been imported from Spain – so great is the fecundity
and bounty of the earth – and they have their own produce too. In fact, their
educational ability is above average – whether you bid them sing, read, write, paint or
make something. Where the liberal and other arts are concerned, their understanding of
all the basics is perceptive and acute, showing a singular dexterity. Apart from the
clemency and temperance of the skies, the astonishing simplicity and frugality of their
diet is what explains this (as has often struck me when I turn my mind to the question).

Once they settle in the monasteries of our brothers for training, no complaint or
questioning is ever made by the older ones that they are being handled unfairly or
inequitably, that they are punished too severely, that they are sent home too late by
their teachers, or that unequal obligations are placed on those equal to them or equal
ones on those unequal to them. No one contradicts, none is reproachful, but the care
and preoccupation of the parents are directed to the end that they their son should
come forth as well versed in Christianity as possible. Accordingly, church music
whether instrumental, plain, or contrapuntal, is thoroughly learnt so that musicians
from outside are not greatly desired. The fighters who used to train in the Campus
Martius were called campestrati on Saint Augustine’s testimony,5 because they covered
their private parts with loincloths. These used to be called campestria or, in sacred
writings, perizomata6 (the Indians say tomaxtli): amongst them there is so great a care for
and observance of modesty that no one, not even a little child, would appear in public
without tomaxtli, that is, without something around his waist.7

II. Now something should be said against those whom we have found thinking ill of the
natives: it is necessary to rebut the most unfounded opinions of those pretenders who
accuse them of being incapable and aver that that they should be thrown out of the
bosom of the church. The Lord said «Preach the gospel to every creature who might
believe etc.».8 He was plainly speaking about men, not about beasts, excepting no race,
excluding no nation, because to those apostles seeking to catch every kind of fish in the
net of the gospel he had preached «I will make you fishers of men».9 For when he says,
«they chose out the good... but the bad they cast forth»,10 he was speaking not about the

5
Saint Augustine, The City of God, 14, 17. In a chapter on ‘the nakedness of our first parents,’ Augustine
assesses the history of human shame of genitals, and the first people who covered them with clothing.
The Campus Martius was the military training ground of ancient Rome.
6
Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, 19.22, 5. This Greek word translates roughly to ‘girdle.’
7
The Nahua word maxtlatl (related to tomaxtli) appears in Alonso de Molina, Vocabulary in Castilian and
Mexican (Mexico City, 1571), an early Spanish-Nahuatl dictionary. The Spanish definition of maxtlatl is
‘underpants, or something similar.’
8
Bible: Mark 15: 15-16. This passage was recalled in Pope Paul III’s 1537 bull, Sublimis Deus: “‘Go and
teach all peoples,’ he said without exception, as all come forth capable of the discipline of faith.”
9
Bible: Matthew 4:19.
10
Bible: Matthew 13: 48.

3
present fishing of the Church Militant, but about that of the Church Triumphant when
it will «separate the sheep from the goats».11 Thus it was in the fishing of Peter before
the Passion the nets were broken on account of the multitude of fish, and the ships were
almost sinking,12 but after the Resurrection (according to John) «although there were so
many, the net was not broken» because he was talking about the fishing of the Church
Triumphant.13 For many fish fill the nets of the Church Militant, they break them and
fall out, because of either heresies or vicious behaviour. These will not enter the nets of
the Church Triumphant. Hence, with regard to the fishing after the Lord’s Resurrection,
he set a fixed number of fish, because «the Lord knew who are his»14 (according to the
apostle) because many who enter the nets will leave, and no one about to leave will
enter them.

«Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem» says the Psalmist «because he hath strengthened the
bolts of thy gates, he hath blessed thy children within thee».15 And lest we might think
that there are only one hundred and fifty three in heaven, namely the souls of the
blessed, that number one hundred and fifty three really arises from mystically going up
to ten and seven from one, and reckoning the middle [odd] numbers in between,16
because in fact only those who observe the ten commandments and those who are
aware of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are seven in number will enter heaven, for
«many are called but few chosen».17 It therefore remains the case that we should not
close the entrance which John beheld in the Apocalypse to anyone, because «he who
hath the key of David he that openeth and no man shutteth», only He has known the
number of the elect in heavenly happiness, to no man who, out of his own voluntary
faith, seeks baptism of the Church, is the door to be closed.18 This is in Saint Augustine’s
fourteenth sermon, Words of the Apostle, which cites Cyprian on this.

So I beg that no one be diverted from this duty by the false assertions of those who,
instigated by suggestions from the Devil, maintain that these Indians are incapable of
religious practice. This utterance is indeed satanic, of a demon grieving that his own
worship is about to be overturned, as he puts his words into the mouths of the most
avaricious Christians. Their covetousness is so great that as they wish to quench its
thirst, they argue that reasonable beings created in the image of God are animals or
beasts of burden – with no end other than that they have no care to free those with
whom they have been entrusted from the fiercest clutches of their own covetousness.
Rather, they allow themselves to exploit, according to their whims, the compliance of
their charges.

11
Bible: Matthew 25:32.
12
Bible: Luke 5: 6-7.
13
Bible: John 21:11.
14
Bible: II Timothy 2:19.
15
Bible: Psalms 147: 12-13.
16
The number “153” is mentioned in Bible John 21:11. Garcés does not believe that there are only that
number of souls in heaven. Instead, he seems to attach significance to 153 as a triangular number, which
is the sum of the first 17 integers and also of the first 5 factorials.
17
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit in the catechism are drawn from Bible: Isaiah 11:2-3, and are wisdom,
understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
18
Bible: Revelation 4:1; 3:7.

4
For who is of such shameless sentiment that he dares after «rubbing a blush from his
face»19 to assert that those whom we see to be very adept at mechanical arts have no
capacity for faith, those whose good nature we find to be faithful and accomplished
when they are brought to our ministry? And if ever, most blessed father, your holiness
should hear that some member of a religious order succumbs to this sort of opinion,
and if a life of outstanding integrity and merit makes him appear resplendent, it is not
on that count that he has eminent authority on the matter, but one should deem it
absolutely certain that he has sweated too little or not at all in the conversion of those
people, and consider that he has applied too little zeal to the learning of their languages
or in finding out about their talents.20

Indeed, those who have laboured among the Indians with Christian charity declare that
they are not throwing out the nets of charity to them in vain. But the others who are
devoted to solitude21 or with a tendency to cowardice have through their particular
manner of industry brought no one to the worship of Christ. Lest they be reproached
for being useless, they attribute a fault which is one of their own – negligence – to the
weakness of the infidels, and defend what is their own true idleness by imposing on
them an incapacity which is false. In justifying themselves, they commit a wrong which
is no smaller than the one from which they are striving to be acquitted. The kind of men
who make these claims do very great harm to the throng of unfortunate Indians, in that
they inhibit several members of religious orders from setting out to instruct them in the
faith. On this basis, quite a number of Spaniards who come to make war on those
Indians, relying on this judgment, tend to think that it is not a crime to despise, ruin,
and slay them. Hence it appears that Satan, that enemy of all the human race disguised
as an angel of light, has invented this so that by putting off the conversion of these
races,22 he might conserve the worship that was shown to him.

Concerning the intelligence of these human beings whom we have seen from the
decade in which I, having lived in their country, have been able to observe their ways
and scrutinise their intelligence: I bear witness before you, most blessed father (who
acts as Christ’s deputy on earth), of what I have seen, what I have heard, and my hands
have touched – with regard to those brought forth into being by the Church, by my own
ministry such as it is in the Word of life – namely by relating each thing to each, i.e., like
to like. They have excellent mastery of reason, coherent sense and thought, but over our
own, the children of these people, in their liveliness of spirit and in the alert dexterity of
their responses, are found to be pre-eminent in every aspect of action and intelligence.

Concerning their ancestors I have heard that they were of a barbarous savagery and
cruelty beyond any human limit, insofar as they were anthropophagi; that is to say they

19
The Latin verb here is perfricare, meaning ‘rubbing one’s forehead to remove a blush,’ or ‘putting on a
bold front’. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 3.18, 41; Quintilian 11.3, 160, and others.
20
Garcés seems to refer here to an opponent of his, the Dominican missionary Domingo de Betanzos (see
footnote 2), who questioned the rationality of Indigenous people. Betanzos was born in Spain, traveled to
the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1510, and transferred to Mexico City in 1526.
21
Implying Betanzos again. Betanzos had spent five years in a solitary spiritual retreat on the Italian
island of Ponza.
22
The word ‘race’ here should be understood as ‘people’ or ‘nation’ (the Latin word is gens). It was not
until the 18th century that the word ‘race’ developed some of its modern meaning.

5
consumed the flesh of humans.23 They have been violent and bloodthirsty, but the more
cruel and dreadful they have been, the more welcome may be the tribute that would be
offered to God if they were to be converted. The greatest part of the gain to be made is
up to us, if we conduct ourselves by word and example, with our hands and our
tongues in the way that, if we had ended up in a similar situation, we would have
wanted to have them treat us; we should toil to win their souls, for which Christ shed
his blood. We object to their barbarism and idolatry as if we ourselves had better
ancestors of our own, from whom we derive our origin, until such time as the blessed
apostle James preached to them and converted them to faithful worship, turning them
from the worst into the best: from then flashed forth so many luminaries of martyrs,
learned men, and virgins whom it would take too long to survey – and it is not
necessary. Who doubts that as a century passes that there will be many of these Indians
who will be very saintly, conspicuous in every virtue?

Is it not the case that a deer which was thought to possess the gift of fortune-telling was
deployed by Sertorius when he was conducting campaigns in Spain?24 Indeed it was a
fawn, a dumb animal the Spaniards venerated as a prophetess or fortune-teller and
goddess.25 The ferocity of the Spaniards was once so great that Silius Italicus who came
from the city of Italica in Betica pronounces this glorious eulogy of his very own
ancestors:26

«A people reckless of life, who readily hurry to death.

When a man has passed his prime and years of strength,
Impatient of longevity and spurning the advance of old age:
His own sword-arm holds the span of his life.»27

On the testimony of Justinus (I am talking of pagan antiquity), Viriatus, whom Spain

held as its most eminent ruler, was a cattleherd.28 But after Christianity was adopted,
we now possess through our faith true nobility in our inheritance: so many soldiers, so
many glorious generals. By employing them as emperors, Rome itself grew in a
wondrous way and was carried forward to become all what we have heard about.29 If
Spain was so uncivilised and overgrown with the thorns of error before the preaching
of the apostles, but afterwards bore such fruit in the secular world and in the church,
such as they never before thought there would be (because a change was brought by the
hand of Him on high) my opponents should concede that by the same help, favour, and
protection of Lord God, liberator of all, the people of the Indies in this newly discovered

23
Isidore of Seville, Etymologies 9.2, 132, discusses the Greek word. By contrast, Garcés seems to refer here
to Aztec rituals of human sacrifice.
24
Quintus Sertorius (126-73 BCE) was a Roman general who led military campaigns in ancient Spain. He
took advantage of the credulous ancient Spaniards by keeping a tame white deer by his side and claiming
that the goddess Diana communicated to him through the animal.
25
Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, 15.22, 9-10.
26
Silius Italicus (26-101 CE) was a Roman senator and poet, whose hometown (Italica) was thought to be
close to modern-day Seville. Betica was a Roman province that is now a part of south-western Spain.
27
Silius Italicus, Punica, 1, 225-228.
28
Justinus, summary of Pompeius Trogus, Philippic History and Origins of the Entire World, 44.2. Viriatus
(died 139 CE) was a native of ancient Spain who led his people’s resistance against Roman imperial rule.
29
The Roman emperors Trajan (ruled 98-117 CE) and Hadrian (ruled 117-138 CE) were born in Spain.

6
world might become wonderful in ways just as great. Has, as Isaiah says, «the hand of
the Lord become shortened so he cannot redeem?».30

When Sertorius was in Spain among the half-wild inhabitants as general of the Romans,
those ancient Spaniards came to know of Greek and Latin writing, having been
subjugated by those peoples. But it is true that if Spain had known her own strength
(says Trogus), she would never have bowed her neck to the Romans.31 The Spaniards
therefore learned the Romans’ alphabet, and they were no less insensitive to their
language even though they were still semi-barbarians.

What wonder is it if these poor little ones on the farthest border of the world, having no
dealings with educated people, having no understanding of letters until this day,
should be like wild animals? They have no beasts of burden, but they themselves carry
everything to and from the field and the home, like asses on two feet. They have had no
word of other human beings, no education or any means of sustaining themselves or
clothing, or other adornments of human existence, no dealings with letters, no use of
vehicles or boats. What wonder is it that they should be uneducated, virtually
barbarians, and so on? If in all these respects the Spaniards are proclaimed to have
emerged as they are from a past age, why should we despair of these people? Since we
never despaired of ourselves, when, in that part of the world, men ended up
illustriously, in their form of humanity. «Behold thus shall be blessed the man that fears
the Lord», says the Psalmist.32 And he continues: «Mayst thou see thy children’s
children»: these are the human inhabitants of the new world, who are perhaps about to
surpass in faith and in their virtues those by whose ministry they have been converted
to the faith.

Since I pronounced that the Indians have never learned literacy, I now sing a palinode:33
they used to paint instead of write. That is to say they used pictures instead of letters if
ever they wanted to signify anything to those not present in the same time and place.34
Lucan also hints at this idea in these words:

«The Phoenicians first presumed, if tradition is believed

To seal their utterances for posterity in crude signs
Not yet had Egypt learned to weave together river reeds,
And only birds and beasts and other animal designs
Conserved the speech of wise men for their needs.»35
30
Bible: Isaiah, 50:2.
31
Garcés is roughly quoting Justinus’s summary of Trogus, 44.5, 8: “Nor would the Spaniards submit to
the yoke, even after their country was overrun, until Caesar Augustus, having subdued the rest of the
world, turned his victorious arms against them, and reduced this barbarous and savage people, brought
by the influence of laws to a more civilized way of life, into the form of a province.”
32
Bible: Psalms 127:4; Psalms 127:6.
33
A palinode is a retraction of the author’s previously expressed opinion. To ‘sing a palinode’ means to
withdraw an earlier comment. Saint Jerome, Epistles, 102.1, and Macrobius, Saturnalia, both cite the
ancient Greek poet Stesichorus’ palinode.
34
Garcés is probably quoting Antonio de Nebrija, Grammar of the Castilian Language (1492), chapter 3: “by
means of letters we can speak with those who are absent and with those who are yet to come.”
35
Lucan, Pharsalia, 2.220-224. A similar idea appears in Ammianus Marcellinus, History of the Roman
Empire, 22.15, when discussing the Egyptians: “They sculpted many kinds of birds and beasts and species
of animals which they called hieroglyphic writing.”

7
Now they are blessed with such great talent (I mean the young men) that they write in
both Latin and Spanish. They know and speak Latin more elegantly than our own
young men; and no less than our people who have devoted themselves to study of this
subject.

III. They make confessions, which involve very great difficulty and challenges for those
new to the church, where faith holds principal place, since the secrets of the heart are
revealed on the outside and one’s human failings are made clear to another. And they
declare their sins in their confessions with no less transparency and truthfulness, not to
say readiness, than those born as Christians, and they take pleasure in making
confession frequently. In fact, they are not afraid to repeat precisely some things they
already confessed which were inadequately summarised, or perhaps not understood,
by the confessors. Really, they are of dove-like simplicity. With respect to confessions,
they regard the whole year as appropriate for them, as we tend to think only of Lent.36
The punishments which are customary, namely beatings, not only do they not refuse
but they even subject themselves to them of their own accord, at secret times and places,
over and above those which are practised on Good Friday and every Friday of the year.
One thing still considered quite difficult by our people (even those who are prelates
may not obey the command to cast aside mistresses) they do with great ease, casting
aside the number of wives they possessed in their heathenism to be content with one
alone: it is like a miracle. They inform against thefts in accordance with their
confessions – the disposition to steal is ingrained in them (I mean the children) – and
they are keen to make restitution and do not delay.37

They build great churches which they decorate with royal coats of arms and
monasteries for the friars their protectors, and houses for the devout women sent by the
Empress Isabel,38 to whom they cheerfully hand over their daughters, just as they
entrust their sons to the friars, so that by their membership the holy church may be
increased to a great degree. When they lack water, they come to the friars with
offerings, they request holy processions. They act in a similar way for their sick
children, asking for the gospel of God to be explained to them, and holy hands to be
laid upon them. When an infant is born, he is brought by his father or mother to receive
the sacrament of baptism, and when he dies, they hasten to the friars so that he might
be buried. When a man knows his wife is not a Christian, he brings her to baptism, as a
woman will also bring her husband to devote himself to the Christian way: so will a
father bring his son, a mother her daughter, a brother his brother, and a neighbour his
neighbour. Wherefore I will summarise what I have apprehended about the behaviour
of these people from my own observation and that of reliable clergy.

One of them, when asked why he wanted to confess outside the season of Lent, replied
that when he was burdened with an illness, had promised God he would make a

36
Lent is the penitential season of the Christian annual calendar, a commemoration of Christ’s 40 days in
the desert. It is a time of reflection, confession, and repentance that ends at Easter, the celebration of the
resurrection of Christ.
37
This comment goes against Garcés’ general case, but it is consistent with a tendency he notes earlier,
remarked by other Europeans, that the Indigenous people held property in common: “it makes no
difference whether you give something to one of them or to many of them, because they take care to
share what is given to one with every other.” See above, section I.
38
Isabel of Portugal (1503-39) was Empress Consort of Charles V; they were married in 1526.

8
confession if he were to recover and so he had to confess as he was obliged by his vow.
Again, another, asked by his confessor (who was aware that he had confessed to
another only a little time before) for what reason he sought confession again so quickly,
replied that this was certainly true, but that he suspected his confessor did not
completely understand him and that he wanted to repeat the confession: and besides he
had afterwards remembered several sins he had not declared before.

A certain Peter and Jacob, new converts from their nobility after a sacramental
confession, experienced an «imaginative vision».39 In it they seemed to see two paths
before them: one foul-smelling, the other full of the fragrance of perfume and roses.
And they contemplated Mary Magdalene and Saint Catharine, whose likenesses they
had learnt from pictures, and who told them: «The foul path is the one you used to
follow, the one fragrant with the breath of roses is the one you follow after baptism».
After they recounted all this with animated and fervent speech in the sight of ten
thousand souls, many sought baptism.

On the night our Saviour was born, according to the tradition of the Church, very many
people heard «Glory to God in the Highest» being sung in their own tongue [i.e.,
Nahuatl]. Since at that point this hymn had not been put into their language, as it was
later, it is evident that this miracle was the product of divine virtue rather than human
industry.

To one who was straining to force himself on a girl, she said: «Are you not a Christian?»
When he replied: «I am», she said: «What you are doing is prohibited by Christian
obligation». When he heard that, the man immediately started back from his attempt.

In Lent, one man who was enjoined by religious practice to keep a fast, though he was
struggling with an illness, could not be persuaded even by Christians to eat meat.

In confession one of them charged himself because, when he was with his own wife, he
was burning with longing for another woman of whom he had a pleasurable
recollection.

A certain friar was asked by one of them whether he should pray in the course of the
Holy Mass, or stop doing so and listen more attentively to the divine words.

Another, in a rather similar fashion, on hearing that Judas had ended his life on a
noose,40 unconfessed and unrepentant, said to his confessor: «I am Judas and although I
have confessed, I have not done so completely and so I have decided I should repeat my
confession».

Two others out of shame concealed their worst sin in confession and were op- pressed
with a very grave sickness. Overwhelmed with remorse and in floods of tears, they

39
Saint Augustine, The Literal Interpretation of Genesis, 1.2, 7-16, classed visions into corporeal, imaginative,
and intellectual.
40
Judas Iscariot was one of Christ’s twelve disciples; he betrayed Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, a
betrayal that led ultimately to Christ’s crucifixion. In the Biblical Gospel of Matthew 27:1-10, Judas
committed suicide in despair.

9
made a sacramental admission of their crime, and were relieved of their respective
illnesses.

A Christian woman among them who had won herself a noble husband asked whether
he would receive baptism. When he refused, she denied him what is due (or rather not
due) to a husband until she saw him washed with holy water.

Several of them who had confessed were not absolved, either because they were living
in sin or because they were delaying restitution. As soon as they fulfilled what their
confessor ordained, they hurried back to him and presented themselves again for
absolution which, in my opinion, is no small proof of their faith. If confession is denied
them because the confessor is busy, or for any other cause, they grieve and weep: they
show through their lamentation their craving for the sacrament and thirst for
righteousness. A great number of them after baptism ask for baptism again. When it is
explained to them that the Christian religion does not permit this, they reply: «We
know that anyway but at that time we did not believe» or «We did not understand the
words of the priest».

One called Martin, on his death bed before he died, said to his mother who was
attending him: «Make way, mother, don’t you see the friars approaching with their
cross and a Lady offering me the glorious thread of the rosary?».

When the Christians were working in Tecoac41 and stayed there first before setting off to
another place, a native of that town said to his companions: «Now, brothers, we very
much have to live by the Christian faith, since we are alone and no longer have
Christian witnesses for our own faith».

But you may say these events are proven by no witness, as if even witnesses were not
capable of lying. On the contrary. You may retort: «In human judgement, the matter is
of no weight or consequence» – as if we really seek human judgment on this matter, and
do not rather marvel at the Divine One! He wishes, in the new foundation of the nascent
Church, to bring forth fruit and set miracles in motion: just like those that took root and
flourished vigorously in the care of the saints whom our church has venerated from
ancient times. This principle of double cause42 supports this people to the greatest
degree with the lightness of their diet, the cheapness and simplicity of dress; in no
regions of the world do the humility and obedience innate to this race abound as they
do in these.

IV. I think I have explained, most eminent father, the things which concerned me to say,
and you to hear, about the Indian emporium or the commerce of things which the
Creator and Psalmist of all things had, in his providence, prepared at the end of the
century already now passing, and on which the ends of centuries have descended. It
therefore remains to adjure your holiness, Paul, most blessed instructor of peoples, not
to surrender the great opportunity you have won to idleness or inertia. You must do
nothing less than remind, exhort, incite, and push us not to keep on falling asleep in the
41
Tecoac is roughly 130 km north-west of Tenochtitlan-Mexico City.
42
The ‘principle of double cause’ can be traced to the writings of the theologian and philosopher Saint
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274); it implies that both human and divine causes support the Mexicans.

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midst of the work of the heavenly Worker, but to be awake, so we endeavour not to act
lazily. I would like you to persuade yourself of this first, most holy Father, as it is from
you that the truth of the Gospel begins to shine forth on the world: that is our joy being
declared, as we have also been chosen to be among the sons of God by grace of the
Liberator.

After the way of salvation was proclaimed by the Apostles (our guides and teachers)
nothing of greater import has ever confronted the Catholic Church, so far as I know,
than the dispensation of talents in the Indies. If we exert ourselves to such a degree for
the fragile and temporary concerns of this unhappy life, how much more should we all
toil under your guidance, Paul, blessed father, in order not to lose through our own
negligence or sloth this most opportune chance in the present time to do things well. Let
everyone see that nothing is more welcome in the Apostolic breast than your wish for
so great an endeavour, so that by your effort, encouragement, instruction, and prayers,
your faithful are on the watch – on hand and awake – wherever the gate of the word (as
the Apostle says43) is open to us very many workers, to ensure that in the fertile ground
of this India that corn may grow with a hundredfold yield to nourish rich hope,
increase charity, and sustain faith. With much keener spirit and greater ardour, may we
strive to gather the idolaters of Asia under the banners of our faith, the more we see the
savagery of the Turks ever raging against us in Europe.

Here let us draw the gold of the Indians’ faith from their very innards, gold we should
send there to the support of our soldiers: let us snatch from the devil his boundaries, far
further from India than he with his Mohammedans would steal away from us in
Europe.44 Let us batter the walls of the demons with a double ram: so that we pull the
natives away from their ancient possession: and there having retrieved that gold let us
keep the demons from the borders of Europe.

Christ, good king, may the boundaries of the faithful be pushed forward. May the
prophecy of Isaiah now be fulfilled: «Behold these shall come from afar, and behold
these from the north and from the sea, and these from the south country. Give praise, O
ye heavens, and rejoice, O earth, ye mountains, give praise with jubilation: because the
Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his poor ones. And Sion said:
The Lord hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me».45 And below he says: «Lift
up thy eyes round about, and see all these are gathered together, they are come to thee:
I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt be clothed with all these as with an ornament, and as a
bride thou shalt put them about thee. For thy deserts, and thy desolate places, and the
land of thy destruction shall now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they
that swallowed thee up shall be chased far away».46

Our God and liberator Lord Jesus Christ persuaded Thomas to go to the Indies, though
he protested saying «Send me anywhere except to the Indies!». Bartholomew, who

43
Bible: Colossians 4:3.
44
Comparing souls gained in the Americas against those lost in Europe to Lutheranism or Islam was a
commonplace in these decades. See, for example, Francisco López de Gómara, General History of the Indies
and Conquest of Mexico (1552), 1.8.
45
Bible: Isaiah 49: 12-14.
46
Bible: Isaiah 49: 18-19.

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proved an astonishing torment to the demons there, and converted the Indians to the
faith, rejecting their riches, showed those who had mastered the evangelical faith what
gold mines to seek.47 Then you, most holy father, should imitate, emulate, and
accompany your God, since you see that he sent, almost urged, his apostles to go as
soldiers to the Indies.

But you may say that idolaters will not believe in Christ and will not obey the Gospel.
«As many as were ordained to life everlasting believed [when Paul was preaching]»
(says Luke in the Acts of the Apostles48). Indeed no one from among those ordained has
not believed, but all those of us who have been among the Indians of this New Spain
are witnesses of how willingly they adopt the faith, revere and hear the preachers, build
churches, and obey the friars. Concerning those who live a significant distance from the
borders of this province, we have a reliable testimony from Fray Bernadino Minaya,
now prior of Santo Domingo in this city of Tenochtitlan or Mexico, who, with two of
friars as companions, ventured as far as the province of Nicaragua, a journey of three
hundred leagues or more, to instruct idolaters, to break, destroy and burn idols, and to
put up the standards of God and Christ the King, and build churches.49 He found the
Indians, who had never before beheld friars preaching to them, very ready and willing
to accept all these things: seeking baptism voluntarily with branches of roses, food and
drink as they encountered him, broadening and clearing pathways and giving thanks,
in their way saying: «Blessed is he who come in the name of the Lord».50 In fact, the
heavenly king on high has established you as his steadfast companion (for so the
temporal kings invoke you) always to keep watch here and there around your
guardpost, and, wherever greater necessity requires your soldiers and comrades to be
deployed, to be obliged to disperse clothing and food to the troops. If through lack of
rations and too small a number of cavalry and infantry the armed force is rendered too
lazy, and fails to advance, the blame may be put on the general. But if you are in
command, we trust that, as is due, you will wear the blessed crown of victory.

END.

47
Apocrypha (i.e., non-canonical Biblical texts), Acts of the Holy Apostle Thomas, 1.1. Thomas the Apostle
was thought to have traveled to India; confusion between ancient India and the Americas was a common
mistake because both locations were referred to as the ‘Indies.’ Tradition likewise held that Bartholomew
the Apostle had converted parts of the Indian subcontinent to Christianity.
48
Bible: Acts 13:48.
49
Dominican missionary Bernardino Minaya (ca. 1498-1562), author of the preface to the current oration,
wrote a letter to Spanish King Philip II in 1559, in which his account of his travels overlaps significantly
with what Garcés says here. Minaya wrote: “And then I travelled three hundred leagues as far as the
province of Nicaragua, baptising as I went; the Indians came out to receive me with garlands of roses and
food, preparing crosses and the standards of the Christ the King of Glory for me to place as I thought fit.
After being taught, they voluntarily burned the idols and cues, which are their temples.”
50
Bible: Matthew 21:9.

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