Introduction:
Although the Jesuits are seen as being strict evangelisers they have obviously show a certain amount of restraint in the way they handled certain issues. In the Travels of Marco Polo one can also view what makes up the experience of travelling which is part and parcel of the whole Jesuit experience. This essay will analyse the prevailing European attitudes to slavery and how the Jesuits tackled the heathan peoples they encountered who used barbarous methods to achieve their goals and how their acceptance of God became part and parcel of everything. There is also a reference to Cortes and his communication with the Aztec Emperor Montezuma.
Several letters have also come down to us from the Jesuits which show their experience in this regard and how they were accustomed to what they encountered in New France. In ‘Letter from Father Pierre Biard’ to the Reverend Father Provincial, at Paris we encounter the following excerpt:
“Here then are our occupations: to say mass every day, and to solemnly sing it Sundays and holidays, together with Vespers, and frequently the procession; to offer public prayers morning and evening; to exhort, console, administer the sacraments, bury the dead; in short, to perform the offices of the Curate. since there are no other priests in these quarters. And in truth it would be much better if we were more earnest workers here for Our Lord, since sailors, who form the greater part of our parishioners are ordinarily quite deficient in ants spiritual feeling, having no sign of religion except in their oaths and blasphemies, nor any knowledge of God beyond the simplest conceptions which they bring with them from France, clouded with licentiousness and the cavilling’s and revilings of heretics. Hence it can be seen what hope there is of establishing a flourishing Christian church by such evangelists” (Biard p 1)1.
Here one can immediately observe the Jesuit’s initial encounters with the savages in New France which demonstrate their propensity to go to the jugular in every respect.
The Conquistadores and their mission
One can also discuss the brutality which the Mexican explorers meted out against the natives of Central and South America accordingly. The letter by Cortes to the emperor Montezuma is a case in point.
“I said everything to them I could to divert them from their idolatries, and draw them to a knowledge of God our Lord. Moctezuma replied, the others assenting to what he said, that they had already informed me they were not the aborigines of the country, but that their ancestors had emigrated to it many years ago; and they fully believed that after so long an absence from their native land, they might have fallen into some errors; that I having more recently arrived must know better than themselves what they ought to believe; and that if I would instruct them in these matters, and make them understand the true faith, they would follow my directions, as being for the best”. (Cortes p 1)2
In this passage Cortes attempts to play the God himself in an attempt to coerce Montezuma to bow to his own bidding. Obviously the Spaniard was interested in nothing else but to acquire the country for his King’s empire and in this passage he also makes it abundantly clear that that was his main aim.
In this letter, Hernan Cortes is discussing the several bountiful aspects of Mexico obviously in the context that it was ripe for colonization. One marvels at the astonishing detail into which Cortes goes into, especially the descriptions of the buildings, the way the inhabitants planned their streets and other similary descriptive details.
The passage on the temples prevalent in Mexico and Cortes’s discourse with Montezuma are particularly interesting. Obviously Cortes is fascinated by observing the depth of the religous artefacts which the Mexicans adored and this created a situation where he was already planning the imposition of the Catholic religion on the country’s subjects. Cortes saw the Mexicans as heathens who needed to be civilised accordingly and thus informed his King that the country was ripe for the picking.
Cortes also muses at length on the elaborate rituals and paganism of the Mexicans, at times appearing rather shocked at some ceremonies and customs. Obviously one has to take into account that this is 1520 and the Spanish ahd just arrived to the country for the first time and the instrinsic customs of the Mexicans were quite new to them.
Cortes must obviously have been rather impressed with all that was going on in Mexico at the time and with Spain rapidly hoping to advance its colonial empire. The Spanish armada was also a potent force in the 16th century and this conquest of Mexico led practically to the whole of South America being colonized by this redoubtable Mediterranean country.
The debate on slavery
Obviously the main question remained whether slavery as an institution should remain in the lands which were being evangelized by the Spaniards. The brutality meted out to slaves was something which was rather despicable and was frequently observed and commented upon by the Jesuits. It would be pertinent here to examine some of the problems and customs which were in effect a large part of the slavery question especially in North America.
In his excellent book, American Slavery, Peter Kochlin traces the origins of slavery from its origins in the Colonial period to the latter parts of the institution. He focuses primarily on slavery as an American institution and largely focuses on the historiography of the topic especially where the mannerisms of African slaves are concerned. Kolchin who is a professor at the University of Delaware assesses the resilience of African slaves who are sometimes underrated as resilient beings with the focus being chiefly on their suffering and not on their strengths as individuals. Kochlin also delves deeper into the mechanics of the Reconstruction period than many arguing that emancipation was taken away from the former masters who were chomping at the bit to continue dominating the slaves.
Slavery in earlier times:
Kochlin delves deep into the mechanics of the slavery system in the early 18th century and how this was crucially important to the growth of the American economy in the deep South. However slavery seemed to develop from the trend of forced labour in the Caribbean colonies which had an appetite for this type of labour long before it became popular in the United states. The vast sugar plantations in Trinidad and Jamaica required considerable slave labour so the British who eventually became very anti-slavery in their beliefs were actually the great pioneers of slavery in its commercial sense.
Kochlin speaks about the importance of the great slave centres in Africa such as the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone which were the great slave centres of the New World and where African chieftains and intermediaries were as much guilty and culpable of selling their own people into slavery as the Europeans themselves.
The conditions in the Caribbean plantations were much harder and more pronounced than those in the United States where slaves could at least assimilate themselves into the culture with some success. This aspect of slavery is very often overlooked as the slaves quickly became part of American culture especially with regards to religion and other aspects of life which always served them in good stead in their futures. Kochlin continues to harp on this point and although it was true that some masters treated their subjects pretty brutally, others were quite kind and humane and actually allowed slaves to have some form of education accordingly.
Other aspects which are treated in the book include slaves’ resilience to forced labour and other similar situations. Slaves could not always perform the tasks allotted to them and some even rebelled when faced with these situations. The harsh repression practiced by some plantation owners is discussed at length although there is also a tendency to dehumanize the slaves in efforts to become more colonial and authorative. African culture remained an intrinsic part of the slaves’ life until well into the 19th century but life was changing for the average slave even as customs were changing and other freedmen were imbuing several new ideas into the slaves’ minds.
Kochlin is rather circumspect about the influence of slavery on the Civil War and he prefers to see that as a logical conclusion to a lengthy debate on humanity and the influence of commerce. All this comes together in his narrative on certain aspects of the slave’s life which was not always as bad as portrayed especially in the border states.
Attitudes to slavery by the Jesuits
Being a militant order par excellence, the Jesuits were obviously always going to focus on evangelising their flock by means of force. It would be intriguing to consider this excerpt from Father Biard’s letter here:
“ONE is astonished to see so much blindness in regard to the things of Heaven, in a People who do not lack judgment and knowledge in reference to those of earth. This is what their vices and brutality have merited from God. There are some indications that they had formerly some more than natural knowledge of the true God, as may be remarked in some particulars of their fables; and even if they had had only that which Nature can furnish to them, still they ought to have been more reasonable on this subject, if it had not happened to them according to the word of the Apostle, Cùm cognovissent Deum, non sicut Deum glorificaverunt, aut gratias egerunt, sed evanuerunt in cogitationibus suis, et obscuratum est insipiens cor eorum”.3
Here one can observe that the Heron who were undoubtedly a heathen nation did not have much of an idea of the Christian God who was certainly very far from their minds. One also has to observe that the Jesuits were very much an order which relied on a certain amount of persuasion to achieve what there set out to get. However there is also the notion that God would be solving everyone’s problems and the Heron although rather backward in this sense were very much in keeping with what was going on as the Jesuits came.
Father Barthelemey Vimont summed the attitude of the Jesuits up perfectly when he described a particular situation here:
“ONE of the Fathers who teach the Savages at the residence of St. Joseph, read out one day a list of the sins to which these peoples are liable before their Baptism. When he spoke of their superstitions, —of their invocations to the Demons, or to the Genii of the light; of a certain tacit compact that they have with the Devil by means of a mysterious stone, which we have already mentioned, —a good Christian called out: “That, my Father, still remains among us. Let us go into the cabins and look about everywhere; we shall find some of those little Idols hidden away. No one makes use of them before you, but those who have any, carry them with them into the woods. The Devil tempts them, and makes them believe that they will be unlucky if they throw them away, —that they will not have a successful hunt; and, by this means, he keeps them always in chains. I do not say this because I wish them evil; my desire that they should send away the Demons from the cabins, and take the straightest road to Paradise, makes me speak.” 4
Here one can observe the hellish descriptions of what was ready to come for those who hated God and who had a life which did not in any way bring about religion. One must note the word savages, which is almost used constantly here. The attitude of the Spanish and the Portuguese to their colonies was something which has to be analysed in depth as these looked at them as little less than chattel to be exploited accordingly. The Jesuits came in slightly more benign but they could still be rather brutal in their attitudes and evangelisation.
Conclusion:
Whilst the colonisation of certain South American countries by the Spanish and Portuguese was an important economic procedure, one can also say that the bringing of the Christian religion to the heretics in these countries was also a hugely commendable act and is something which should be lauded. The question of slavery however does remain on the horizon and one must accept the fact that this was denigrating to the large majority of the population who were kept in chattels and who could not do anything about it. The attitude of the Jesuits was occasionally rather brutal and there was not much that one could do to appease this militant order which was consistently on the rise in these countries. The voyages by Columbus and Cortes which opened up the New World also opened up completely new vistas for the Jesuits who could now evangelize by force if necessary. However the main argument remains that the Jesuits were only interested in liberalizing thought of the native populations and eventually remove them from the chattels of slavery.
Works Cited
Hernan Cortes, Letters from Mexico (tr. and ed. by Anthony Pagden; Yale University Press, 1986)
Jean de Léry, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil (University of California Press, 1992)
Walter Ralegh, The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana (Bedford, 2007)
Excerpts from The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America [CD]
Sabine MacCormack, "The Incas and Rome," http://mi.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/rbm/kislak/index/mac
cormack.html
Garcilaso de la Vega, Excerpts, Royal Commentaries of the Yncas [ER]; Montaigne, “On Coaches,” The Complete Essays
Andrew Fitzmaurice, "Classical Rhetoric and the Promotion of the New World" [JSTOR]
Walter Ralegh, The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana
David Allen Harvey, "The Noble Savage and the Savage Noble" [Project MUSE]
Baron de LaHontan, “A Conference or Dialogue between the Author and Adario, a noted man among the savages”
