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In 1796, with the invasion of the pope's states, the remaining Jesuits became dispersed, and the few Americans returned to their respective countries. Some of them had their pensions doubled and trebled, and received other compensations. But the privilege of living in their native country did not last long. The Spanish government, controlled by Godoy, the favorite of King Cárlos IV., caused the last survivors to be confined in convents.46

The deputies from America and the Philippines to the national córtes in Spain, presented several petitions for the restoration of the society of Jesus in the Indies. The eleventh and last was on the 16th of December 1810, and was ratified on the 31st of the same. month by new members from Mexico. The reasons 47 adduced were the great importance of the society in promoting science, and the progress of missions which introduced and spread the Christian faith among the

46 Bustamante, Expatriacion, in Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, iii. 304; Id., Suplem., in Cavo, Tres Siglos, iii. 4. Father Rafael de Célis, a native of Vera Cruz, wrote in 1786 a catalogue of the province of Mexico containing biographical data, and showing the date of death of each member till the time of his own demise. The list was continued by Father Pedro Marquez. Only 99 were alive at the beginning of the 19th century; and in 1820, 96 of them were already dead. Comp. Jesus, Catálogo, 3–202; Gaz. Mex. (1798–9), ix. 85-7. It is well known that several of the exiled Jesuits wrote voluminous works, for which the learned world has given them due credit. Among such writers were several natives of New Spain, from whose productions I have often quoted in the course of this work. Their names and writings will be duly noticed elsewhere. Others had won themselves in the eighteenth century an honorable and revered name in Mexico, for their virtues and apostolic zeal; namely, Antonio de Hordoñana, Francisco Chavez, Francisco Javier Solchaga, Juan Villavicencio; Francis Herman Glandorff, a native of Westphalia, the great apostle of Taraumara, who was compared with Saint Francis Xavier, and died August 9, 1763; Juan Francisco Iragorri, the 'santo americano;' Francisco Javier Gomez; Juan Perez, of whom Father Oviedo said that a man of approved spirit saw 'subir su alma de la cama al cielo, sin pasar por el purgatorio'-seeing the soul fly up is certainly a dramatic form of expression. Perez died in March, 1780; he was noted for the charitable care he took of insane females. Then there were Agustin Arriola, Manuel Álvarez, Juan Carnero, who foretold the day of his death; José de Guevara, Cristóbal Flores, Salvador de la Gándara, Manuel Arce, Pedro Canton, Juan Antonio de Oviedo, Juan Mayora, and Agustin Marquez. Excepting Glandorff, Gomez, Perez, and Alvarez, the above named were born in New Spain. Mayora, Rel., 1-78; Dicc. Univ. Hist. Geog., i.-x. passim; Jesus, Cat. Comp., 200; Lazcano, Vida del P. Oviedo, 1-582; Pap. de Jesuitas, MS., no. 20, 1-31; Castañiza, Rel., frontispiece.

47 The new deputies asked for their consideration, 'con la preferencia que demandan las Américas, y la urgencia de que somos testigos.' Bustamante, Defensa Comp. Jesus, 15-16.

DISPOSAL OF PROPERTY.

447

Indians. Nothing was done, however, till Pius VII., by bull of August 7, 1814, reinstated the society. Fernando VII. issued his exequatur September 17, 1815, appointing a board to restore, as far as possible, the sequestered property. The royal order was executed in Mexico, the solemn installation of the Jesuits being made May 19, 1819, at the college of San Ildefonso, which was delivered to fathers José María Castañiza, Antonio Barroso, and Pedro Canton, natives of Mexico, and members of the late society. But the persecuted society was not long to enjoy peace. It was again expelled by a decree of the Spanish córtes of 1820, which was carried out in New Spain in January 1821.49 The disposal made of the society's property and missions will appear in connection with financial and general church affairs, treated of separately in this volume.

The first attempt to record the labors of the Jesuit order in America was the Historia de la Provincia de la compañia de Jesus de Nueva España, by Francisco de Florencia, one of the society, published in Mexico in 1694. This was a mere beginning, however, for although the author evidently intended to complete the work it was never extended beyond the first volume. The period covered is the decade beginning in 1571, during which the Jesuit establishments at Mexico, Pátzcuaro, and Oajaca were founded. Beyond the facts connected with these establishments, and the lives of the founders and first two provincials of the order in Mexico, the historical data are meagre. The arrangement is faulty, the dates for many important events are wanting, and the style is that common to the monkish chroniclers of the fourteenth century. The most extensive account of Florencia's life is given by Beristain. According to this author he was born in Florida in 1620, studied in the college of San Ildefonso of Mexico, and in 1643 took the Jesuit habit. Having successfully occupied the chairs of philosophy and theology in the Jesuit college of San Pedro y San Pablo, acquiring considerable fame in the capital as a preacher, and having held several important commissions in connection with the inqui sition, he was appointed in 1688 procurator of his province at Madrid and Rome. Subsequently he filled for several years the office of procurator-general at Seville of all the provinces in the Indies. He finally returned to Mexico, where he died in his seventy-fifth year.

Of his numerous writings, which are wholly of a religious character, and some of which have passed through several editions, his fame rests chiefly on

48 Father Canton had been quietly living in the country since 1808. Bustamante, Suplem., in Cavo, Tres Siglos, iv. 176.

1o Id., 177; Id., Defensa Comp. Jesus, 17.

the work already cited, and the Zodiaco Mariano, Mex., 1755, a posthumous work of considerable importance for the ecclesiastical history of Spanish North America, in which the details are narrated with great fulness, with names, dates, and circumstances, and with authorities and bibliographical citations. Nicolás Antonio, Bib. Hisp. Nova, i. 426, makes no mention of these two works, only two of his earlier and less important publications being cited. Of the author he says 'tum Roma, tum Hispali omnium Indicarum provinciarum procurator.' Alcedo, Bib. Am., MS., i. 400–1, who follows Antonio, adds to the latter's list two more works of the same class. While Beristain's list of this author's works is very complete, Sabin gives some val. uable information relative to the various editions.

Florencia's incompleted task was destined to be continued by one greater than he, but who, like him, was also fated to leave the work unfinished. His successor, Francisco Javier Alegre, was born in 1729 at Vera Cruz, where he received his early education and studied Latin. Thence he passed to Puebla, where, having distinguished himself in the study of philosophy and the other branches taught at that period, he began a course of canonical law at the capital. On the 19th of March 1794 he took the habit at the Jesuit college of Tepozotlan. During his novitiate he committed to memory the works of St Francis of Sales, and the ascetic writings of Friar Luis de Granada and others, and, after professing, diligently devoted himself to the study of the Latin writers of the golden age. Later he dedicated himself with such earnestness to the study of theology that his astonishing progress in this science gained for him the applause of his companions, but so affected his health as to compel his transfer to Habana. There he taught philosophy, and perfected himself in Greek, mathematics, and the modern languages. Seven years later he passed to the Jesuit college recently opened in Mérida, Yucatan, where after a few years, his superiors recognizing his fitness for the work, he was called to Mexico to continue the history of the society.

Availing himself of the work of Florencia, the valuable writings of Ribas, Kino, Fray Martin Perez, Friar Ignacio Trysk, and an immense mass of annual reports and private correspondence, he described in a simple but correct and elegant style the extensive labors of his order from their establishment in Florida in 1566 to about 1765, when its members had already completed the conquest of the north-western provinces of New Spain. Two volumes in manuscript had thus far been completed, when two years later the further continuation of the work was prevented by the expulsion of the society. Having, with the majority of his exiled companions, taken up his residence at Bologna, he continued his studies and teachings, published a translation of the Iliad, wrote Alexandriada, a poem on the conquest of Tyre by Alexander, and finished fourteen books on Elementos de Geometria, and four lectures on Secciones Cónicas. Here also he wrote the most famous of his works, the Instituciones Teológicas, consisting of eighteen books in seven volumes, and published a year after his death, which occurred August 16, 1788, near Bologna. In all, he wrote twenty works, which are enumerated by Beristain, Bib. Hisp.-Am., i. 54. Alegre's early studies are evident in his various works, his good taste and judgment being everywhere appar ent. His expressions against the enemies of the society are moderate, and

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the space given to religious rhapsodies and accounts of miracles not excessive. His Historia de la Compañia, the best work of its kind left by the Jesuits, and invaluable for the history of the north-west provinces of Mexico, remained unpublished until 1841, when it was rescued from oblivion by the efforts of the celebrated Mexican writer, Cárlos María Bustamante. In May of this year a bill to permit the re-establishment of the Jesuits in Mexico was laid before congress and supported, among others, by Bustamante, who sought to influence the public in their favor by the publication of this work. It was issued in 1841-2, in 3 vols. with notes and a portrait of the author.

HIST. MEX., VOL. III. 29

CHAPTER XXIV.

MEXICO UNDER A REORGANIZED SYSTEM.

1769-1790.

SEPARATE GOVERNMENT FOR THE PROVINCIAS INTERNAS-INTENDENCIAS OF PROVINCES CHANGES EFFECTED AND FINAL ESTABLISHMENT VICEROY AND ARCHBISHOP ALONSO NUÑEZ DE HARO-HIS HIGH CHARACTER AND PREVIOUS RECORD-EXTRAORDINARY HONORS CONFERRED ON HIM BY THE CROWN-HIS DEATH AND BURIAL-CALAMITOUS VISITATIONS-EPIDEMICS AND EARTHQUAKES-THEIR EFFECT ON THE IGNORANT-VICEROY MANUEL ANTONIO FLOREZ-HIS PREVIOUS CAREER-WAR AGAINST THE APACHES-ENGLISH AND RUSSIANS WATCHED IN THE PACIFICGENERAL POLICY OF THIS RULER-RESIGNATION, AND CAUSE OF IT— SPECIAL FAVOR SHOWN HIM BY THE CROWN-HIS DEPARTURE FOR SPAIN-OBSEQUIES OF AND MOURNING FOR CARLOS III.-GRAND PROCLAMATION OF CARLOS IV.-HONORS TO ROYAL PERSONAGES.

THE expediency of reorganizing the government of New Spain was one of the primary questions that engaged the attention of the visitador general, José de Galvez, during his sojourn in the country. In accord with Viceroy de Croix, who ruled for the king at the time, he formed and laid before the crown a plan for its better administration, which was approved and ordered to be carried out. That plan provided among other things for the creation of a government, comandancia general, and superintendencia de hacienda, entirely independent of the viceroyalty of New Spain, in the provincias internas, so called, including Nueva Vizcaya, Sonora, Sinaloa, and the Californias, together with Coahuila, Texas, and New Mexico; the new governor to have also the patronato real, a prerogative that will be fully treated of in another part of this volume. Though clothed likewise with judicial pow

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