A Satire of New Mexico

After Posada, no friar ever wielded the authority of the Inquisition in New Mexico the way he had. Fray Juan de Paz, his successor in 1665 as both agent and custos, evidently wanted to. Instead, he stirred up such a storm of local resentment that the Holy Office was obliged to reevaluate its role in the colony. Father Paz, it appeared, wanted "to make every affair and case an Inquisition matter," not merely to insure the purity of the Faith but also to intimidate opponents of the friars' regime. If the Franciscans were using the authority of the Holy Office to maintain their privileged ecclesiastical monopoly in New Mexico, that was patently wrong. Having admonished Paz to keep peace with the civil authorities, the inquisitors listened with concern to the complaints that reached them late in 1667. [51]

"We beg you," wrote the Santa Fe cabildo, "to free us of such duress, so many troubles and miseries as we poor soldiers suffer at the hands of these religious." Ever since its founding seventy years before, vast and remote New Mexico had groaned, the municipal council said, under the oppression of litigious Franciscans. The friars were the only ecclesiastical law. They were the judges. They heard and recorded all testimony. Because there were no lawyers in the colony to offer counsel, the citizen stood defenseless and fearful before the arbitrary justice of the Franciscans. For no greater offense than hiring an Indian laborer against the will of a friar, New Mexicans were threatened with prosecution by the Inquisition. Such intimidation was commonplace. What moved the cabildo to appeal at this juncture was not so common.

The Friars Reprimanded by Holy Office

Fray Nicolás de Enríquez, appointed notary of the Inquisition by Father Paz, had written a scurrilous satire "against this entire kingdom, stripping everyone in it of his dignity, from the governor to this cabildo." The populace clamored for the cabildo to do something. Cristóbal de Chávez went after Fray Nicolás with his dagger, and the friar had to run for his life. To prevent another such scene, the cabildo had petitioned Custos Paz to punish Enríquez and send him back to Mexico City. Instead the prelate embraced this friar and appeared with him in the streets. Worse, under pain of ecclesiastical censure, Paz tried to suppress the case by seizing the pertinent papers, including the cabildo's file copy of the satire, a bootless move since many persons already knew the words by heart. To avoid more litigation with the custos, the cabildo laid the matter before the Holy Office, enclosing a copy of the repugnant satire.

The cabildo also made a significant recommendation—that the Holy Office appoint as its local agent a secular clergy man, not a friar. The tithe and the revenue from the confraternity of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios were sufficient to support him. They had already petitioned the bishop of Durango to appoint a secular vicar as ecclesiastical judge ordinary. Although the Franciscan commissary general successfully quashed these attempts to break the Order's monopoly of ecclesiastical justice in New Mexico, they did serve as a warning to overzealous friars. [52]

In the matter of the satire, the attorney of the Holy Office sustained the cabildo. He advised that the inquisitors instruct Agent Paz not to employ Fray Nicolás de Enríquez in any Inquisition business whatever. In addition, a secret investigation should be made to determine if he really was the author, and the cabildo should be assured that any official of the Inquisition guilty of wrongdoing would be punished. [53]

If he was the author, as everyone in New Mexico seemed to think, Enríquez may have penned his controversial satire at Pecos. A native of Zacatecas in his mid-forties, he had probably arrived in New Mexico with Father Posada in 1661. He had been guardian of the Santa Fe convento during the worst of the Peñalosa-Posada feud. After Posada left the colony in 1665, one Fray Nicolás de Echevarría, from the mining town of Sierra de Pinos southeast of Zacatecas, took over as guardian at Pecos. He did not last. [54] By late 1666, when called by Agent Paz to testify against Cristóbal de Anaya Almazán, Fray Nicolás de Enríquez had moved in at Pecos. He did not last either.

By July 1667, three months before the cabildo sent a copy of the satire to the Holy Office, Nicolás de Enríquez testified as guardian of Zia. Just to confuse the succession, it would seem, another Enríquez, aged Fray Diego, a Spaniard who had affiliated himself with the Mexican province in 1626 and evidently no relative, took his place at Pecos. About the same time Fray Juan de Talabán succeeded Father Paz as custos. The latter continued for another year as agent of the Holy Office. The death of Fray Nicolás de Enríquez, probably in 1668, cheated the cabildo of seeing the friar who had allegedly ridiculed an entire colony receive his just deserts. [55]

The colonists rejoiced at the fall of Fray Juan de Paz. Last of the Franciscans in New Mexico to serve simultaneously as custos and as agent of the Holy Office, he had failed to grasp the inquisitors' growing desire to disassociate the authority of the Inquisition and local politics. When they reviewed his proceedings in Mexico City, they decided that impropriety, gross ignorance, and inattention to the obligations of the office had characterized his tenure. They threw out the cases he submitted. Commenting on his evidence against Juan Domínguez de Mendoza, the inquisitors noted, "All the witnesses who testify against him are friars and it appears that they are inspired by malice." [56]

Agent Bernal at Pecos

Just arrived from Mexico City, the cautious new agent, Fray Juan Bernal, probably on the advice of Alonso de Posada, chose as his headquarters the prudently out-of-the-way convento of Pecos. There on January 19, 1669, he swore in as notary Fray Francisco Gómez de la Cadena. The previous notary, appointed by Father Paz in the wake of the Enríquez scandal, was impeded by illness, said Bernal, "and many leagues from this convento of Pecos." Two days later ex-agent Paz signed a hastily compiled inventory of Inquisition papers, formally surrendering them to his successor. They included correspondence, edicts of the Faith, instructions from the inquisitors, and a whole array of confidential cases that Bernal would soon discover were in a horrible mess. [57]

The son of Bartolomé Bernal, native of San Lúcar de Barrameda on the Andalusian coast, and Beatriz de la Barrera of Sevilla, Juan had been born a criollo in the City of Mexico. On February 12, 1648, at the Convento Grande, he put on the robe of St. Francis. He was only fifteen years and four months old. Twenty years a friar, Bernal was still in his mid-thirties in 1669. As he and his notary worked to bring order out of the jumble left by Paz, which entailed among other things chasing down witnesses who after two and three years still had not ratified their declarations, Bernal would need all the stamina he could muster. [58]

Strange Case of Bernardo Gruber

By spring, the new agent had pulled together enough of the loose ends of one case to submit the proceedings to Mexico City. It concerned Bernardo Gruber, a Sonora-based German peddler accused of distributing along with his wares certain mysterious little slips of paper and claiming that "whoever would chew one of these papers would make himself invulnerable for twenty-four hours."

Father Paz had arrested Gruber straight-away. Since April of 1668, the poor wretch had been locked up in "one of the safest rooms" of Capt. Francisco de Ortega's hacienda in the Sandía district. For the benefit of the inquisitors, Father Bernal characterized as best he could the various witnesses in the case, one "a mulatto, but a truthful man and a good Christian," another "a mestizo and a quiet boy of good reputation and fairly reliable." He explained why it had not been possible to ship Gruber to Mexico City. In so doing, he painted a graphic picture of conditions in New Mexico, dismal at best, even when allowance is made for exaggeration.

New Mexico's Dire State in 1669

Sending him at present is all but impossible, Most Illustrious Sir, because this kingdom is seriously afflicted, suffering from two calamities, cause enough to finish it off, as is happening in fact with the greatest speed.

The first of these calamities is that the whole land is at war with the very numerous nation of the heathen Apache Indians, who kill all the Christian Indians they encounter. No road is safe. One travels them all at risk of life for the heathens are everywhere. They are a brave and bold people. They hurl themselves at danger like people who know not God, nor that there is a hell.

The second calamity is that for three years no crop has been harvested. Last year, 1668, a great many Indians perished of hunger, lying dead along the roads, in the ravines, and in their hovels. There were pueblos, like Las Humanas, where more than four hundred and fifty died of hunger. The same calamity still prevails, for, because there is no money, there is not a fanega of maize or wheat in all the kingdom. As a result the Spaniards, men as well as women, have sustained themselves for two years on the cowhides they have in their houses to sit on. They roast them and eat them. And the greatest woe of all is that they can no longer find a bit of leather to eat, for their livestock is dying off.

If God sent rain Bernal would send Gruber. The southbound supply wagons would be leaving in November. Before then, however, he hoped to have instructions from the Holy Office. When nothing arrived until much later, Gruber stayed locked up. [59]

Agent Bernal had his problems. He soon discovered how much work it was to carry on judicial proceedings in a colony so vast and so perilous. "I can neither summon anyone nor go myself to where it can be done, for everyone is afoot, without animals, because the heathen enemy have stolen them." Father Gómez de la Cadena, his notary, fell ill. On February 4, 1670, in the guardian's cell at Pecos, he swore in another one, Father Pedro de Ávila y Ayala, who was already living at the mission. Fray Pedro, a hardy, zealous sort, had traveled in 1668 from the province of Yucatan to Mexico City begging alms for the sacred places in the Holy Land. When he saw the supply train forming up for New Mexico, he was overcome, said the pious chronicler Vetancurt, by a desire to save souls. He had volunteered and ridden north with Bernal.

Rain cloud decorations incised on Pecos clay pipes. Kidder, Artifacts.

On the last day of February, trail-weary Brother Blas de Herrera, whom Bernal had sent to Mexico City with the Gruber case eleven months before, reappeared at Pecos with a packet of documents in response. The inquisitors expressed their disgust at the way Father Paz had proceeded against the German. They warned Bernal that local agents did not have the authority to arrest the accused in such a case without express orders from the Holy Office. In another letter, they reiterated that disrespect for the Franciscans was not an Inquisition matter. An agent must not meddle in affairs that lay beyond the jurisdiction of his office "thus giving rise to much prejudice and hatred against this Tribunal." The admonition was for Bernal's own good, "so that with due care he may avoid what his predecessor has brought about by his ignorance." Still, no one released poor Gruber. [60]

The only case of record initiated by Agent Bernal was against an illiterate soldier named Francisco Tremiño, "a man who swears all day long, and is a desperate character." Several witnesses who appeared at Pecos that spring of 1670 to denounce Tremiño alleged that he was in league with the devil. One of them, Antonio de Ávalos, later described as "a native of New Mexico, of good stature, tall and slender, dark with an aquiline face and crooked nose, and coarse hair," Bernal characterized as "one of the lowliest men in these provinces." As for Tremiño, he lit out for Sonora and was apparently never brought to trial. During Lent some Apaches made off with Bernal's riding animals leaving the agent of the Holy Office "practically afoot." [61]

Fray Juan Bernal, agent of the Holy Office

Gruber Escapes

After twenty-seven months of confinement, Bernardo Gruber escaped. Breaking a window and pushing out one of the heavy wooden bars, he had made his getaway with the help of the Apache servant who was guarding him. Together they had fled south in the night with five horses and an arquebus. On Saturday, June 28, 1670, a distressed and out-of-breath Capt. Francisco de Ortega, who had borrowed a horse to get to Pecos, detailed the entire episode for Father Bernal. Within two days the Franciscan had notified Gov. Juan de Medrano y Mesía of the escape and of the dereliction of the local officials who refused to aid Ortega in pursuit. The governor dispatched Cristóbal de Anaya Almazán with a squad of soldiers and forty Indians. Bernal had Fray Pedro de Avila y Áyala draw up bulletins alerting the agents of the Inquisition in Parral and Sonora. He then sent his notary to inspect the scene and verify Ortega's story. It checked out. The bar had been removed. Gruber was gone. [62]

Fray Pedro de Ávila y Ayala

The following week, when Father Bernal wrote the Holy Office from Sandía, he was feeling very much like Job. Apaches and famine still stalked the land. He still had not straightened out and completed the farrago of Inquisition records, but with God's help he would. The trouble was, he admitted, "they are so mixed up and confused that I do not understand them." Lord knew, he was trying.

Even though sick with sunburn and other afflictions of this country which I have suffered during certain proceedings in the line of duty, with one arm crippled for several days from running sores, I carry on glady, ever confident that Your Illustrious Lordship will protect me and take me from this country. For even though I have striven to live with the utmost care, and always in seclusion, fraternizing with no one since they attempt to stain my reputation, [it has happened,] as will be seen from a declaration made by Domingo López which I remit to Your Illustrious Lordship with this letter. [63]

Later that summer, there was news of the fugitive Bernardo Gruber. A party of travelers making their way through the forlorn and shimmering desert stretch south of Socorro in mid-July came upon a dead horse tethered to a lonely tree. Nearby they found articles of clothing, apparently Gruber's. A further search turned up his hair, more bits of clothing, and "in very widely separated places the skull, three ribs, two long bones, and two other little bones which had been gnawed by animals."

Detail of Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco's 1758 map showing the Jornada del Muerto and a place called Alemán, or the German, in memory of Bernardo Gruber.

It appeared that Gruber's Apache companion had killed him for the other horses and the arquebus. If to cover his tracks the wily Gruber had murdered the Apache, tethered the horse, and planted the clothing, no one ever suspected it. In Mexico City, the inquisitors resolved that the dead peddler's wares be sold at auction, that Mass be said for the repose of his soul, and that his bones be given a church burial. Although the life of this luckless German wanderer has long been forgotten, his death gave name to, or at least reinforced the name of the Jornada del Muerto, the Dead Man's Route. [64]

Bernal Wraps Up Inquisition Business

Back in his cell at Pecos, the conscientious Bernal pored over document after document in an effort to conclude every bit of Inquisition business left undone by his predecessor. There was, for example, the matter of four dozen confiscated packs of playing cards that Father Paz had turned over to Maese de campo Pedro Lucero de Godoy, local depositary of the royal treasury. He was to sell the packs at two pesos each in New Mexico commodities. During a period of two years and eight months, Lucero had sold only one pack. Not only were the cards damaged and worm-eaten from five years' storage, but the stamp on them did not correspond. Besides, anyone who wanted playing cards bought them at the store of Governor Medrano, the one store in the colony.

The only way to move the cards, Bernal reckoned, was to sell them to the governor at half price "in the most respected commodity of this country, that it in standard tanned skins, being the commodity most readily sold in New Spain." The governor consented. At Pecos on November 22, 1670, his agent gave a promissory note for the forty-seven skins. Seven months later in Santa Fe, notary Ávila y Ayala certified receipt of the skins, the same day entrusting them to Lucero de Godoy who added two more for the single pack he had sold at the original price. Finally, on September 4, 1672, Father Bernal ordered Lucero to deliver the skins to Franciscan procurator Fray Felipe Montes who was about to depart with the returning supply wagons. That, to Bernal's relief, was an end to that. [65]

Fray Juan Bernal, sober and unobtrusive, persevered as the Inquisition's agent in New Mexico, seemingly as late as 1679, the year his superiors in Mexico City named him custos. On the roster compiled by the New Mexico chapter in August 1672, Bernal was listed as a definitor of the custody and as guardian not at Pecos but at Galisteo, where eight years later he would suffer a violent death. [66]

The Martyrdom of Ávila y Ayala at Hawikuh

His former notary, the ardent Fray Pedro de Ávila y Ayala, accepted the heavier cross of Hawikuh among the Zuñis. Within months he was dead. Western Apaches, emboldened by drought and famine, swept into the pueblo in 1673 killing, burning, and looting. Father Ávila y Ayala died, according to Vetancurt, as a proper martyr should. He fled into the church and embraced a cross and an image of Our Lady. They dragged him out and stripped off his habit. At the foot of a large cross in the patio they stoned him, shot arrows at the writhing nude figure, and finally smashed his head with a heavy bell. [67]

Pecos Glaze V pottery. Kidder, Pottery, II.

The new man at Pecos, shown on the August 1672 roster, was Fray Luis de Morales, born at Baeza in the southern Spanish province of Jaén, professed August 26, 1660, at Puebla, and tried as a missioner in New Mexico since 1665. He did not stay at Pecos many years, for in August of 1680 when the Pueblos erupted, Fray Luis died a martyr at his post in San Ildefonso. [68]

As for the Inquisition in New Mexico—personified so boldly in the early 1660s by Fray Alonso de Posada—it hardly functioned during the seventies. The pursuit of Bernardo Gruber seems to have been the last excitement. Agent Bernal's preoccupation with playing cards was indicative.

The tribunal in Mexico City had finally awakened to the fact that its Franciscan agents in New Mexico were reshaping the special province of the Inquisition to fit their local ecclesiastical monopoly and using it as a club in church-state brawls. As a result, the inquisitors had admonished Agents Paz and Bernal to cooperate with the civil authorities. Recognizing the obvious conflict of interest, they no longer appointed the Franciscan custos as comisario of the Holy Office.

Agent Bernal got the message. While insisting on the respect due his office, neither he nor the energetic friar who succeeded him in 1679 went out looking for blasphemers. Like everyone else in New Mexico, they prayed for survival, and hardly heard the expletives. [69]