Juan de Palafox y Mendoza
This article may require copy editing for grammar. (October 2023) |
18th Viceroy of New Spain | |
---|---|
In office 10 June 1642 – 23 November 1642 | |
Monarch | Philip IV |
Preceded by | Diego Roque López Pacheco Cabrera y Bobadilla |
Succeeded by | Diego García Sarmiento de Sotomayor |
Juan de Palafox y Mendoza (26 June 1600 – 1 October 1659) was a Spanish politician, administrator, and Catholic clergyman in 17th century Spain and a viceroy of Mexico.
Palafox was the
Early life
Born in Navarre, Spain, Don Juan Palafox y Mendoza was the natural son ("a child of transgression") of Jaime de Palafox, the Marquis of Ariaza, of the Aragonese nobility.[1] His mother became a Carmelite nun. He was taken in by a family of millers who gave him the name "Juan" and raised him for ten years, after which his father recognized him, and had him educated at Alcalá and Salamanca.[2]
In 1626 he was a deputy of the nobility in the Cortes de Monzón, and later a prosecutor at the Council of War and a member of the Council of the Indies, the chief administrative body for administration of the overseas territories of the Spanish Empire.[3]
Ecclesiastical career
Palafox was ordained in 1629, and became the chaplain of Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress, the sister of King Philip IV of Spain.[4] He accompanied her on her various trips around Europe.
In 1639 Philip IV nominated him, and
He left for America and arrived in
He served as
Jesuits controversy and recall
He was embroiled in a major controversy with the
He then targeted the Jesuits as another entity that did not respect ecclesiastical jurisdiction by paying tithes, essentially a 10% tax on agricultural production, to the Church hierarchy. In the 1640s when he took on the Jesuits, Palafox pointed out that the Jesuit order was a hugely wealthy landowner in New Spain. Jesuits claimed that the income from their haciendas went exclusively toward support of their educational institutions (colegios) and their missionary work on the colonial frontiers.[6] On principle, Palafox asserted that it was the spiritual duty of all to pay the tithe, which the Jesuits steadfastly refused to do. The tithe transferred wealth from the countryside's landed estates to cities and towns, supporting the cathedral chapter, parish priests, and charitable institutions.
Obviously, as a powerful bishop, Palafox would have been interested in increasing the revenue from Jesuit tithes, but also in asserting episcopal authority over that order. In 1647, the diocese of Puebla ordered all Jesuits to produce licenses from the diocese to preach and hear confession, something that was required under canon law and empowered bishops. The Jesuits asserted they needed no such licenses, that they could exercise such powers without special permission of a bishop. Palafox wrote that if this were true, that the bishop had no power in his own diocese and he would be separated from his own flock by "an alien authority".[7]
The Jesuits found an ally against Palafox in the new viceroy, García Sarmiento de Sotomayor, 2nd Count of Salvatierra. Salvatierra sought to arrest Palafox. In 1647, rather than be arrested, which might have produced an uprising in Puebla against the viceroy's abuse of authority, Palafox fled to the mountains outside the city. The move was calculated to show the crown that the situation in New Spain was grave, that the viceroy and the Jesuits were challenging the rightful place of episcopal authority. In that he failed and was ultimately humiliated by being recalled to Spain.
Palafox laid formal complaints against the Jesuits at
Some of Palafox's influential anti-Jesuit writings deals with the Chinese Rites controversy. Palafox had jurisdiction as a bishop on certain Asian missions, but - according to Costa Rican scholar Ricardo Martínez Esquivel - the main reason he declared the Jesuit's tolerance for traditional ancestor worship practices among Chinese converts to Christianity as heretic was "his personal conflict" with the Jesuits.[10]
Viceregal legacy
Palafox founded the Biblioteca Palafoxiana, the first public library in the Americas, on 5 September 1646, stocking it with five thousand books of science and philosophy. He also founded the Dominican Convent of Santa Inés, the Colleges of San Pedro and San Pablo, and the girls school Purísima Concepción. He amended the by-laws of the seminary of San Juan, and worked diligently on completing the cathedral, which was dedicated 18 April 1649.
As bishop, Palafox y Mendoza distinguished himself by his efforts to protect the
While bishop, Palafox was the principal consecrator of
Palafox was an enthusiastic patron of the arts, and it was during his tenure in Puebla that the city became the musical center of New Spain. Composers such as
Political career
As visitador general, Bishop Palafox had powers to inspect practices in the viceroyalty, but the viceroy himself was protected from the inspector-general's inquiries, thus undermining his ability to pursue effective reform.
During his brief term as viceroy, Palafox established the laws governing the University, the
He was succeeded as viceroy by García Sarmiento de Sotomayor, 2nd Count of Salvatierra on 23 November 1642, but continued to hold the post of visitador. Having a bishop serve as viceroy was not the usual pattern of appointment, but the extraordinary circumstances that prompted to crown to precipitously remove the previous viceroy meant that Palafox was a useful, if temporary, replacement until the crown appointed his successor. The high tension between the new viceroy, Salvatierra, and bishop and visitador general Palafox was not unprecedented however. In 1624 the viceroy the marquis of Gelves had ordered the expulsion of the archbishop from the viceroyalty, in clear terms the civil authority challenging the ecclesiastical. That earlier conflict had resulted in a huge riot in the main plaza of Mexico City and the ouster of the viceroy himself.[18][19] The conflict between Salvatierra and Palafox, who was then acting as visitador, flared over what might seem a trivial matter, whether or not the viceroy could sit on a cushion when seated with the Audiencia. Palafox said no, since it distinguished the viceroy from the high court judges. However, the practice had been standard with earlier viceroys. Where the performance of power and its prerogatives was important not as minor traditions but as the theater of power, such a conflict was seated in deeper issues.[20]
Writings
Following the example of an earlier Spanish ecclesiastic in Mexico,
His writings were published in 15 volumes in Madrid in 1762.
Recently a bi-lingual edition of his observations on Mexican Indians has been published under the title Virtues of the Indian/Virtudes del Indio.[22]
Cause of beatification and canonization
In 1694
However, though the process passed through the preliminary stages, securing for Palafox the title of Servant of God, the cause was in effect blocked under Pope Pius VI through the intervention of the Jesuits.[8] A vote by the Congregation then responsible for the cause was taken on 28 January 1777[23] and twenty-six out of forty one prelates favored the continuation of Palafox's cause of beatification with the proclamation of a decree of heroic virtue; the decree was then submitted to Pope Pius VI for approbation; Pius VI, however, decided to suspend the final decision.
The cause thus was suspended in 1777 and remained so until 2003, when it was restored under
As the long process for holy recognition of Palafox by the Vatican, stretching from the late seventeenth century to the early twenty-first, it is clear that there were authorities opposed to his cause. The cause for his beatification likely found favor with John Paul II and his successor Benedict XVI. Both popes strongly advocated for the episcopal authority of the Catholic Church against secular authority, the position that Palafox advocated when he served in Mexico. Popes have considerable authority to delay or fast track causes for beatification and canonization.[24] While Pope John Paul II often announced beatifications during papal visits, a wildly popular move local holy people are so honored, Benedict XVI discontinued the practice of going to the announcing beatifications in person in the home locale. The ceremony for the beatification of Palafox was overseen by the Papal Legate, Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.[25]
Juan de Palafox was finally proclaimed Blessed on 5 June 2011. The rite of beatification was presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, by mandate of Pope Benedict XVI. Palafox's feast day is 6 October.
Notes
- ^ D.A. Brading, The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State 1492-1867. New York: Cambridge University Press 1991, p. 229, 237.
- ^ Brading, ibid. 237
- ^ Brading, ibid.
- ^ Brading, ibid.
- ^ Fernando E Rodríguez-Miaja, Diego de Borgraf: un destello en la noche de los tiempos: obra pictórica. Universidad Iberoamericana (Golfo-Centro). Puebla Patronato Editorial para la Cultura, Arte e Historia de Puebla 2001 (in Spanish)
- ^ Brading, ibid. p.242
- ^ Brading, ibid. 243-44 citing Palafox ObrasXII, Madrid 1762, 23-47.
- ^ a b c public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Palafox de Mendoza, Juan de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 593. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Brading, ibid. 250
- ^ José Antonio Cervera - Ricardo Martínez Esquivel, "Puebla de Los Ángeles entre China y Europa. Palafox en las controversias de los ritos chinos", Historia Mexicana 58,1 (2018): 245–284.
- ^ Brading, ibid. 251.
- ^ Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Virtues of the Indian/Virtudes del Indio, translated by Nancy H. Fee. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield 2009.
- ^ Catholic Hierarchy: "Bishop Bl. Juan de Palafox y Mendoza" retrieved 10 January 2015
- ^ Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo, Politics and Reform in Spain and Viceregal Mexico: The Life and Thought of Juan de Palafox 1600-1659. Oxford: Clarendon Press 2004, p. 56
- ^ Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo, ibid. p.53.
- ^ Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo, ibid. p. 129.
- ^ Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, "Relación" in Los virreyes de Mexico IVBAE, vol. CCLXXVI, pp. 62-63 quoted in Alejandro Cañeque, The King's Living Image: The Culture and Politics of Viceregal Power in Colonial Mexico New York: Routledge 2004,p. 63, 285.
- ^ Jonathan I. Israel, Race, Class, and Politics in Colonial Mexico, 1610–1670 London, 1975, pp. 135-160; 217-240.
- ^ Alejandro Cañeque, The King's Living Image: The Culture and Politics of Viceregal Power in Colonial Mexico New York: Routledge 2004, p.51
- ^ Cañeque, ibid. pp. 119–120.
- ISBN 0-88663-045-2
- ^ Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Virtues of the Indian/Virtudes del Indio, translated by Nancy H. Fee. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield 2009.
- ^ a b Index ac status causarum beatificationis servorum dei et canonizationis beatorum (in Latin). Typis polyglottis vaticanis. January 1953. p. 114.
- ^ Kenneth L. Woodward, Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who becomes a Saint, Who Doesn't, and Why. New York: Simon and Schuster 1990.
- ^ Diocese of Osma-Soria, Breve Biografía de Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Diócesis de Osma-Soria, n.d. p. 14
References
- (in Spanish) Sor Cristina de la Cruz Arteaga y Falguera, OSH, El venerable Palafox, Madrid, 1930.
- (in Spanish) Ricardo del Arco y Garay, La erudición española en el siglo XVII, I, Madrid, 1950,(pp. 367 y ss.).
- (in Spanish) José Ignacio Tellechea Idigoras, "Coordenadas históricas, políticas y religiosas del siglo XVII en que vivió el obispo don Juan de Palafox", en VV. AA., El Venerable obispo Juan de Palafox y Mendoza. Semana de estudios histórico-pastorales y de espiritualidad (2-7 Agosto 1976), ed. Obispado de Osma-Soria, Soria, 1977, pp. 24–38. ISBN 84-7231-352-2.
- (in Spanish) García Puron, Manuel, México y sus gobernantes, v. 1. Mexico City: Joaquín Porrúa, 1984.
- (in Spanish) Sor Cristina de la Cruz Arteaga y Falguera, OSH, Una mitra entre dos mundos, Sevilla, 1985.
- (in Spanish) Orozco Linares, Fernando, Gobernantes de México. Mexico City: Panorama Editorial, 1985, ISBN 968-38-0260-5.
- (in Spanish) ISBN 84-7009-258-8.
- (in Spanish) Francisco Sánchez-Castañer, Don Juan de Palafox, Virrey de Nueva España, Madrid, 1988.
- (in Spanish) "Palafox de Mendoza, Juan de," Enciclopedia de México, v. 11. Mexico City, 1988.
- (in Spanish) Teófilo Portillo Capilla, El desierto y la celda en la vida y muerte del Obispo Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Almazán, 1989.
- (in Spanish) Gregorio Bartolomé Martínez, Jaque mate al obispo virrey. Siglo y medio de sátiras y libelos contra don Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, México, 1991.
- (in Spanish) José Eduardo Castro Ramírez, Palafox, su pontificado en Puebla, 1640–1649, Puebla de los Angeles, 2000.
- (in Spanish) Ricardo Fernández Gracia, El virrey Palafox, Madrid, 2000.
- (in Spanish) Gregorio Bartolomé Martínez, Don Juan de Palafox y Mendoza: obispo de La Puebla de los Ángeles y de Osma, Soria, 2001.
- (in Spanish) P. Ildefonso Moriones, OCD, "Historia del proceso de beatificación y canonización del Venerable Juan de Palafox y Mendoza", en Ricardo Fernández Gracia (coordinador), Palafox: Iglesia, Cultura y Estado en el siglo XVII, Pamplona, 2001, pp. 515–558.
- (in Spanish) Pedro Angel Palou, Breve noticia histórica de la Biblioteca Palafoxiana y de su fundador Juan de Palafox y Mendoza y los colegios de San Juan, San Pedro y San Pantaleón, Puebla de los Angeles, 2002.
- (in Spanish) Ricardo Fernández Gracia, Iconografía de Juan de Palafox: imágenes por un hombre de estado y de Iglesia, Pamplona, 2002.
- Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo, Politics and reform in Spain and Viceregal Mexico: the life and thought of Juan de Palafox, 1600–1659, Oxford, 2004.
- (in Spanish) Montserrat Galí Boadella, La pluma y el báculo: Juan de Palafox y el mundo hispano del seiscientos, Puebla de los Angeles, 2004.
- Gerard Béhague: "Mexico", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. (Accessed 11 December 2005.) (subscription access Archived 16 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine)
- (in Spanish) Gregorio Bartolomé Martínez, A Juan de Palafox : más de 2000 versos, del abate Tommaso Campastri, capellán de Carlos IV a favor de la beatificación del Venerable, sacados de un manuscrito de la Real Biblioteca, Soria, 2010.
External links
- Biblioteca Palafoxiana
- Catholic Encyclopedia article on Palafox
- Information at Catholic Hierarchy
- Beatificación del Obispo Juan de Palafox y Mendoza
- (Spanish) GoogleBooks online version of "Don Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Obispo de Puebla y Osma, Visitador y Virrey de la Nueva España" , by Genaro Garcia
- Book review of Genaro Garcia's biography in JSTOR: The Catholic Historical Review Vol. 6, No. 3 (Oct., 1920), by Joachim Walsh pp. 358–360
- Biographical essay in Virtues of the Indian: an annotated translation on GoogleBooks of Virtudes del indio by Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza
- Amazon Virtues of the Indian: an annotated translation Nancy H. Fee(ed.) ; Alejandro Cañeque (other) with Look Inside feature of pages excluded from GoogleBooks online version (above)
- eBooks Virtues of the Indian: an annotated translation Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; January 2009 for Kindle Fire, Apple, Android, Nook, Kobo, PC, Mac, Sony Reader...
- MA Thesis Palafox y Mendoza’s Virtudes del indio as a Deliberative Oration (online pdf) author: Michael Richard Scott of Department of Romance Languages, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, 2011)