Pedro Moya de Contreras
Álvaro Manrique de Zúñiga | |
---|---|
President of Council of the Indies | |
In office 1585 – December 21, 1591 | |
Roman Catholic | |
Pedro Moya de Contreras (sometimes Pedro de Moya y Contreras) (c. 1528,
Ecclesiastical career
Moya de Contreras received the degree of doctor of canon law from the University of Salamanca. Later he became head of the cathedral school in the Canary Islands, and then inquisitor of Murcia.
In 1571 he became the first inquisitor general of New Spain (and thus the first inquisitor general in the New World). He established the
Two years later, on June 15, 1573, Moya de Contreras was chosen Archbishop of Mexico and consecrated bishop on November 21, 1573, by
While bishop, he was the principal consecrator of Juan de Medina Rincón y de la Vega, Bishop of Michoacán (1574); Francisco Gómez de Mendiola y Solórzano, Bishop of Guadalajara (1574); and Alfonso Graniero Avalos, Bishop of La Plata o Charcas (1579).[1]
Political career
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In 1583 Moya de Contreras's predecessor as viceroy,
(royal inspector) to help resolve a conflict between the viceroy and the Audiencia. Philip named Moya, then the sitting Archbishop of Mexico. As visitador, he took up the accusations against the corrupt oidores and other officials of the viceroyalty. He dismissed the former and punished the latter, some by hanging. In a letter reporting to the king, he praised those officials who had honestly met their obligations, and castigated others.Suárez de Mendoza died in June, 1583. The Audiencia was formally in charge of the colony for 16 months, until the installation of the new viceroy. However, Moya de Contreras continued in the position of visitador during the interregnum, with much influence. In 1584, he was named viceroy to succeed Suárez.
He took up the new position on September 25, 1584. He now held the three most important positions in the colony. With this concentration of power, he was able to remedy many of the prevalent abuses, with immediate punishment for those found to be transgressors of the law or of decency. This resulted in much enmity among the governing class, but the lower classes proclaimed him as their defender. He was able to increase rents and payments to Spain considerably.
In 1584 he resigned as viceroy, but retained his other positions (including visitador) for a little longer while he wound up his affairs before returning to Spain. Upon his return, he became president of the Council of the Indies, a position he held until his death.
Moya de Contreras died in Spain in December, 1591, so poor that the Crown paid for his funeral. His body was interred in the parish church of Santiago, in Madrid. He left various writings which were collected in the book Cartas de Indias, published in Madrid in 1877.
See also
- Luis de Villanueva y Zapata, interim viceroy who preceded Moya de Contreras
References
- ^ a b Catholic Hierarchy: "Bishop Antonio Ruíz de Morales y Molina, O.S." retrieved November 13, 2015
- ^ GCatholic.org: "Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mexico" retrieved December 31, 2015
- ^ Arquidiocesis de Mexico website: "Arzobishops" Archived 2016-02-07 at the Wayback Machine retrieved January 3, 2016
Further reading
- (in Spanish) "Moya de Contreras, Pedro," Enciclopedia de México, v. 10. Mexico City, 1988.
- (in Spanish) García Puron, Manuel, México y sus gobernantes. Mexico City: Joaquín Porrua, 1984.
- (in Spanish) Orozco Linares, Fernando, Gobernantes de México. Mexico City: Panorama Editorial, 1985, ISBN 968-38-0260-5.
- Stafford Poole, C.M. Pedro Moya de Contreras: Catholic Reform and Royal Power in New Spain, 1571-1591. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987, ISBN 0-520-05551-9.
External links
- Catholic Hierarchy
- (in Spanish) List of Archbishops of Mexico