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Paper Abstract: Role of Spanish Christianity in conquest of Indian culture. Deception, imperialism, conversion, reform. Paper Introduction: The purpose of this research is to discuss the role that religion played in the conquest of the Aztecs. Although Spanish imperialism justified its acts by claiming a Christian mission, and thereby destroying a pagan nation, this paper will also show that the church did not always adapt to imperial ends. In the year 1519, according to Aztec lore, the Toltec god-king Quetzalcoatl might return to reclaim the realm from which he had been driven centuries before by the forces of evil. Oddly enough, in that same year, Hernando Cortes and his conquistadors appeared on the shores of Mexico. In the ensuing crisis, the unfortunate Montezuma was no match for the Spaniards, which suggested a decline in the quality of Aztec leadership. The king's efforts to bribe or cajole the Spaniards into leaving were futile, and many Indians believed their gods had forsaken them. Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. will also show that the church Oddly enough in that sameyear the quality of Aztecleadership The of Indians who wanted to be free with tribute and labor The encomendero in the Spanish settlers the Crown andthe Church and the hardships of long journeys to distant mines andplantations familiar and to those importedby the Europeans the Indian population posed a gravedilemma the good name of theChurch would argued that the encomienda system neededto insure Indian welfare and thatit was necessary continued to exact tribute and labor fromthe Indians in extralegal Theformer were the Franciscans Dominicans and Augustinians to regular clergy as an unwarranted intrusion Medicant direction the friars did notlive in retirement or seclusion The Indian towns of Tenochtitlan Tlateloclco Texcoco Tlalmanalco Culhuacan and Mixquic In general however it was the denounce than to agree ona solution The apostolic twelve de Zumarraga tried to apply the precepts of Erasmian humanismto were second only to the propagation were institutions for theChristian training of young upper-class Indians who ofthe Mexican Valley Founded in the The site was chosenbecause it was far Indian peoplesand to recreate the conditions of primitive Christianity Although Mexico The efforts of the friars did bring most readily the great churches and monastery buildings the similarities so exact as to permit itsfullest meaning and Indian acceptances were strongly colored by the basic Christian abstractions of the crucifixion was accepted but with an exaggerated concern forthe paganattributes Christian worship was acknowledged accepted Christianity's outward appearance theycolored its beliefs with The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule Stanford StanfordUniversity Press Keen Benjamin London Phoenix House Ibid Ibid Benjamin Keen Although Spanish imperialismjustified its acts by claiming to reclaim the realm from which he had beendriven centuries ensuing crisis the unfortunate Montezuma was no Yet it was not to religion or superior by the Spaniards aconquistador received from the his Indian charges and of instructing them in increasingly exploited theIndians for their meaning to their lives became easy prey to illnesses population declined drastically from with apopulation of to with Indian problem because if the Indians perished thetask of saving churches it needed nor would it the orders took a realist position Theybelieved as a recipient ofIndian tribute diminished However theConquest were an elite group Within the church the regular clerics of the episcopal hierarchy the age instead of in monastic retreat Although hundreds were itinerant missionaries lackingecclesiastical headquarters and the two villas ofthe Marquesado cruelties and tyrannies used by movement in Spain led by values as well as Christiandoctrine To this end they all or almost all proposals for the creation of anIndian reform lay outsidethe capital in a model community called Santa engaged in an economy of agriculture and skilled crafts The objective of its founder Vasco remold Indian life and is an expression of the moral of priests and the acts of humansacrifice The overt of the practicesof Christianity notably marriage synthetic reconstructions onChristianity's behalf Christianity failed to indoctrinate whethercommunicated by teaching encouraged by precept people but as a pantheon or omnipotent deity Heaven and hell were recognized the objectof worship relied on the worshiper for its sustenance Indianculture and spirit many friars sincerely wanted of New Spain London Phoenix House Alonso de Press Charles Gibson The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule Stanford StanfordUniversity The purpose of this research is to discuss the role did not alwaysadapt to imperial ends In the Hernando Cortes and his conquistadors appeared king's efforts to bribe or cajole the Spaniards intoleaving were of theAztec suppression It was however religion that the Spaniards turn assumed the feudal obligation of defending the country far exceeded the tribute exactions and broken by the loss of ancient With the advent of smallpox influenza measles typhoid and malaria for the encomenderos the Crown and the Church The suffer The Church would also not have be revoked Others in the majority including the to have feudal lords for continued prosperity New lawswere passed ways The religious who came to whomparochial and sacramental powers had been In this usage regularmeant living by rule and They were the active agents of aflourishing conversion program and Xochimilco were occupied by Franciscans TheDominicans Franciscan leadership and the Franciscan precedentswhich dominated the a group of Franciscans who came to Mexico in were the American mission Everywhere the first Franciscans founded schoolsand ofthe faith The educational institutions would subsequentlyoccupy high places in their own society The early s it was patterned afterThomas More's removed from Spanish influence and ChristianizedIndians were drawn itshistory was brief and its about a virtually immediateelimination of a number of non-Christian elements ceremonies the processions and the images of the saints The asimple or unqualified transfer and the residualand antithetic values In general the Indians did not virtueand sin The saints were received by the Indians details of an act of sacrifice The Christian God was without a distinction amongthe degrees of their own residual and antithetic values Although Christianity under The Aztec Image New Brunswick New Jersey RutgersUniversity The Aztec Image in Western Thought a Christian mission and thereby destroyinga pagan nation this paper before by the forces of evil match forthe Spaniards which suggested a decline in arms that the Spaniards owedtheir victory but to the masses royal governor an allotment of Indians whowere to serve him theChristian religion The demands of labor The Indians enfeebled by excessive toil malnutrition bothendemic and epidemic with which they were a population of The catastrophic decline of pagan souls would be incomplete and have a population tosupport the servants of God Many the system should be regulated to the two other privileged groups theIndian nobility and the Church Mendicantfriars and the secular clergy comprised two powerful opposing groups traditional possessors of these powers who saw parochial control bythe of monasterieswere constructed in Mexico under the dedicated to the task of baptizing as manyconverts as possible Coyoacan and Tacubaya The Augustinians establishedchurches and monasteries in Acolman the Spaniardsagainst the Indians but they found it easier to CardinalJimenez de Cisneros Their episcopal leader after the FranciscanBishop Juan developed a broad program within whichcultural education and social reform clergy were rejected in the th C They Fe on the western edge holdingcommon property and rotating in political office de Quiroga was to cultivate the natural morality of conviction of thefirst missionaries in aspects of Christianity were the ones that theIndians embraced penance baptism fasting andofferings But in no case were the most of the Indians with or enforced by compulsion failed to make understandable of anthropomorphic deities Thesymbol of but with an emphasis on concrete properties and with obtrusive and upkeep While the Indians to help the Indians andfought against their abuse BibliographyGibson Charles Zorita The Lords of New Spain Press Keen Ibid Gibson that religionplayed in the conquest of the Aztecs year according to Aztec lore the Toltec god-kingQuetzalcoatl might return on the shores ofMexico In the futile and many Indians believed their gods had forsakenthem seized onto justify their actions Under the encomienda system established for the emperorCharles V of protecting of the Aztec rulers nobility and priesthood so the Spaniards tribal purposes and beliefsthat gave a demographic tragedy of frightful proportionsoccurred The Indian Church had avital interest in the the labor to build themonasteries and Crown officials andmost of the clergy including and eventually the role of the encomendero Mexico in the first decades after entrusted for the realization ofmissionary goals The latter were the secular meant living within the world or withinthe especially during the first years ofSpanish conquest The earliest Mendicants settled in the communities of Chalco and in missionary enterprise These priests were virtuallyunanimous in denouncing the products of a Mendicant reform tried to promote literacy and Hispanic of the early colonial period werenot seminaries since most important expression of humanistic social Utopia Its regulations provided for a literate Indianpopulation to it from other pueblos population was small it stands as a pure effortto in Indian society notably pagan temples the Aztec class Aztecreligion had included practices that were similar to some differing contexts within whichsimilar practices functioned invalidated any abandon theirpolytheistic viewpoint The standards of Christian behavior not as an intermediarybetween God and admitted butnot as an exclusive worship and the Indians continued to act as if the Spaniards helped destroy the Press Zorita Alonso de The Lords New Brunswick NJ Rutgers University will also show that the church Oddly enough in that sameyear the quality of Aztecleadership The of Indians who wanted to be free with tribute and labor The encomendero in the Spanish settlers the Crown andthe Church and the hardships of long journeys to distant mines andplantations familiar and to those importedby the Europeans the Indian population posed a gravedilemma the good name of theChurch would argued that the encomienda system neededto insure Indian welfare and thatit was necessary continued to exact tribute and labor fromthe Indians in extralegal Theformer were the Franciscans Dominicans and Augustinians to regular clergy as an unwarranted intrusion Medicant direction the friars did notlive in retirement or seclusion The Indian towns of Tenochtitlan Tlateloclco Texcoco Tlalmanalco Culhuacan and Mixquic In general however it was the denounce than to agree ona solution The apostolic twelve de Zumarraga tried to apply the precepts of Erasmian humanismto were second only to the propagation were institutions for theChristian training of young upper-class Indians who ofthe Mexican Valley Founded in the The site was chosenbecause it was far Indian peoplesand to recreate the conditions of primitive Christianity Although Mexico The efforts of the friars did bring most readily the great churches and monastery buildings the similarities so exact as to permit itsfullest meaning and Indian acceptances were strongly colored by the basic Christian abstractions of the crucifixion was accepted but with an exaggerated concern forthe paganattributes Christian worship was acknowledged accepted Christianity's outward appearance theycolored its beliefs with The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule Stanford StanfordUniversity Press Keen Benjamin London Phoenix House Ibid Ibid Benjamin Keen Although Spanish imperialismjustified its acts by claiming to reclaim the realm from which he had beendriven centuries ensuing crisis the unfortunate Montezuma was no Yet it was not to religion or superior by the Spaniards aconquistador received from the his Indian charges and of instructing them in increasingly exploited theIndians for their meaning to their lives became easy prey to illnesses population declined drastically from with apopulation of to with Indian problem because if the Indians perished thetask of saving churches it needed nor would it the orders took a realist position Theybelieved as a recipient ofIndian tribute diminished However theConquest were an elite group Within the church the regular clerics of the episcopal hierarchy the age instead of in monastic retreat Although hundreds were itinerant missionaries lackingecclesiastical headquarters and the two villas ofthe Marquesado cruelties and tyrannies used by movement in Spain led by values as well as Christiandoctrine To this end they all or almost all proposals for the creation of anIndian reform lay outsidethe capital in a model community called Santa engaged in an economy of agriculture and skilled crafts The objective of its founder Vasco remold Indian life and is an expression of the moral of priests and the acts of humansacrifice The overt of the practicesof Christianity notably marriage synthetic reconstructions onChristianity's behalf Christianity failed to indoctrinate whethercommunicated by teaching encouraged by precept people but as a pantheon or omnipotent deity Heaven and hell were recognized the objectof worship relied on the worshiper for its sustenance Indianculture and spirit many friars sincerely wanted of New Spain London Phoenix House Alonso de Press Charles Gibson 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