THE CHURCH IN THE INDIES 107
slavish respect for the authority of the Bible, Aristo-
tle, the church fathers, and certain medieval schol-
ars, as well as a passion for hairsplitting debate of
fi ne points of theological or metaphysical doctrine
were among the features of colonial academic life.
Theology and law were the chief disciplines; until
the eighteenth century, science was a branch of
philosophy, taught from the Physics of Aristotle.
A strict censorship of books (no book could be
published in either Spain or the colonies without the
approval of the Royal Council) limited the spread
of new doctrines in colonial society. In recent de-
cades it has been shown that the laws prohibiting
the entry of works of fi ction into the Spanish colo-
nies were completely ineffective, but this tolerance
did not extend to heretical or subversive writings.
The records of the colonial Inquisition reveal many
tragic cases of imprisonment, torture, and even
death for individuals who were charged with the
possession and reading of such literature. At least
until the eighteenth century, when the intellectual
iron curtain that surrounded Spanish America be-
gan to lift, the people of the colonies were effectively
shielded from literature of an unorthodox religious
or political tendency.
Yet, within the limits imposed by offi cial cen-
sorship and their own backgrounds, colonial schol-
ars still made impressive contributions, especially
in the fi elds of indigenous history, anthropology,
linguistics, and natural history. The sixteenth cen-
tury was the Golden Age of these studies in Spanish
America. In Mexico a large group of missionaries,
especially members of the Franciscan order, car-
ried out long, patient investigations of the native
languages, religion, and history. With the aid of
native informants, Friar Bernardino de Sahagún
compiled the monumental General History of the
Things of New Spain, a veritable encyclopedia of in-
formation on all aspects of Aztec culture; scholars
have only begun to mine the extraordinary wealth
of ethnographic materials in Sahagún’s work.
Another Franciscan, usually known by his native
name of Motolinía (Friar Toribio de Benavente),
wroteHistory of the Indians of New Spain, an invalu-
able guide to native life before and after the Con-
quest. Basing his work on Aztec picture writings
and a chronicle that no longer exists, and written
by an Aztec noble in his own language, Father Di-
ego Durán wrote a history of ancient Mexico that
preserves both the content and spirit of Aztec ep-
ics and legends. The Jesuit José de Acosta sought
to satisfy Spanish curiosity about the natural pro-
ductions of the New World and the history of the
Aztecs and Incas in his Natural and Moral History of
the Indies. His book, simply and pleasantly written,
displays a critical spirit that was rare for its time. It
achieved immediate popularity in Spain and was
quickly translated into all the major languages of
western Europe.
Not a few historical works were written by in-
digenous or mestizo nobles actuated by a variety
of motives: interest and pride in their native heri-
tage joined to a desire to prove the important ser-
vices rendered by their forebears to the Conquest
and the validity of their claims to noble titles and
land. Products of convent schools or colegios, they
usually combined Christian piety with nostalgic
regard for the departed glories of their ancestors.
A descendant of the kings of Texcoco, Fernando
de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, wrote a number of historical
works that show a mastery of European historical
method. These works combine a great amount of
valuable information with a highly idealized pic-
ture of Texcocan civilization.
Another writer of the early seventeenth cen-
tury, the mestizo Garcilaso de la Vega, son of a
Spanish conquistador and an Inca princess, gives
in his Royal Commentaries of the Incas, together
with much valuable information on Inca material
culture and history, an idyllic picture of Peruvian
life under the benevolent rule of the Inca kings. His
book, written in a graceful, fl uent Spanish, is more
than just a history text; it is a fi rst-class work of art.
No other Spanish history was as popular in Europe
as Garcilaso’s Royal Commentaries; its favorable im-
age of Inca civilization continues to infl uence our
view of ancient Peru down to the present.
A precious work, richly informative about
social conditions in Peru before and after the Con-
quest, and illustrated with the author’s own de-
lightfully naive drawings, is the New Chronicle by
the seventeenth-century Aymara noble Felipe
Waman Puma de Ayala, whose manuscript did not
come to light until the early twentieth century.