In sixteenth-century New Spain, the Franciscans spearheaded the conversion of indigenous people into Christianity. In so doing, this mendicant order not only educated several generations of indigenous scholars and Latinists, but also produced a vibrant doctrinal literature in Nahuatl and other languages at a time when the door to Erasmist and other approaches to propagating the scriptures was closing in Spain. Nesvig’s concise but substantial volume provides an accessible point of entry for the study of two Franciscans who have unfairly remained in historiographical obscurity, for their writings addressed important theological questions vehemently debated on either side of the Atlantic in the middle years of the sixteenth century. This book also excerpts a Mexican Inquisition witchcraft trial led by a Franciscan.

This worthy volume opens with a consideration of a remarkable defense of the instruction of natives in New Spain by Alfonso de Castro (1495–1558), a prolific Franciscan thinker who taught theology in Alcalá and Salamanca, and served as confessor to Charles V and as Philip II’s theologian at the Council of Trent. His works on the juridical and theological examination of heresy included the popular Inquisitorial treatise Adversus omnes haereses (Against All Heresies). In this defense, Castro provides an eloquent humanist argument in favor of educating indigenous peoples in Mexico in the liberal arts and theology, and goes as far as proposing that natives should also earn doctorates in theology. Here, Castro might have been thinking of Santa Cruz, a school established by the Franciscans in 1536 to educate native children of noble origin. Castro also posits that, since neophytes received from both Paul and Augustine “the highest and most secret mysteries” of Christianity, so should natives be allowed to learn not only theology, but also the liberal arts, as the latter “prepare the mind for a better understanding of the Holy Scripture.” Castro’s brief illustrates the openness of some established theologians regarding indigenous education and the circulation of the Scripture in vernacular translation before the 1560s and 1570s, when a rising tide of Inquisitorial activity in both Spain and Mexico signaled a turn toward greater scrutiny and censorship. The vitality of this period for Franciscan scholarly activities is perhaps best illustrated by an extraordinary mid-sixteenth-century work: a Nahuatl translation of the Proverbs of Solomon with extensive commentary, composed by fray Luis Rodríguez and several Nahua co-authors, which was thought lost, but has recently been located by this reviewer.

Castro’s text is followed by a Nativity sermon preached by fray Alonso de Cabello, a controversial Franciscan tried in 1573 and in 1578 by the Mexican Inquisition. Cabello’s first trial uncovered highly suspect works in his cell and focused on a manuscript he wrote attacking monastic life under the influence of Erasmus’s work; his second trial focused on the sermon excerpted by Nesvig. Cabello was a seemingly irrepressible independent thinker who made a series of daring escapes from prison in the 1570s, although he was captured in 1580, and ordered to stand trial before the Madrid general Inquisitorial tribunal. In keeping with Cabello’s spirit, this sermon is both convoluted and tortured, and Nesvig attempts to render the flavor of the original by rendering its intricate diction, commenting on Cabello’s heterodox translations of the Vulgate Scripture, and reporting elisions and changes. Given the unique qualities of this work, a few samples of the original Spanish might have better illustrated the method behind Cabello’s madness. As a final chapter, Nesvig presents samples from an interrogation of witnesses regarding a 1614 witchcraft case in west Central Mexico, which sheds light on both the work of the Franciscan Diego Muñoz, a local deputy of the Inquisition, and the juridical practice of the Mexican Holy Office.

As an ensemble, this volume showcases a valuable series, Latin American Originals, that facilitates the discussion of primary sources in translation in the classroom. Nesvig follows meticulous procedures as editor and translator. Whenever possible, he identifies the source of the Vulgate passages or scholarly writings quoted by Castro or Cabello, and provides strategic footnotes that assess these Franciscans’ glosses of works by various theological auctoritates. Hence, this volume provides a useful balance between accessible contextualization and expert discussion of sources that will be greatly appreciated by both students and specialists.