The Evangelization of the Americas:

St. Francis as Conquistador

William J. Cork

CENTRAL VERMONT ECUMENICAL FORUM
"THE IMPLICATIONS OF 1492"
OCTOBER 13, 1992

During this quincentennial of the first voyage of Columbus, one of the chief targets of criticism has been the Spanish missions, particularly those run by the Franciscans. The question that this paper addresses is this: How was it that the Franciscan order, founded by a man known for peace, compassion and humility, became, in America, a missionary order willing to use the state tools of coercion and power to bring people into the kingdom of God? In examining this question, this paper will first sketch the origins of the Franciscan movement, then the transition that occurred following the death of Francis, concluding with an examination of how these factors played themselves out in the American situation.

I. Franciscan Origins

The founder of the Franciscan order, Francesco Bernadone, was born in Assisi, Italy, in 1181 or 1182, the son of a prospering merchant. His early life was, on one hand, that of an idle troubadour--the proverbial wine, women and song.¹ But there was also a bit of the adventurer in Francis. Thomas of Celano describes him as "flighty and not a little rash," with dreams of knightly heroism, wealth and glory. These dreams came crashing down to reality when Francis was captured during a battle between Assisi and the nearby rival city of Perugia around 1205.²

In the months that followed his release, Francis, as if to atone for his errant ways, completely reversed his former life, adopting a lifestyle of humility and peace, caring for the sick and poor, and giving away all his possessions--and a considerable amount of his father's possessions, as well. Upon noticing that the books were not balancing right, Pietro di Bernadone hauled his son into the bishop's court. There Francis dramatically stripped himself naked and returned everything his father had given him, including his clothes, his name and his birthright, choosing instead the life of a hermit. ³ Sometime after this Francis was at mass, and the Gospel reading was Luke's account of Jesus sending His disciples to preach, taking no money, staff, food or sandals. "This is what I wish," Francis exclaimed, "this is what I seek, this is what I long to do with all my heart." Exchanging his hermit's garb for a simple tunic with a cord, he went off to live as a poor man with the poor and the lepers, proclaiming to them the good news of God⁴

Francis wanted, more than anything else, to identify himself with Jesus Christ, the humble God who gave up eternal glory and power and majesty to become a babe in a cattle stall, an itinerant beggar, and a sacrificial victim on the cross. Francis' vision that Christians could and should imitate this way of life was the foundation of his Order of Friars Minor (literally, the Order of Little Brothers). This is how Francis put it in the Rule of 1221:

All the brothers should strive to follow the humility and the poverty of our Lord Jesus Christ and remember that we should have nothing else in the whole world except, as the Apostle says, having something to eat and something to wear, we be content with these. And they must rejoice when they live among people [who are considered to be] of little worth and who are looked down upon, among the poor and the powerless, the sick and the lepers, and the beggars by the wayside. ⁵

Francis wanted to follow Jesus all the way to the cross--literally. His ultimate goal, which went unfulfilled, was to die a martyr's death. And he thought the easiest way to accomplish this goal was to preach the gospel to the Muslims--a task that proved to be a little more difficult that he imagined. In 1212 he was shipwrecked on his way to Syria. The following year he tried to get to Morocco, but was stuck in Spain for several months with a serious illness. Finally, in 1219, at the height of the Fifth Crusade, Francis wandered into the crusaders' camp in Damietta, and from there made his way through the lines to appear before the Sultan, Malik-al-Kamil. When he was captured, and asked to identify himself, he said simply, "I am a Christian"--a statement that seems designed to deliberately distance himself from the crusaders. ⁶ The Sultan listened, respectfully, let him stay a few days as a guest, and then, instead of granting Francis' death wish, the Sultan provided Francis and the brothers with safe-conduct to go wherever they wanted to go in his empire. ⁷

Excursus: Francis and Islam

We see in Francis a unique openness toward Islam, which even his followers never quite mastered. Francis, for example, saw no need to berate Mohammed when preaching Christ to Muslims. He could engage in interfaith dialogue without giving unnecessary offense. But the brothers, according to the crusader bishop Jacques de Vitry, "openly contradicted Mohammed in their preaching, by treating him as perfidious and treacherous," with the result that "the Saracens mercilessly beat them, expelled them from their city, almost massacred them." ⁸

There are even indications of a direct Islamic influence upon Francis. For example, upon his return from the middle east, where he had heard muezzins call the Islamic faithful to prayer, Francis wrote a letter to the "rulers of the world" in which he suggested that they have "town criers" call the people to prayer every evening, "that praise and thanks may be given by all people to the all-powerful Lord God." ⁹ There are also indications that Francis may have been influenced by Sufi mysticism. ¹⁰ The best argument remains that made by Idries Shah. Like a Sufi dervish, Francis has a brother "twirl and twirl" to determine "the road which God wills." Francis relates a Sufi parable to the Pope in trying to gain approval for the order. The region of Spain in which Francis wandered before getting sick was filled with Sufi schools. His poetry and teaching, his greetings of "Peace be with you", his dress--on and on we could go--the similarities are striking. ¹¹ In Francis, then we see a unique Christian who preached his faith in humility, and was willing to learn from those his contemporaries could only despise.

The same year that Francis went to Damietta he sent the little brothers out to evangelize Europe. Five went to Seville, where they wore their habits to the local mosque and rather boldly denounced Islam and the prophet. Grabbed by an angry mob, they were transferred to Morocco, where, on January 16, 1220, they were executed. A group of sixty friars went to Germany, knowing no German but "Ja." This worked quite well when asked if they needed food or lodging, but not so well when asked if they were heretics. ¹²

That Francis learned from these experiences is clear in the Rule of 1221. Would-be evangelists are to take nothing with them--no food, no extra clothing (certainly no weapons)--and to offer no resistance to whatever evils may come. "They must make themselves vulnerable to their enemies, both visible and invisible." While he recognized that some might want to take a direct approach and preach publicly, Francis also said it was proper, and in some cases better, to avoid entirely public argumentation and preaching, and simply "to be subject to every human creature for God's sake and to acknowledge that they are Christians." ¹³

II. Modifications in Franciscan Thought

If the Franciscans who came to these shores had followed the same practices, things might have gone rather differently. What happened?

Liberalization of Poverty

The primary factor lies in the changes that were introduced even while Francis lived. In order to accommodate the thousands who wanted to follow the Franciscan lifestyle, the founder's ideals were watered down. Poverty was rationalized--actual abject poverty wasn't necessary, it was said, only "spiritual" poverty. The order was permitted--eventually required--to have land, money, and possessions (things Francis prohibited)--the brothers just couldn't be "attached" to them. ¹⁴ Needless to say, some zealous Franciscans (including those who had been with Francis from the beginning, like his beloved Brother Leo) saw this as a betrayal, and for the next three hundred years the history of the order was marked by unceasing antagonism between the radicals (called Spirituals, or Observants) and the main body (called Conventuals).

The official biographers of Francis, Bonaventure in particular, wrote their accounts to provide an official, authoritative version of the Francis legend to which extremists couldn't appeal. In Bonaventure's Legenda Major, as historian John Moorman has described it, "The dirty, patched tunic of Saint Francis is washed and ironed, and a Saint is turned out worthy to take his place in even the most fastidious company. It is a very nice Saint indeed, but it is not the man whom Leo and his friends had known and loved." ¹⁵

This shift can be seen in the different ways two of Francis' biographers tell the story of his trip to Damietta. Thomas of Celano says that on the morning of August 29, 1219, as the Christians were about to attack, "The holy man . . . [having had a dream of impending doom] arose and approached the Christians with salutary warnings, forbidding the war, denouncing the reason for it. But truth was turned to ridicule, and they hardened their hearts and refused to be guided." ¹⁶

That may be contrasted with an anonymous fragment which claims Bonaventure as the source. The Sultan asks Francis why the Christians, who claim a religion of love, are making war upon him. Francis quotes Mt. 5:29, where Jesus says, "If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away." Then Francis continues:

Here he wanted to teach us that every man, however dear and close he is to us, and even if he is as precious to us as the apple of our eye, must be repulsed, pulled out, expelled if he seeks to turn us aside from the faith and love of our God. That is why it is just that Christians invade the land you inhabit, for you blaspheme the name of Christ and alienate everyone you can from his worship. But if you were to recognize, confess, and adore the Creator and Redeemer, Christians would love you as themselves. ¹⁷

The first portrays Francis as a charismatic freelancer. In the second he has become an official mouthpiece of the establishment.

Apocalypticism

But the liberals were not the only innovators, and a second factor developed among the early reformers of the Franciscan order, some of whom linked a strict interpretation of the Franciscan rule with the apocalyptic teachings of the Italian mystic Joachim of Fiore. Joachim died in 1202, before Francis' conversion, and was condemned by the pope in 1256. But his prophecies remained in the popular imagination. They were especially attractive to the Franciscans and the Dominicans, for Joachim had prophesied that around the year 1260 two new religious orders would arise, living in poverty, that would usher in a new age, the millennial kingdom, in which all would be filled with God's spirit, ending the need for authoritative institutions like Church or State. The condemnation of Joachim meant that any friar with apocalyptic views was suspect. ¹⁸ But millennarian hopes remained alive among the most radical Franciscans nevertheless.

Church and State

A third factor was the unique relationship which developed between the Spanish crown and the Franciscan order. Pope Alexander VI, in 1493, required the Catholic Monarchs of Spain to provide for the evangelization of all new lands. Pope Julius II, in 1508, delegated all authority over the Church to the crown--the king of Spain became the vicar of Christ in the Americas. This was further defined in 1522 by Pope Hadrian VI, who gave the Spanish king the right to appoint and send Franciscan missionaries, completely usurping the role of the superiors of the Order. King Philip II completed the process, persuading the Franciscan Minister General that the evangelization would be best accomplished by appointing a "Commissary of the Indies," under the king (and appointed by him), to oversee the missions in America, selecting friars from any province he desired--not just Spain. This arrangement, confirmed by the General Chapter in 1583, and ratified by Pope Sixtus V in 1587, effectively made the Franciscan Order a branch of the Spanish government. ¹⁹

III. Franciscans in America

Turning now to the missions, we can consider some examples of how these various factors played themselves out.

Paternalism

The first factor mentioned was the change in the understanding of poverty. In the words of liberation theologian Leonardo Boff, the order

suffered a violent transformation: it was forced to be spiritualized and to translate its practices of solidarity with the poor, within the world of the poor, into practices of solidarity with the poor from the position of the rich. ²⁰

This meant that instead of living side by side with the Indians as humble washers of feet, as envisioned by St. Francis, the friars assumed the role of fathers instructing ignorant and immature children. This is explicit in Geronimo de Mendieta, OFM (1525-1604), who argued that "since the Indians have less intelligence and vigor than we, it is not right that we despise them; on the contrary, we are under more obligation to treat them better." ²¹ They were "soft wax" to be molded, he said. "They needed fathers and teachers," he said, "to rear and guide them." ²²

A key text for Mendieta was Luke 14, where Jesus tells a parable about a man who gave a banquet. He first invited his friends, but they gave excuses. Growing angry, the man sent his servant into the streets of the city to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. There was still room, so the man told his servant to "Go out into the roads and lanes and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled." Taking this as an allegory of the Christian mission, Mendieta said that the first two groups represented the Jews and the Muslims. The Jews simply needed to be told, while the Muslims were to be enticed by a model of godly living. The Indians, however, were to be compelled--but not, he said, by "harsh treatment," "which only shocks and alienates them." Rather, they "should be compelled in the sense of being guided by the power and the authority of fathers who have the faculty to discipline their children for committing evil and harmful actions and to reward them for good and beneficial deeds, especially in respect to all those matters relating to the obligations necessary for eternal salvation." ²³

At times this paternalism played itself out as a comedy, with friars directing Indians in a pantomime of Spanish piety. There were friars who didn't bother either to learn Indian languages or to teach the Indians Spanish, but had Indians memorize a few Spanish prayers, presumably so that any visitors got a good show. ²⁴ At Tumacacori, Arizona, the friars drilled the Indians in the rudiments of hygiene and "proper dress," and required them to greet one another with "Hail Mary!"--responding, "Conceived in Grace!" Attendance was required at every mass, and the friars kept diligent records of all who went to confession. But they wouldn't commune them, arguing that they were children who could never grow up. ²⁵

In spite of Mendieta's warning against "harsh treatment," such paternalism was sometimes used to justify brutal punishment, generally by inexperienced friars who grew increasingly frustrated by the unwillingness of Indians to follow their directions. In New Mexico, friars punished the Pueblo Indians for maintaining their "pagan" traditions by whipping, imprisonment, hard labor and hanging. ²⁶ Those who committed sexual infractions were whipped and placed in stocks. ²⁷ In the most bizarre, sadistic cases, Indians reported that some friars would punish particularly stubborn men by grabbing their testicles and twisting until they collapsed. Pedro Acomilla of Taos accused a priest in 1638 of having "twisted [his penis] so much that it broke in half," leaving him without "what is called the head of the member." ²⁸ In 1655, Father Salvador de Guerra whipped a Hopi he found worshipping idols until "he was bathed in blood." Later that day he whipped him a second time, inside the church, after which he poured burning turpentine over his head. Father Guerra told his superiors this was the only way to eradicate idolatry. ²⁹

Millennarianism

The second factor mentioned was apocalypticism. In Matthew 24, Jesus says that "the good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come." The dramatic voyages at the end of the 15th century, and the triumph of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella over the Moors, seemed to make the triumph of Christianity--and the end of the world--a real possibility. This provoked a resurgence of the apocalyptic mysticism of Joachim of Fiore, whose teachings had been kept alive by Franciscan spirituals for three hundred years. ³⁰ One of the key individuals in this rebirth was probably Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros, a strict Observant who in 1492 became the confessor of Queen Isabella, advisor on spiritual and state matters. ³¹ Another was none other than Christopher Columbus.

Columbus' son tells us that he was buried in the habit of the Secular Franciscan Order. And in the period after 1498, as he begins to dream of greater quests, Franciscan themes come to dominate his writing. He began work on a volume of apocalyptic mysticism which he called The Book of Prophecies. On his third voyage he claimed to have found the Garden of Eden in Venezuela. He began to theorize that the Indians were really long-lost Jews, whose conversion was another sign of the end. In 1501 or 1502 he wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella trying to get support for his greatest idea, the grandest achievement of the Reconquest: to capture and restore Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, decorating it with the treasures of King Solomon's mines, which he also thought had been found in America. He quoted Joachim, who said that the rebuilder of Jerusalem was to come from Spain, and applied this prophecy to himself. He, Christobal Colon, was the Messiah, prophesied by Joachim, who would rebuild Jerusalem, convert the heathen, and bring on the end of the world. ³²

Similar imagery appears in the writings of Geronimo de Mendieta, an Observant Franciscan steeped in Joachim's visions. Mendieta was convinced that Spain had been given a unique role in the last days. He saw Spain as the new Israel envisioned by the post-exilic prophets, ruled by a Messianic King with a mission to subdue "all the visible hosts that Lucifer has in this world." "I am firmly convinced," said Mendieta,

. . . that as those Catholic Monarchs [Ferdinand and Isabella] were granted the mission of beginning to extirpate those three diabolical squadrons "perfidious" Judaism, "false" Mohammedanism and "blind" idolatry along with the fourth squadron of the heretics whose remedy and medicine is the Holy Inquisition, in like manner the business of completing this task has been reserved for their royal successors; so that as Ferdinand and Isabella cleansed Spain of these wicked sects, in like manner their royal descendants will accomplish the universal destruction of these sects throughout the whole world and the final conversion of all the peoples of the earth to the bosom of the church. ³³

Mendieta, however, did not have in mind the extension of a Spanish empire. In keeping with his apocalyptic framework, he hoped to create a totally new society, with a new Church, pure and spiritual, the Church of the friars prophesied by Joachim. ³⁴ Since European Christendom was falling apart through strife, greed, and heresy (promulgated by the Antichrist of Revelation, Martin Luther) God was beginning anew in the New World. This new saving act paralleled the story of the Old Testament. Cortes was the new Moses, called by God to deliver the Aztecs (Israel) from bondage (human sacrifice) to the Devil. Montezuma became Pharaoh, Cortes' interpreter Dona Marina was Moses' spokesman Aaron, and the Holy Catholic Church the Promised Land. ³⁵

Church and State

These examples demonstrate that in spite of the fact that the Franciscan Order was, in this era, basically under the King of Spain, the goals of the friars were not always those of their secular lords. But this was an up-and-down struggle. In the case of Mendieta, even though he saw the Spanish monarchs as Messianic kings, commissioned to spread the gospel to the Indians, he didn't think the basic building blocks of Indian society had to be destroyed to be Christianized. Mendieta wanted to segregate his Indian church from Spanish influence entirely, believing that the fewer Spanish customs and vices they acquired, the better off they would be. ³⁶

At other times, however, friars and conquistadors worked hand in hand, with apparently identical goals. In response to critics such as the Dominican friar Bartolome de las Casas, King Philip II had ruled in the 1573 Ordinances of Discovery that "Discoveries are not to be called conquests. . . . Since we wish them to be carried out peacefully and charitably, we do not want the use of the term 'conquest' to offer any excuse for the employment of force or the causing of injury to the Indian." ³⁷

But enterprising individuals found ways to get around the law. In 1581 and 1582 Franciscan led expeditions (with military escorts) explored the Pueblos of New Mexico, which had been largely ignored during the 40 years since Coronado's disappointing quest for the golden Seven Cities of Cibola. That these were not simply missionary journeys is clear in reading the reports, which make careful notes of such things as mineral resources and the military capability of the tribes. Also, the friar leading the 1582 expedition pleaded for the chance to lead another--taking 500 soldiers with him.

The friars' reports led the king in 1595 to authorize Don Juan de Oñate to undertake a conquest of New Mexico modelled in all details like Cortes' conquest of the Aztecs. "Your main purpose," said the king, "shall be the service of God Our Lord, the spreading of His holy Catholic faith, and the reduction and pacification of the natives of the said provinces." ³⁸ These goals were closely intertwined. In some villages Oñate's soldiers performed for the edification of the Indians the medieval play "The Christians and the Moors." They got the point, and most of the chiefs quickly swore allegiance to Oñate and the friars. Sending friars home with each chief, Oñate warned that "if they failed to obey any of the padres or caused them the slightest harm, they and their cities and pueblos would be put to the sword and destroyed by fire." ³⁹

The greatest atrocity of the Oñate expedition was his attack on the pueblo of Acoma, perched on an inaccessible mesa top, in which 800 men, women and children were killed. Acting as judge after the battle, Oñate found all survivors over the age of twelve guilty of murder, and sentenced them to twenty years slavery. He sent children under twelve to monasteries and convents "that they may attain the knowledge of God and the salvation of their souls." Finally, he chopped off a foot from every man over twenty-five. ⁴⁰

The Indian response to such brutality was to ask, "if [you] who are Christians cause so much harm and violence, why should [we] become Christians?" The Franciscans belatedly protested--perhaps seeing an opportunity--and in 1607 Oñate was relieved. New Mexico was reserved for mission work rather than colonization, with a token Spanish presence of a governor and 50 married soldiers, and the Franciscans were able to continue their task of building the kingdom of God. ⁴¹

But even if the friars were not doing this for the state, as its agents, the benefits it provided for Spain are clear. The friars let the Indians retain their languages, dress, and those ceremonies that could be Christianized, but took for themselves the roles formerly held by leaders such as medicine men, rain chiefs and hunt chiefs. The friars thus assumed control over those key relationships that held Pueblo society together. This, for awhile at least, accomplished a clear military goal by weakening the opposition. But as the first friars were replaced by less experienced men, who viciously punished those who slid back into "idolatry" and the sins of the flesh, resentment grew. In 1680 a charismatic Pueblo named Pope united the Pueblos of New Mexico united in a revolt which succeeded in driving the Spanish from their land for over a dozen years. And the chief targets were the Franciscans. ⁴²

Conclusion: Francis the Conquistador

In the days when Francis still hoped to be a knight, he had a dream in which he saw a palace filled with armor and weapons. A voice told him that these would belong to him and to his soldiers. ⁴³ According to Celano, "Francis, however, changes his carnal weapons into spiritual ones and in place of military glory he receives the knighthood of God." ⁴⁴ But, as we have seen, after the days of Francis the Franciscan order went through a number of changes, which transformed it from the humble service of St. Francis to a paternalistic order which hoped, through union with state power, to transform society into the kingdom of God, dragging the hesitant Indians into it kicking and screaming. It is ironic, that in the American experience of the Franciscan Order, Francis' dream of an order of knights achieved stark and bloody reality.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

de Beer, Francis, ed. "We Saw Brother Francis". Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983.

Boff, Leonardo. Saint Francis: A Model for Human Liberation. Trans. by John W. Diercksmeier. New York: Crossroad, 1982.

Bowden, Henry Warner. American Indians and Christian Missions: Studies in Cultural Conflict. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1981.

Francis and Clare: The Complete Works. Trans. by Regis J. Armstrong and Ignatius C. Brady. Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1982.

Gutierrez, Ramon A. When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 1991.

Habig, Marion A. St. Francis of Assisi, Writings and Early Biographies: English Omnibus of the Sources for the Life of St. Francis. 4th rev. ed. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983.

Iriarte, Lazaro. Franciscan History: The Three Orders of St. Francis of Assisi. Trans. by Patricia Ross. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1982.

Kessell, John L. Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers: Hispanic Arizona and the Sonora Mission Frontier, 1767-1856. Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press, 1976.

Minge, Ward Alan. Acoma: Pueblo in the Sky. Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1976.

Moorman, John. A History of the Franciscan Order from Its Origins to the Year 1517. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.

Petry, Ray C. "Poverty and World Apostolate." In St. Francis of Assisi: Essays in Commemoration, 1982, pp. 133-150. Edited by Maurice W. Sheehan. St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute, 1982.

Phelan, John Leddy. The Millennial Kingdom of the Franciscans in the New World. Second ed., rev. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1970.

Shah, Idries. The Sufis. New York: Doubleday, Anchor Books, 1964.

Notes

¹1Cel 2-3 (In Marion A. Habig, St. Francis of Assisi, Writings and Early Biographies: English Omnibus of the Sources for the Life of St. Francis, 4th rev. ed. [hereafter, Omnibus] (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983), pp. 230-231); 2Cel 7 (Omnibus, pp. 366-67).

²1Cel 4 (Omnibus, p. 232); 2Cel 4 (Omnibus, p. 364).

³1Cel 14-15 (Omnibus, pp. 240-41); 2Cel 12 (Omnibus, p. 372); LM 2:4 (Omnibus, p. 642).

⁴1Cel 22 (Omnibus, p. 247); Leonardo Boff, Saint Francis: A Model for Human Liberation, trans. by John W. Diercksmeier (New York: Crossroad, 1982), pp. 66-67.

⁵RegNB 9:1-2 (Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, trans. by Regis J. Armstrong and Ignatius C. Brady, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1982), p. 117).

⁶Francis de Beer, ed., "We Saw Brother Francis" (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983), p 75.

⁷Ibid., p 78.

⁸Ibid., pp. 133-34.

⁹Ibid., pp. 100-101; EpRect 7 (Francis and Clare, p. 78).

¹⁰Jacques de Vitry, present at Damietta, noticed similarities between Francis and the local Sufis in both dress and teaching. There is even an intriguing reference to Francis on the tombstone of a prominent sufi advisor to the Sultan: "This one's virtue is known to all. His adventure with the Al-Malik-al-Kamel and what happened to him because of the monk [that is, Francis] are very famous." Unfortunately, that's all we know of the Muslim side of the Damietta encounter. We Saw Brother Francis, pp. 79, 83.

¹¹Idries Shah, The Sufis (New York: Doubleday, Anchor Books, 1964), pp. 257-64.

¹²John Moorman, A History of the Franciscan Order from Its Origins to the Year 1517 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), pp. 67-68.

¹³RegNB 16 (Francis and Clare, pp. 120-22).

¹⁴Moorman, History of the Franciscan Order, pp. 108-9, 116-20. Ray C. Petry, "Poverty and World Apostolate," in St. Francis of Assisi: Essays in Commemoration, 1982, Maurice W. Sheehan, ed. (St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute, 1982), p. 135.

¹⁵John R. H. Moorman, "A New Fioretti," in Omnibus, pp. 1822.

¹⁶2Cel 30 (Omnibus, p. 388).

¹⁷Golubovitch, Biblioteca, I:36-37 (Omnibus, pp. 1614-15).

¹⁸Moorman, History of the Franciscan Order, pp. 114-15; John Leddy Phelan, The Millennial Kingdom of the Franciscans in the New World, second ed., rev. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970), p. 14.

¹⁹Lazaro Iriarte, Franciscan History: The Three Orders of St. Francis of Assisi, trans. by Patricia Ross (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1982), pp. 303-304.

²⁰Boff, Saint Francis, p. 78.

²¹Phelan, Millennial Kingdom, p. 66.

²²Ibid., p. 61.

²³Ibid., pp. 8-10.

²⁴Henry Warner Bowden, American Indians and Christian Missions: Studies in Cultural Conflict (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1981), p. 45.

²⁵John L. Kessell, Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers: Hispanic Arizona and the Sonora Mission Frontier, 1767-1856 (Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press, 1976), pp. 69-71.

²⁶Bowden, American Indians and Christian Missions, pp. 52-57.

²⁷Ramon A. Gutierrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846 (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 1991), p. 73.

²⁸Gutierrez sees this Franciscan paternalism as a replay of the legend of Francis, renouncing his natural father to completely serve God. Friars joining the order had to turn their backs on their families in a similar fashion, and now they forced Indians to make the same choice, rejecting their fathers, their traditions, their way of life. Some of the strictest punishments were specifically designed to humiliate the older generation, stripping them of power and respect. Using drama as a teaching tool to bridge the language gap, the friars cast children as angels or Christians, and their parents as devils, infidels or enemies. Needless to say, this "Divide and Conquer" approach had tremendous benefits for Spanish rule. Ibid., pp. 73-80.

²⁹Ibid., pp. 127-8.

³⁰Phelan, Millennial Kingdom, pp. 17-18.

³¹Moorman, History of the Franciscan Order, p. 495.

³²Phelan, Millennial Kingdom, pp. 19-21.

³³Ibid., pp. 11, 13.

³⁴Ibid., p. 103.

³⁵Ibid., pp. 32, 29-30.

³⁶Ibid., pp. 86-88.

³⁷Gutierrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away, p. 46.

³⁸Ibid., p. 47.

³⁹Ibid., p. 50.

⁴⁰Ward Alan Minge, Acoma: Pueblo in the Sky (Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1976), p. 14.

⁴¹Gutierrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away, pp. 53-55.

⁴²Ibid., pp. 55-59, 127-8, 130-140.

⁴³1Cel 7 (Omnibus, p. 233).

⁴⁴2Cel 6 (Omnibus, p. 366).