Translating to evangelize

Discourses and translations of Christianity between the Holy See and the Catholic brotherhoods in the Viceroyalty of Peru (16th – 17th Centuries)

In the Viceroyalty of Peru, the relations between the Holy See and the brotherhoods’ laity associates, played a fundamental role in the process of evangelization, during the early periods of “invasion” and “colonization”. Because of this, the study of these laity associates is a fundamental step towards a deeper understanding of the development of the Catholic laity in South America and of the basis for the construction of a Latin American Catholic identity that persists until nowadays. However, there are no studies on the Peruvian region that provide a global perspective on the relations between the Holy See and the Catholic laity during the colonial period. For this reason, this research has as main goal to analyze, discuss and criticize the origins, evolution and changes in the relations between the Holy See and the brotherhoods’ laity associates in the Viceroyalty of Peru (currently: Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay), between sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. To achieve this aim, I analyze the Holy See’s discourses concerning the laity in the Church of Peru, during the implementation of the Council of Trent; and of the relations between the Holy See and the laity of the Viceroyalty of Peru through the conformation of brotherhoods. I also identify the ways by which the Papacy had access to communication and obtained information about the laity in the Viceroyalty of Peru after the Council of Trent. These analyzes are possible through the study of the origin and of the forms of laity associations in the Viceroyalty of Peru. For this purpose, I identify the procedures for the establishment and the approval of brotherhoods in Peru by the Holy See. Moreover, I study the reception of the Tridentine legislation concerning the laity, in the Viceroyalty of Peru after the Council of Trent through the comparative study of the catechetical works designed by Trent and Lima to carry out the evangelization of the Catholic laity.

The research is guided by these inquiries: What was the ideal of Christian faithful proposed by the Council of Trent that brotherhoods aimed to pursue in the New World? How far brotherhoods contributed to the evangelization process in the territory of the Viceroyalty of Peru? In which ways news and information about the laity in the Viceroyalty of Peru were transmitted to the Holy See? Which laws were promulgated in order to carry out the evangelization in the Viceroyalty of Peru? Which discourses did the Holy See use to refer to the Peruvian Indians? What were the “Concilios limenses” and what regulations about the laity did they implement? How was the foundation and what kind of brotherhoods did exist in the Viceroyalty of Peru? What were the legal requirements to create a brotherhood and how was their process of approval by the Holy See? What were the norms concerning association to the brotherhoods in Peru and how were practiced in the Peruvian Catholic communities? What was the norm approved by the Council of Trent regarding the translation of Christianity into vernacular languages and what kind of regulations implemented the Council of Lima regarding language and translation? How many kinds of translators existed in colonial Peru? Which catechetical works were translated?

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