The Jesuits In The New World

The Jesuit missionaries were also falsely represented in the film. They were rendered as heroic, very kind and almost Christ like in the movie. “They were martyrs and defenders of Indian rights.” They used nothing but the word and teachings of God to persuade the Guarani, and allowed the tribe to behave as they wished. Actual Jesuit missionaries of the 1700s did not defend Indian rights. With the development of missions, there came various rules and regulations that Jesuits and the Spanish were adamant on enforcing. Jesuits required that women wore cotton gowns and were not permitted to reveal private areas of the body. They also segregated males, females and children by gender. Women were placed in institutions in order to preserve their virginity for the reason that Jesuits believed it was honourable to become celibate. Joffe and Bolt illustrate that men and women were consistently in the presence of one another and often revealed their bodies. “The film overlooks how catholic missionaries imposed more

Japan has been a home for Shinto and Buddhist religions for centuries. The Christian missionaries during the 16th, 19th and 20th centuries worked hard to evangelize the Japanese nation but could not get desired success. There efforts in past failed partly due to sanctions imposed by the local rulers. The Jesuits missionaries traveled with Spanish and Portuguese traders to many areas of America and Asia-Pacific and established their churches and religious missions. They were funded, sponsored and trained by their respective governments in order to spread Christianity. At several places they preached the Christian faith by force but the aboriginal population did not accept it wholeheartedly. Initially the Jesuits

After observing local natives, the first Spanish conquistadors came to the conclusion that the Native Americans were barbaric and in dire need of Christian teachings. Thus, Spanish colonists made it their mission to convert the local natives to Christianity, using violence when there was resistance. In 1597, there were a series of uprisings by the Guale Indians in present-day Florida. They destroyed many missions, explaining that the Spanish missionaries had attempted to eliminate their religious practices such as feasts and celebrations. The Spanish also oppressed the Native Americans, and used them as a labor force under the encomienda system. The French, on the other hand, are known for their peaceful alliances with the Native Americans. Colonists established trade agreements with the local natives, obtaining raw goods such as fur and timber. Their peaceful relationship may in fact be attributed to the Spanish; the “Black Legend” of Spanish cruelty towards Native Americans made other European countries eager to prove themselves different. The French took pride in the fact that they treated the Native Americans more humanely than their Spanish counterparts. In addition, the French were not interested in expanding their territory, unlike the Spanish. They were simply looking for trade opportunities, and a mutual relationship with the Native Americans was advantageous. The primary goal of Spain

For example, in the 1690’s Jesuit priests introduced the Virgin Mary to a group of Indians where they emphasized the already existing notion of chastity, therefore assimilating Christianity with an already present concept. Other non-forcible means of spreading Christianity also existed. Puritan minister, John Eliot, translated the Bible into the local Indian language to gain converts. In these regards, the spread of Christianity fundamentally dismantled the inherent culture of Native Americans.

Most colonists that came in the early 1600’s were Christians, a religion that has very specific rules and rigid regulations that must be followed to be a “saved” person destined for a paradisiacal after life. Within these restrictions were the directions to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). It seems clear that from the first the Christian religion was telling the colonists to “help” the natives by making them conform to the culture of the colonists and destroying their own. This was always done with a sense of Native American natural inferiority. In most cases, the Native Americans were not told the entire nature of their conversion. A Jesuit described the tactics used in converting Native Americans, “The outward splendor with which we endeavor to surround the Ceremonies of the Church…with a magnificence surpassing anything that the eyes of our savages have ever beheld – all these things produce an impression on their minds” (Le pays reneverse by denys delage 168). For those truly religious souls, coming to the New World meant a chance to bring salvation and Christianity to new

The Catholic Reformation was the response of the Protestant movement in the sixteenth century. By the sixteenth century, many people lost the trust for the Catholic Church because it was corrupt. Popes and Cardinals became involved in politics and were more like kings than spiritual leaders and Nepotism was rampant. This loss of trust led people to moved on into other branches of Christianity which includes, Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anabaptism. Catholic Church’s realized it needed to re-establish itself, thus beginning the Catholic Reformation. The Catholic Reformation was successful because it triggered the start of The Society of Jesus and The Council of Trent which helped resolve the church’s corruption through education,

Religion played a huge part of the initial Spanish conquest of the Americas. Most of Europe practiced Christianity while the Indians of the Americas worshiped many gods. "Although Columbus concluded that the Tainos "had no religion," in reality they worshipped gods they called zemis, ancestral spirits who inhabited natural objects such as trees and stones", (Roark, 35). When the Spanish came to New Asia, the missionaries made it their goals to convince the Indians to change their religions and accept what they believed as the one true religion. "Catholic missionaries worked to convert the Indians. They fervently believed that God expected them to save the Indians' souls by convincing them to abandon their old sinful beliefs and to embrace the one true Christian faith" (Roark, 44). Many people would travel to the New World just so they could try and convert the Indians that live there. “In the Spanish colonies the Catholic Church was instrumental in the conquest and worked hand in hand with the secular government” (lecture 1: the Spanish conquest –page 1).

Associated with their attention to the spiritual needs of conversion, the priests endeavored to eliminate ‘heathen’ practices among those Indians that they baptized.[x] The non-Christian people of the Americas were not simply to be converted; they were to be civilized, taught, humanized, purified and reformed. The Indians to be converted were strangers speaking in many unfamiliar tongues. In most cases, when the Friars first encountered them, they had been only recently conquered and subjugated, and even if not actively hostile they were likely to retain covert antagonisms. In their experience all Spaniards were exploitative.

British colonies began with less interest in natives altogether than their European rivals. The British preferred to focus on their own settlements and goals without regard for the natives that had lived on their land before them. There was a centralized focus on establishing a permanent settlement; therefore, the British, like the Dutch, did not attempt to convert many natives to Christianity as it was a lesser concern. From the very start of Spanish and French colonization, one could see that religious conversion is a pressing goal for both empires, beginning with Columbus’s initial assessment of the natives’ ability to be converted to Christianity. Columbus wrote, “...in order that they may conceive affection, and furthermore be made Christian; for they are inclined to the love and service of their Highnesses...” (Columbus 6). He emphasizes that they are easily convertible and that they already hold affection for the Spanish. This is similar to the French colonization method in theory but not in practice. Both France and Spain had large mission systems, France through close-proximity Jesuit missions and Spain through

As the Spanish conquered different parts of the world, they assumed that they were the most powerful and knowledgeable race. And that it was their duty to take charge of the places they conquered. This attitude is clearly present in Document 1, a letter to Charles V from Hernán Cortés. In this letter he states his disappointment in the Inca’s reaction to Christianity. By shutting down any suggestion of converting, they lost their chance to convert peacefully. Because of this, Cortes believes they would have to be convinced with force. Additionally in Document 3, “The Gold of the Indies”, it's shown that the Spanish are at the top of the social pyramid. Here it states that since the Spanish can’t force natives to work for them

The missionary schools were to educate and civilize the natives. The spanish felt superior to them and in order for the indians to be considered “gente de razon” (people with reason) they had to be baptized into this new religion. It was a way of expanding the Spanish power once the indians were baptized they

the New World was to convert the locals to Christianity. For example, some important religious figures were Friar Bernardino de

Before Columbus landed in the West Indies in 1492, The Spanish Inquisition made it known to anyone within Spain’s domain of influence that if a person was not of the Catholic religion, they were to be punished severely and sometimes even fatally. This influence would undoubtedly be brought over to the Americas a century later, as the colonization of the New World would begin by then. While it was very essential for the Spanish (as well as the Portuguese) to improve their economy by using the resources they found in Latin America, it seemed to a number of them as if that was the only reason for being there, or the main reason at the very least. During the Spanish Inquisition and from that point after, it was the Pope’s main goal, to

The founding of religion gave birth to quite a few contentions between separate groups, raising moral dialectics. These moral bickers from religion fueled groups to spread their specific beliefs or ideals. For example, in the year 1769 Spanish Missionaries, led by Junipero Serra, attempted to christianize those Native Americans who habited California. The missionaries accumulated thousands of semi-nomadic Indians to strong missions which taught ideas like horticulture. Missionaries fiercely shoved the idea of christianity down the throats of the natives, yet they did so with retaliation. It was common for the natives to violently rebel against the religious influences pushing into their private, peaceful lives. Also, French-Catholic Missionaries called Jesuits, attempted to "save" Native Americans and convert them into Christianity. Jesuits went as far as to try and convert Native Americans even though they were rebellious to the point of violence, like the Native Americans in California. A majority of the Jesuits' attempts failed because copious amounts of the conversions were not permanent. In the small world of politics and religion, philosopher John Locke emphasized the separation

By the late 1500s, Christian denominations had been popping up all over Europe. This was in response to the reports of indulgences (selling of freedom from purgatory), clerical immorality, abuse of money, along with many other bad actions that were rampant among the Church. It was these problems that Luther and others rebelled and created their own religions. With the rising of these Reformation movements, the Church needed to make some reforms itself. These reforms took the form of educating the clergy, opening monasteries, the Inquisition, and the organizing of councils. In fact, even though Protestant attacks brought these reforms, many of these reforms were needed anyway. The problems in the Church were so bad that the Church would not