Proceso judicial eclesiástico, seguido en la Audiencia del Arzobispado de México, contra unos gusanos «negros y larguillos». Año de 1653

Nota introductoria y documento

Abstract

During the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, the secular and ecclesiastical courts opened proceedings against various animals including insect or rodent plagues, as well as against pigs, cows and the very diverse fauna in close proximity to humans in the course of their everyday activities. However, the secular and ecclesiastical trials followed very different aims. While the former criminally prosecuted the animals, the latter ascertained whether or not to excommunicate different plagues. This contribution treats an ecclesiastical trial, conducted in the »Audiencia« of the Archdiocese of Mexico City in the year 1653, against a plague of worms that attacked crops in the jurisdiction of Chapultepec and the Hacienda de los Morales. The author offers a complete transcription of the document preceded by an introductory study. We are confronted with a unique piece of legal literature in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, because very few trials of this nature were conducted and can be found in their entirety, whether in Europe or Spanish America. In fact, this is the first case in New Spain to be published and, most probably, the only one to be found in the ecclesiastical records of the Archbishopric or Mexico. It is always worth remembering that the jurists, theologians, judges and thinkers of Hispanic America in colonial times were very proactive in shaping the canonical Roman legal tradition of the Early Modernity; a legal tradition that was produced via the close working relationship on both sides of the Atlantic. Without taking this cooperation into consideration, our knowledge of the tradition will always be incomplete.