Recht und Mission in der frühen Neuzeit

Normative Texte im kirchlichen Leben der Neuen Welt

Abstract

The principle of the »translatability« typical for Christianity is exemplified in translations of the Bible and other normative texts of a doctrinal, canonical, ritual or disciplinary nature. This applies also to the early modern Christianization of Hispano-America, when normative texts for the regulation of religious life (such as doctrinas or sermonarios) emerged, which referred in different ways to the new context of the New World. This article provides a typology of confession manuals (confesionarios) in the 16^th century. The first type is the casuistic »translation«, which occurs in the Latin handbook of the French Franciscan missionary Juan de Focher († 1572). As a jurist he applied European legal institutions such as monogamy to the Indian world, in order to create a native American world ordered according to European standards. The second type is a Spanish Confesionario for the Europeans in the New World (1552) written by the Spanish Dominican and Bishop Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484–1566). He had particular professionals in mind, such as conquistadors, colonists and arms dealers from whom he demanded a notarially authenticated restitution. Finally, the third type is represented by bilingual Confesionarios (1569) of the Franciscan friar Alonso de Molina (1512–1584), an excellent linguistic expert of Náhuatl. The comparison of the models shows the increasing importance of contextual syntheses in the canonical and pastoral design of sacramental penance.