Category: Diego Durán

Fray Diego Duran, Book of the Gods and Rites (1579)

[Versión en español de este post]

Along with the work of fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Historia de la conquista de la Nueva España (published in 1585), the work of Diego Durán, Historia de las Indias de Nueva España e Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano (manuscript completed in 1581, published in 1867), is a source of deep admiration for all those who wish to know what the encounter between the Mexica and European civilizations was like, what the life and values of the peoples who inhabited Central America were like, and how they lived through the conquest and their struggle to defend their civilization, its subsequent loss and the formation of a new mestizo culture.

Fray Diego Durán’s manuscript is composed of three parts: the history “of the Mexican nation and its exploits and the disastrous luck it had and its end” (1581), the book of the gods or “history and relation of the rites and sacrifices” (1579) and the ancient calendar (1579). It seems that Fray Diego Durán chose this order in his manuscript, although the chronological order is the one indicated in parentheses (see article, p.233). The quotation marks reflect the way in which the author referred to each of the parts of the manuscript (volume II, p. 60 ed. 1880 by Ramirez and volume I, p. 485 ed. 1867, respectively). It is usually published in two volumes, with the second and third parts grouped in volume two.

Fray Diego Durán’s work is fundamental in three key aspects: 1) it is a key work for the knowledge of the pre-Hispanic Nahuatl world, 2) it documents the process of evangelization of Mexico at the end of the 16th century and, above all, 3) it constructs a historical explanation of the role of America and its inhabitants in the history of the world, as well as the justification of the Spanish conquest.

In relation to this third point, the key ideas that Durán expounds, trying to connect the stories told to him by elderly informants in New Spain with the Bible, are the following:

  • The peoples who inhabited these lands before the arrival of the Spaniards are of Hebrew origin and descend from the 10 tribes of Israel and their diaspora throughout all regions of the Earth.
  • God sent Saint Thomas (Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl) to evangelize these peoples and to lead them back from the idolatry in which they had fallen.
  • Tetzcatlipoca rose up against Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl and his followers and in the subsequent wars the Toltec civilization (Tula) fell and Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl was defeated.
  • After his expulsion, Saint Thomas-Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl prophesied his return and the arrival of other men from the east, the defeat of the demon Tetzcatlipoca and his descendants, the subjugation of his lands and a second evangelizing work of which Durán himself was a part.

The work of fray Diego Durán has been immersed in a historiographical debate called ‘Chronicle X’ initiated in 1945 by Robert Barlow in his conference entitled The ‘Chronicle X’: Colonial Versions of the Mexica Tenochca History. Barlow laid the foundations for establishing the structural linkage of five sources:

  1. The volume corresponding to History from Historia de las Indias de Nueva España e Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano by fray Diego Durán (1581),
  2. Historia de la venida de los indios a poblar a México de las partes remotas de Occidente los sucesos y perigrinaciones del camino a su gobierno, ídolos y templos de ellos, ritos, ceremonias y calendarios de los tiempos, also known as «Tovar Manuscript», de Juan de Tovar (1585),
  3. Relación del origen de los indios que habitan esta Nueva España según sus historias, known as «Codex Ramirez» (1588),
  4. Book VII from Historia natural y moral de las Indias by José de Acosta (1590) and
  5. Crónica mexicana by Hernando Alvarado Tezozomoc (1598).

(*) For the publication dates of the five books in parentheses, see Luis Leal, The Codex Ramirez.

According to Robert Barlow’s opinion of 1945, the works numbers 2, 3 and 4 would not be but variants of a short version of Durán’s work, with which the problem was reduced to find the unique source from which the works of Durán and Tezozomoc would have originated. Barlow called this supposedly lost work Chronicle X and considered that it must have been written in the Nahuatl language, by an indigenous writer, between 1536 and 1539, and that it was accompanied by drawings.

In fact, Durán’s work includes multiple references to a ‘history’ that served as the basis for his manuscript, for example this mention in chapter 44 of volume I: ‘Given that he who translates any history is no longer obliged to return in romance what he finds in a strange language written, as I do in this one’ and in chapter 67 of volume I: ‘The exequies began, without further ado, which exequies and ceremonies I leave already told in the chapters behind where they can be seen, although to refer to them here I consider it prolixity; and so I will go ahead, given that the history takes them to be told here at length’.

In 1953, Luis Leal established the following conclusions in his article The Codex Ramirez:

Around 1573, King Philip II sent a dispatch from New Spain to write to the Council what was found worthy of being known about the customs, rites and ceremonies of the ancient Mexicans. Upon receiving the King’s dispatch, Viceroy Martín Enríquez ordered to gather the paintings and other documents that the Indians of Mexico, Texcoco and Tula had in their possession. He sent the papers to Father Tovar, asking him to write a report to send to the King. With the help of the Indians, Tovar interpreted the paintings and wrote between 1573 and 1575 a “well-accomplished” history. Of this account, sent to the King with Dr. Portillo, no copy was left in Mexico, and to this day its whereabouts are unknown.

Using the same paintings of the Indians, Father Durán wrote an extensive history on the same subject, ending his work in 1581. He died seven years later, without seeing his work published; his papers passed into the hands of Tovar.

By 1586 Father Acosta was in Mexico, and by the following year we find him back in Spain. Before leaving, maybe he asked Father Tovar to write him something about the antiquities of the Mexicans. Tovar, using Fr. Duran’s manuscript, since he could no longer consult the paintings of the Indians, wrote around 1588 a “Historia mexicana”, sent to Spain to Fr. Acosta and included, in 1590, in book VII of his Historia natural y moral.

The manuscript sent to Acosta, or a copy taken from it, ended up in England, where the first 26 folios were published in an edition edited by Thomas Phillipps (London, 1860).

There is no doubt that a copy of this second history of Father Tovar was left in Mexico, since Torquemada mentions it in his Monarquía indiana (1615). However, this copy remained in oblivion until 1856, year in which Don José Fernando Ramírez discovered it by chance. The first complete edition appeared in 1878, together with the Mexican Chronicle of Alvarado Tezozomoc, another work that had remained unpublished, and which was also taken from the same paintings that Tovar and Durán had in their hands.

In our opinion, the Codex Ramirez does not have the importance attributed to it by Orozco y Berra and Chavero; it is less important, it seems to us, than the Historia del P. Durán and the aforementioned Crónica mexicana de Alvarado Tezozomoc, more extensive and better documented works. On the other hand, the Codex Ramirez was, of the three works, the first to make known, through the Historia natural y moral of Father Acosta, the true history of the ancient Mexicans.

The first mention we have of Duran’s work is found in Historia de la fundación y discurso de la provincia de Santiago de México, de la Orden de predicatores, por las vidas de sus varones insignes y casos notables de Nueva España, by fray Agustín Dávila Padilla, page 651, second edition published in Brussels in 1625 (first edition Madrid 1596):

F. Diego Duran, son of Mexico, wrote two books, one of history, and another of antiquities of the Mexican Indians, the most curious thing that in this matter has been seen. He lived very ill and his works did not shine, although part of them are already printed in the Natural Philosophy of Father Joseph Acosta, to whom Father Juan de Tovar, who lives in the College of the Company of Mexico, gave them. This father died in the year 1588.

The debate on the hypothesis of an initial manuscript written in Nahuatl has not yet reached a solid conclusion. This article by Clementina Battcock is very interesting: La Crónica X: sus interpretaciones y propuestas (2018).

More information:

Fray Diego Duran, Book of Gods and Rites (1579)
(since the 19th century, the editions of Historia de las Indias de Nueva España e Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano, includes this work as volume two of the History or after chapter 78, last chapter of the History)

Prologue (from Book of the gods and rites and The ancient calendar, 1971, translated by Fernando Horcasitas and Doris Heyden)

I am moved, O Christian reader, to begin the task of [writing this work] with the realization that we who have been chosen to instruct the Indians will never reveal the True God to them until the heathen ceremonies and false cults of their counterfeit deities are extinguished, erased. Here I shall set down a written account of the ancient idolatries and false religion with which the devil was worshiped until the Holy Gospel was brought to this land. Fields of grain and fruit trees do not prosper on uncultivated rocky soil, covered with brambles and brush, unless all roots and stumps are eradicated.

This becomes clear when we study the characteristics of our Catholic Faith. Since it is one, one Church, adoring one True God, it can not coexist with any other religion or belief in other gods. Any other human belief opposed to the Faith loses the quality of the Faith itself, and though this [individual] believes in the Catholic Faith, he is deceived in as much as his belief is based not on Christian but on human faith. Perhaps he was influenced by hearsay. Thus the Moslem believes in his religion, and the Jew in his. We should take [their condition] into consideration: since idolatry has not been totally erased from their minds, they mix the Christian Faith with heathen beliefs. Thus the Faith among them is superficial; though they come to confession and believe in the One God, they would accept ten if someone came around telling them there are ten.

Among the causes [of this situation] is the lack of a firm basis in the Catholic Faith. To these people it is only a“human” faith; and though this may not be blamed on their unpreparedness and uncouthness, the latter may be partly responsible for their laxity in the Faith. Let us consider, however, that in Spain there are people as uncouth and coarse, or almost so—for example, the people of some parts of Castile, toward Sayago, Las Batuecas, and other corners of provinces where men’s minds are extraordinarily brutish and rude (especially in matters of religious instruction), much more so than these natives. At least the latter are taught catechism every Sunday and holy day, and receive the Gospel. The former, though in many villages, never hear a sermon in their lives. You may encounter one (who has spent his entire life in the country) who finds it impossible to distinguish or know anything about the size of a star. He will say, “It is like a nut,” and, “The moon is like a cheese.” Nevertheless, in spite of his coarseness, this man will allow himself to be torn to pieces defending a single article of the Faith. If you ask him, “Why is God One and also a Trinity?” he will answer, “Because that is the way it is.” And if you ask him, “Why are there Three Persons in the Trinity and not four?” he will answer, “Why not?” And these two answers, “That is the way it is,” and, “why not?” satisfy all their doubts and questions regarding the Faith, since they believe firmly what their parents taught them and what is believed and sustained by our Holy Mother the Church.

By this I argue that [the Spaniards] hold the Faith and its foundations firmly and that these [Indians] are easily swayed, prone to doubts, and will believe any doctrine. If a thousand dogmas were preached, they would believe all of them. By this I also argue that the foundations of the Faith [in Mexico] are not firm, and it behooves us to enlighten the people. Every year we hear their confessions during Lent, and again they learn through the priests; then they go away, forgetting it immediately.

What I have said about religious belief makes it clear that he who believes in a false deity does not believe in God; this can be said about men of all the nations of the world. But the case of the Indians is a special one, more so than of the other nations, since these people are poorer in spirit and the least prone to abandon their way of life and rites. Though some may feel and realize that what they believed in pagan times was false, natural fear and cowardice impede them from giving up these things. I affirm this for I see that not only in the Divine Cult but in earthly things [the Indians] are cowardly and fearful. Instead of hiring themselves out to a Spaniard, earning three reals a week, they prefer to go from market to market, trading things which are hardly worth twenty cacao beans. They will offer the Spaniard four reals to be given their liberty in order to return to their little houses or huts. Occasionally they will work four days of the week, and on Friday, or even Saturday, in order to escape from the Spaniard, they will flee, leaving their pay behind. I have observed these things for a long time and have wondered how to explain them. From long experience in observing the toil and afflictions [of the Indians], I find a common and universal cause: their spirit has been so hurt, so crippled, that they live in fear. They look upon everything unfamiliar or unknown as something harmful and fearful to them. They are like wild animals which, when hunted, are intimidated by everything and forced into flight.

This may be the result of their inborn wretchedness and the lowly condition nature gave them or of their gloomy, melancholy, and earthy constitution or the result of social conditions under which they lived. In part these people were well organized and polished, but on the other hand they were tyrannical and cruel, filled with the shadows of retributions and death. They were seldom loyal to one another for fear of punishment. And after the Faith arrived, the shadows grew beyond measure. From that time on [these people] have been afflicted with nothing but death, toil, trouble, and anguish. All these things helped to break their spirit, to intimidate them to the point that they distrust us, do not believe us. They will not tell us things they knew about the lives of their ancestors. Regarding the worship of God and the receiving of the Sacraments, they dare not listen to God himself or seek the salvation of their souls because of their fears. Thus many of them never go to confession, afraid that the confessor will scold; others fear to receive the Eucharist, afraid of the obligations which will be imposed upon them to sin no longer. This is their condition in spite of the commands [of our priests].

And these are my conclusions: [the Indians] will never find God until the roots have been torn out, together with that which smacks of the ancestral religion. Thus the practice of the Faith is corrupted where there remain survivals of the cult and faith in another god. These people are reluctant to abandon things familiar to them. While the memory [of the old religion] lasts, they will turn to it, like those who find themselves illor in need. While they call on God, they also seek out sorcerers, shamans who laugh at [Christianity], and then return to the superstitions, idolatries, and omens of their forebears. I have seen these things; I understand them. If we are trying earnestly to remove the memory of Amalech, we shall never succeed until we fully understand the ancient religion. In my humble judgment, therefore, I believe there is nothing in the world so barren as a man who lives out his entire life attempting to grasp something he does not understand, who feels no need of penetrating the roots of heathen beliefs of ancient times, who vainly strives to prevent these frail and weak people from mixing their old and superstitious rites with our Divine Law and Christian Religion. The ancient beliefs are still so numerous, so complex, so similar to our own in many cases that one overlaps the other. Occasionally we suspect that they are playing, adoring idols, casting lots regarding future events in our very presence—yet we do not fully understand these things. We believe they do [Christian] penance and practice certain absentions. But [they] always had their own sacraments and a divine cult which in many ways coincides with our own religion, as we shall see during the course of this work.

Those who with fervent zeal (though with little prudence) in the beginning burned and destroyed all the ancient Indian pictographic documents were mistaken. They left us without a light to guide us—to the point that the Indians worship idols in our presence, and we understand nothing of what goes on in their dances, in their market places, in their bathhouses, in the songs they chant (when they lament their ancient gods and lords), in their repasts and banquets; these things mean nothing to us. Heathenism and idolatry are present everywhere: in sowing, in reaping, in storing grain, even in plowing the earth and in building houses; in wakes and funerals, in weddings and births (especially if the child is the offspring of a nobleman, when complex rites are performed).

The most elaborate rites were found in the celebration of the feasts. And everything was associated with heathenism and idolatry, even bathing in the river. Elders were often offended with the community if certain acts were not accompanied by ceremonial.

All these things are concealed from us, kept as a tightly guarded secret. The task of discovering and making them known is overwhelming. He who attempts [to do so] will soon discover this, and of a thousand other customs [he will be lucky if he discovers] one half.

Let our priests who toil in missionary work take note of the grave error in ignoring these things; the Indians will make mockery of the Faith, and the minister will remain in the dark. I have experienced some of these things in recent times. I have discovered a number of sly tricks which no one had paid any attention to.

He who wishes to read this book will find an account of all the main gods worshiped in ancient times by these ignorant and blind people, with the rites and ceremonies performed in the entire land and in the Province of Mexico. He will find the count of the days, months, weeks, and years and the manner and dates on which the festivals were celebrated. All this is meant as an instruction which the curious reader will discover in this book, written with that aim. If the fruits [of my work] are meager, my intention and zeal in presenting it are not.

Fray Diego Duran, Prologue to the Book of the Gods and Rites (1579)