ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the writings of the Franciscans Toribio de Benavente Motolinía and Gerónimo de Mendieta, and those of the Jesuit Jose de Acosta. Motolinía and Mendieta’s evangelical work was guided primarily by the eschatological passages in the Gospels, especially those that invoke geographical, linguistic, and ethnic differences between “tribes” and “nations.” Motolinía’s observations of and interactions with the indigenous peoples of Mexico and Hispaniola as well as his political relationships with his fellow Spanish colonists shaped his political eschatology. The cycle of the Ten Plagues that marks the age of Cortés’ conquest of Mexico and the establishment of the encomiendas ends because, as Motolinía tells it, the friars intervene to make peace between competing Spanish factions. The Spaniards’ military defeat of the Amerindians allows the friars to cure the Amerindians’ spiritual blindness through their evangelical campaign.
