Mexico of the Mexicans/Chapter VII
CHAPTER VII
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MEXICO
The history of Mexican politics is indissolubly bound up with the great struggle between Church and State or Church and people, for, strongly Roman Catholic as Mexico has been and still is, in no country in modern times has such a determined effort been made to destroy the power of the priesthood and relegate the sphere of the Church to religious as apart from political activities.
The first notable religious reformer was President Benito Juarez, who between 1850 and 1856 succeeded in expelling the brotherhoods—Dominicans, Franciscans, and, finally, the Jesuits—from Mexican soil. These fraternities held in their possession the choicest land in the country, and their rapacity had become a circumstance of public scandal. Moreover, to employ an expressive Americanism, they were "clogging the wheels" and were the determined foes of progress of every description. The wealthier and more enlightened portions of the community are now entirely outside their influence, but the Indian and mestizo population are as fervent in their adherence to Roman rule as before.
Let us glance for a moment at this religiosity of the peon classes. When the Spaniards arrived in Mexico in 1520 they found the Aztecs in possession of a religion which, if still in process of evolution, was still fairly complete so far as its ritualistic side was concerned. In early types of religion, ritual is of much greater importance than dogma or theological belief, and the thing seen and done bulks much more largely in the eye of the barbarian than any ethical consideration. The transition for the subject caste of Mexico from the worship of Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca to the practice of Catholicism was a simple one. Gaudily-dressed figures of the Godhead and the Saints took the place of hideous idols, and the Christian priests themselves were astounded at the similarity between the European and Mexican sacraments of communion, baptism, and confession. In many instances, the Virgin was confounded with one form or another of the old earth-goddess. True, Motecuhzoma was deeply shocked when Cortes, on examining the great teocalli of Mexico, expressed surprise that such a monarch as he should worship sanguinary idols. The priest and theologian in the Aztec king, seeing beyond the mere symbolism of his native religion and aware of its deeper meanings, was revolted at the crude and unmannerly remarks of the fanatical Conquistador. But he represented only a small inner circle of advanced initiates. The great mass of the people regarded their faith as ritual which must be observed if insatiable gods were to be sufficiently nourished to enable them through magical process to send a sufficiency of food-stuffs; and so long as the new Christian deities undertook to yield maize, chian pinolli, and cotton, a change of pantheon mattered little to them. This is not to say that all parts of the Mexican empire yielded to the Cross as patiently and speedily as did the Aztecs. They did not. From their revolt sprang the dreadful and picturesque secret religion of Nagualism. Practically all English and American writers appear to be ignorant of the existence of this powerful cult; and as it casts a strong light upon the darker places of the native Mexican character and as the information is valuable, some account of it may not be out of place in these pages, especially as it is probably still in vogue in some of the remote districts of the Republic, especially in the South, whatever may be said to the contrary.
Nagualism was originally instituted by the remnant of native priests and sorcerers who survived Nagualism. Spanish persecution, for the purpose of combating and counteracting the effects of the Christian faith which had been forced upon the natives, and was regarded by them merely as a cloak for the exactions and oppressions of its ministers and professors. Thus all sacraments and holy ceremonies were annulled or counteracted in private by the priests of the sect immediately after they had been celebrated by the Spanish ecclesiastics.
This mysterious secret society embraced numerous communities, and its members were classed under various degrees. Initiation into them was by ceremonies of the most onerous and solemn description. Local brotherhoods were organised, and there were certain recognised centres of the cult, as, for example, at Huehuetan in the province of Soconusco, at Totonicapan in Guatemala, Zamayaz in Suchiltepec, and Teozapotlan in Oaxaca. At each of these places dwelt a high-priest or chief magician, who had beneath his sway often as many as a thousand sub-priests, and exercised control over all the Nagualistic practitioners in a large district. The priesthood of this cabalistic guild was hereditary. The highest grade appears to have been that of Xochimilca, or "flower weaver,"probably because of the skill they possessed to deceive the senses by strange and pleasant visions.
The basis of Nagualistic magic was the belief in a personal guardian spirit or familiar. This was known as the nagual, and was apportioned to each child at its birth. In a History of Guatemala written about 1690 by Francisco Fuentes y Guzman, the author gives some information about a sorcerer who, on arrest, was examined as to the manner of assigning the proper nagual to a child. When informed of the day of its birth, he presented himself at the house of the parents and, taking the child outside, invoked the demon. He then produced a little calendar which had against each day a picture of a certain animal or object. Thus in the Nagual calendar for January, the first day of the month was represented by a lion, the second by a snake, the eighth by a rabbit, the fourteenth by a toad, the nineteenth by a jaguar, and so on. The invocation over, the nagual of the child would appear under the form of the animal or object set opposite its birthday in the calendar. The sorcerer then addressed certain prayers to the nagual, requesting it to protect the child, and told its mother to take it daily to the same spot, where its nagual would appear to it and would finally accompany it through life. Some of the worshippers of this cult had the power of transforming themselves into the nagual, just as the witches of mediaeval Europe were able to turn themselves into certain animals. Thomas Gage, an English Catholic, who acted as priest among the Maya of Guatemala about 1630, describes in his New Survey of the West Indies the supposed metamorphosis of two chiefs of neighbouring tribes, and the mortal combat in which they engaged, which resulted in the death of one of them. But a Nagualist of power was by no means confined to a single transformation, and was capable of taking on many and varied shapes. Speaking of one of the great magician-kings of the Kiche of Guatemala, the Popol Vuh, a wonderful native book, states that Gucumatz, the sorcerer-monarch in question, could transform himself into a serpent, an eagle, a tiger, and even into lower forms of life. Many of the confessions of the natives to the Catholic priests remind one forcibly of those which were discovered by the European witch trials of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Thus an old man in his dying confession declared that by diabolical art he had transformed himself into his nagual; and a young girl of 12 confessed that the Nagualists had transformed her into a bird, and that in one of her nocturnal flights she had rested on the roof of the very house in which the parish priest resided.
The magical nature of this secret caste was well illustrated by their behaviour in the Malay revolt which broke out near Valladolid, Yucatan, in 1761. It was led by a full-blood native, Jacinto Can-Ek, who claimed for himself occult powers of no common order, and announced himself as a high-priest of Nagualism, a sorcerer, and a master and teacher of magic. Addressing his followers, he urged them not to be afraid of the Spaniards, their forts and cannon, "for among many to whom I have taught the arts of magic (el arte de brujeria) there are fifteen chosen ones, marvellous experts, who by their mystic powers will enter the fortress, slay the sentinels, and throw open the gates to our warriors. I shall take the leaves of the sacred tree and, folding them into trumpets, I shall call to the four winds of heaven, and a multitude of fighting men will hasten to our aid." Then he produced a sheet of paper, held it up to show that it was blank, folded it, and spread it out again covered with writing. This act convinced his followers of his occult abilities, and they rushed to arms, but only to meet with defeat and an ignominious death.
Nagualism, driven into the caves and wild places of Mexico and Yucatan, became so powerful locally as to baffle the most intense watchfulness of the Spanish priesthood. It is easy to understand that when vengeance becomes the main object of a people, the higher elements of their national faith become neglected, and those which they believe will assist them against the hated oppressor occupy their attention more fully. So Nagualism, or the magical part of the Mexican religion, flourished apace, in contradistinction to its more exalted tenets, becoming ever more firmly established as time advanced. Thus when the Austrian traveller, Dr. Scherzer, visited Guatemala in 1854 he found the Nagualist system in full force in the more remote districts, and there is every reason to believe that it flourishes there at the present day.
But metamorphosis and prophecy were not the only magical weapons of the Nagualists. Their arts were manifold. They could render themselves invisible and walk unseen among their enemies. They could transport themselves to distant places and, returning, report what they had witnessed. Like the fakirs of India, they could create before the eyes of the spectator rivers, trees, houses, animals, and other objects. They could to all appearance rip themselves open, cut a limb from the body of another person and replace it, and pierce themselves with knives without bleeding. They could handle venomous serpents and not be bitten; cause mysterious sounds in the air; hypnotise both persons and animals; and invoke visible and invisible spirits, which would instantly appear. Needless to say, their priests were regarded by the natives with a mixture of terror and respect.
The details of the ceremonies and doctrines of Nagualism have never been fully revealed, and it is only from scattered passages in the writings of the Spanish colonists that we can throw any light on this mysterious magical system. One of the most remarkable features in connection with this brotherhood was the exalted position it assigned to women. It is, of course, a circumstance well known to students of anthropology that the religion of a discredited and conquered race very frequently has to fall back upon the services of women, either as priests or conservators of its mysteries. This may become necessary through the decimation of the male portion of the race, or because of their constant warfare with those who threaten to overrun their territory. The Nagualists appear, like similar confraternities, to have admitted women to their most esoteric degrees, and even occasionally advanced them to the very highest posts in the organisation. Pascual de Andagoya states out of his own knowledge that some of these female adepts were so far advanced in magical knowledge as to be able to be in two places at once, as much as a league and a half apart! Repeated references to powerful enchantresses are discovered in Spanish-American writings. Acosta, in his Natural and Moral History of the Indies, speaks of a certain Coamizagual, queen of Cerquin in Honduras, who was deeply versed in all occult science, and who at the close of her earthly career rose to heaven in the form of a beautiful bird, in the midst of a terrible thunderstorm. Jacinto de la Serna says that the Nagualists were taught the art of transforming themselves into animal forms by a mighty enchantress called Quilaztli. Such a dread being it was who, when Pedro de Alvarado was marching through Guatemala in 1524, took her stand at the summit of a pass with her familiar in the shape of a dog, to prevent his approach by spells and Nagualistic incantations. In 1713, too, an Indian girl, known to the Spaniards as Maria Candelaria, headed a revolt of 70,000 Nagualists, over whom she had the power of life and death. After a revolt characterised by the most merciless brutality, she succeeded in making her escape into the forest. Mr. E. G. Squier, travelling in Central America about the third quarter of the nineteenth century, met a woman called by the Indians Asukia, who lived amid the ruins of an old Maya temple. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg encountered another such witch in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, who was dressed in the most magnificent manner. He described her as a person of the most fascinating appearance. Her eyes, he says, were intensely bright, but there were moments when they became fixed and dead like those of a corpse. Was it, he asks, a momentary absence of soul, an absorption of her spirit into its nagual?
These facts seem sufficient for the establishment of the hypothesis that Nagualism was not merely a belief in a guardian spirit. From other sources we know that the Nagualists had meetings—the dances and ceremonies of which remind one of the Witches' Sabbath—and there is little doubt that it was a powerful secret organisation extending over a wide area, bound together by mystic rites and necromantic or occult doctrines.
It is nearly forty years since the disestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico. Several deputations from the Papal Authorities have since then visited Mexico diplomatically, but to no Roman Dis-
establishment. purpose. Advanced thought in Mexico is fiercely opposed to any reinstatement of ecclesiastical authority. Religious processions are not permitted to pass through any public thoroughfare. In some localities even the Church bells may not be rung. If the Church desires to display pageants, it must do so within the four walls of the sacred edifice which remains its sole property.
To add to the distress caused by the restrictive, if not inimical, attitude of the Government, internecine misunderstandings have done much to hamper the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico. The clergy are turbulent, and even the appointment of an apostolic delegate to dwell in their midst for purposes of discipline and correction, has not so far contributed towards that degree of harmony which the Papal Authorities deem desirable, and even necessary, if the decencies of ecclesiastical government are to be observed. But let it be noted that no gross or flagrant case of ecclesiastical insurgence has taken place in Mexico, no such shameful outbreak of religious animosity as disgraced the religious life of Scotland from 1904 to 1907, when the great "Church Case" agitated that country as nothing else has done since the days of the Reformation. The brutalities of sectarianism are unknown in Mexico. The Church is still possessed of considerable virility and great wealth. Under the enlightened sway of Monsignor Alarcon, Archbishop of Mexico, a cleric of sound common sense, very considerable and very essential improvements have taken place in ritual practice, the insensate displays once occurring at seasonal festivals and celebrations having been greatly altered, and many objectionable and almost pagan features dispensed with. But the difficulties placed by the ecclesiastical authorities in the way of legal marriage has much to do with the high percentage of illegitimacy. To get married is an expensive business in Mexico, and the poor must, therefore, dispense with the ceremony.
In the year 1871 the Protestant Episcopal Church sent one of its representatives to Mexico in the person of H. C. Riley, by whom the work of Protestant missions was initiated. Soon afterward came Baptist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, and Methodist missionaries, of whom the last have probably been the most successful; for to this sect, a few years ago, the field was virtually conceded. In the capital, a portion of an old conventual building was granted to them, and, notwithstanding the opposition of the Catholics, they met with a friendly reception from the Government. Churches and chapels were constructed; congregations gradually collected; and in 1883 there were more than 200 Protestant ministers in the country, the majority of whom were Mexicans by birth. It cannot be said, however, that as yet the Protestants have made much progress in the work of evangelisation, although no special obstacles have been encountered; for in Mexico all religions are tolerated, while none are officially recognised.