“MAINLY, JOSÉ DE ACOSTA DESERVES TO BE READ AND RECOMMENDED”: THE APPROPRIATION OF THE IDEA OF MISSION BY THE DUTCH REFORMED THEOLOGIAN JOHANNES HOORNBEECK¹

Abstract

The article discusses the relation between the Spanish Jesuit José de Acosta (1540-1600) and the Dutch Reformed theologian Johannes Hoornbeeck (1617-1666). Distant for the time they lived, for the spaces where they developed their action and for the very creed they professed, these two religious achieved an important reflection on the role of the Christian mission in territories of barbarians and pagans. In a period of strong political and religious disputes between Catholics and Protestants, the analysis of Hoornbeeck’s main text allows us to better understand a delicate process of appropriation and re-elaboration of the idea of mission within the parameters of the Dutch reformed dogma carried out from the Peruvian problematic by the Jesuit Acosta.

Keywords
José de Acosta; Johannes Hoornbeeck; mission; Peru; Netherlands

Resumo

O artigo discute a relação entre o jesuíta espanhol José de Acosta (1540-1600) e o teólogo holandês reformado Johannes Hoornbeeck (1617-1666). Distantes pelo tempo em que viveram, pelos espaços onde desenvolveram suas ações e pelo próprio credo que professavam, esses dois religiosos realizaram uma importante reflexão sobre o papel da missão cristã em territórios de “bárbaros” e “pagãos”. Em um período de fortes disputas políticas e religiosas entre católicos e protestantes, a análise do principal texto de Hoornbeeck permite entender melhor um delicado processo de apropriação e reelaboração da ideia de missão dentro dos parâmetros do dogma holandês reformado, realizada a partir da problemática peruana pelo jesuíta Acosta.

Palavras-chave
José de Acosta; Johannes Hoornbeeck; missão; Peru; Países Baixos

Introduction

In a study on the concept of “mission” in the work of Jesuit José de Acosta (1540-1600), Johan Leuridan Huys, a Belgian Dominican theologian, asserted that the early Protestant theologians of the 17th century who were interested in the theme of “mission” frequently consulted Acosta’s books. However, Huys did not provide further information about the authors he was referring to (HUYS, 1997, p. 7).

In a recent essay titled “José de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit-Protestant Author: Print Culture, Contingency, and Deliberate Silence in the Making of the Canon” (2018), Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra develops an important argument that can be divided into three parts. In the first part, Cañizares-Esguerra draws attention to the fact that Acosta’s work quickly gained importance in Europe in the early 17th century. Specifically, he highlighted the “Historia natural y moral de las Indias” (1590), which was published in various countries and languages. Between its publication year and 1624, nine editions can be identified in languages such as Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch, English, and German (CAÑIZARES-ESGUERRA, 2018, p. 185-186). There was also the book “De procuranda indorum salute”, written in Latin in 1577, during Acosta’s tenure as the provincial of the “Society of Jesus” (Compañía de Jesús) in Peru, but it was only published in 1588. In order to provide a contextualization of the themed mission in Indias, and upon the recommendation of important members of the Society, the book was published along with two chapters or libros that served as an introduction and provided a physical and natural description of the New World³. “De procuranda” had three Latin editions by the end of the 16th century and a German translation in 1598 (PEASE, 1995).

The second argument presented by Cañizares-Esguerra relates to the fact that Acosta’s entire work had a differentiated reception within various circles. He emphasizes that within circles of Protestant printers and readers, his “Historia” was received with great interest, particularly the information that addressed the history, government, customs, and religious beliefs of the Aztecs and Incas (ACOSTA, 2006 [1590]; CAÑIZARES-ESGUERRA, 2018, p. 189). The questions regarding the origin of indigenous peoples were also noteworthy, based on an interpretation of the Bible, regarding how they had managed to reach the New World after the Flood.

An indication of the interest of Protestant readers was the publication of a Dutch edition of the “Historia” in 1598, which was reissued twice in 1624 (BEGHEYN, 2014, p. 41)⁴. In the Catholic universe, however, Acosta’s work experienced a significant boost until the first half of the 1590s, after which it plunged into silence and was forgotten. In addition to his “Historia”, which would be published until 1608, two of his works written in Latin were published in Rome in 1590: “De Christo Revelato Novissimis” and “De Temporibus Novissimis”. In addition to these texts, there were the documents of the Concilium Provinciales Limense, which were published in Madrid in 1590 and 1591 under Acosta’s supervision – an additional edition would be published in 1614. Cañizares-Esguerra highlights this selective silence among Catholics, especially among the Jesuits themselves, regarding a part of Acosta’s work, and explains that this was mainly due to disputes over control of the direction of the Compañía de Jesús, a control that the Spanish Jesuits were eager to maintain (MARYKS, 2010, p. 125-128; CAÑIZARES-ESGUERRA, 2018, p. 214).

Lastly, the third part of his argumentation refers to the idea that Acosta’s reception among Protestants was primarily restricted to the field of indigenous society history. This interest developed alongside an increasing flow of information about various non-European territories and populations, fueling academic interest in geographical knowledge and topics related to these “new” populations and their relationship with biblical history.

This article aims to describe – based on the book “De conversione indorum et gentilium” (1669) by Johannes Hoornbeeck (1617-1666), a Calvinist theologian of the Reformed Church of Holland – how this theologian appropriated the idea of “mission” developed by Acosta from his missionary experience in Peru. This appropriation allows us to understand that Hoornbeeck believed there were elements within the experience of the Catholic idea of “mission” that could be used by the Dutch Reformists. Therefore, by examining Hoornbeeck’s appropriation of Acosta’s idea of “mission”, we can better understand that the interest of Protestant readers and printers in Acosta’s work was not limited to historical aspects of indigenous societies but also extended to Acosta’s reflections on religious issues and the most appropriate way to evangelize the “barbarians” and “pagans”.

José de Acosta and the context of indigenous indoctrination in Peru

There is an extensive bibliography regarding the life and work of José de Acosta. Leon Lopetegui’s book (1942) remains one of the most comprehensive writings about the Jesuit, providing important information about his organizational work in the Peruvian territory and his role in the Third Council of Lima. It is also important to mention Claudio Burgaleta’s book (1999), which offers insights into Acosta’s Jesuit formation and the intellectual context of that time. Furthermore, Burgaleta’s reflection on what he calls “Jesuit theological humanism” in Acosta’s ideas is noteworthy.

To understand Acosta’s concept of “mission”, it is crucial to highlight that it was developed within a context shaped by the emergence of the Compañía de Jesús, the Church reform proposed by the Council of Trent, and the challenge of evangelization in the Vice-Royalty of Peru. It is also important to emphasize the discussions and proposals concerning metropolitan administration surrounding the Junta Magna of 1568, which led to a series of reform proposals in politics, economy, administration, military affairs, and the Church. To implement these proposals, Francisco de Toledo was chosen as the Viceroy of Peru (MERLUZZI, 2014 [2003], p. 96-105).

The Compañía de Jesús arrived in Peru in 1568. The first years of the Society in the territory was characterized by an effort to adapt around urban centers, which would announce some elements of conflict with government authorities (COELLO DE LA ROSA, 2006, p. 71-84). From the Society’s experience in its missions in European cities and, in particular, in rural areas of the Iberian and Italian peninsulas, the Jesuits promptly demonstrated a preference for actions directed to the educational sector in urban spaces (MESNARD, 2014 [1956], p. 58 -64). This preference would also manifest itself in Peru, but it would come into conflict with the reforms discussed in the Board and which Viceroy Toledo zealously sought to carry out. Conflicts between Toledo and the Jesuits over which the missionaries took on the work of conversion in the indigenous doctrines, led to the latter discussing the best way to carry out the work of evangelization (ECHANOVE, 1955, p. 15-17). From that moment on, the Compañía de Jesús would have to dedicate itself to the evangelization of the natives and elaborate a policy for issues such as tribute and indigenous work (MALDAVSKY, 2012, p. 35-42).

Acosta was born in Medina del Campo in 1540. He entered the Jesuit College in that city in 1552, later completing his training in different places: That I was first in Salamanca one month, in Medina five years, in Plasencia one month, in Portugal scilicet Lisbon, four months; in Coimbra five, in Valladolid one year, in Segovia seven months. In Alcalá two years. All this time I’ve been busy reading grammar or language, except for these two years in Arts (LOPETEGUI, 1942, p. 26). Afterwards, he would spend nine years at the university of Alcalá de Henares, until 1567, studying philosophy and theology, in particular the works of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas.

Compañía de Jesús had the ministry of the word as one of its obligatory tasks and it was practiced in the small towns that surrounded the city of Alcalá. The missions were carried out in rural communities that surrounded schools and residences in the Toledo region, where the Jesuits left divided into small groups, organizing intensive work and developing activities of preaching, catechesis, confession, charity and founding of confraternities (BURGALETA, 1999 , p. 22-23). This experience would provide Acosta with greater knowledge of the situation of Castilian peasants and the possibilities for them to change their customs through education, as he constantly mentioned:

(...) we even see men born in full Cantabria or in Asturias in our country, who are inept and pale when they remain among their countrymen; whether they pone in schools or in the court or in markets, and stand out for their admirable ingenuity and dexterity, with no advantage

(ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 151).

José de Acosta arrived in Peru in 1572. Characterized by his teacher, Alonso de Deza, as “letters and genius very rare; to read my great talent (...) Got talent to preach and rule” (LOPETEGUI, 1942, p. 32), he would assume the chair of theology at the Colegio de San Pablo, in Lima. The prestige he gained, both in the professorship and in the office of preacher, made him chosen to belong to a small group of consultants of the Viceroy Toledo, accompanying him on the general visit, between 1573 and 1574, knowing the territories of Huamanga, Cuzco, Charcas and Arequipa (BURGALETA, 1999, p. 36-39).

The Society’s obedience to its internal norms or the Institute caused conflicts with the policy that Viceroy Toledo sought to implement in relation to the acceptance of indigenous doctrines. The Jesuits’ refusal led the viceroy to close the college in Arequipa in 1574. The difficulty in establishing appropriate ties with the government and internal changes in the Company, related to problems of discipline and subjection to the Ignatian spirit, led to the decided to carry out a “visit” to the Jesuit province in June 1575 (ARMAS ASIN, 1999, p. 579-588).

In 1576, Acosta was chosen provincial of the Peruvian Jesuits. That same year, the first two congregations of the Company were organized, one in the city of Lima and the other, months later, in the city of Cuzco. They provided an overview of the actions carried out by the Company in Peru and a survey of the difficulties encountered in this new space. Mainly, the Company’s policy regarding the evangelizing mission for the indigenous people was established, deciding to assume the doctrines of the indigenous people in conditions that allowed them to respect the norms of their Institute (ECHANOVE, 1955, p. 31-33; MALDAVSKY, 2012, p . 41).

In February 1577, Acosta had already written De procuranda indorum salute. The book was the result of reflection on how the “mission” with the indigenous people should be carried out based on their direct experience in Peru and would turn out to be the most complete treatise on missiology written outside of Europe, in a time that was still in its infancy. constituting the very meaning of the concept of “mission” (HUYS, 1997, p. 84; O’MALLEY, 2004 [1993], p. 198-200). His book related evangelization with the constitution of a cadre of prepared and honest religious, with the intention that the indigenous people realized that their only concern was their salvation (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 191-199). The second objective highlighted the need to change the methods used until that moment to evangelize the indigenous peoples and strive to find new ways, highlighting the need to adjust such practices to the different types of pagan “nations” that were being found in “modern times” (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 59-71).

The idea of “mission” to Acosta

The experience acquired by the Society in Peruvian territory, along with the knowledge of the peculiarities of the Jesuits’ work of indoctrination, would lead Acosta to define the “mission”: “I understand by missions those outings and tours that are undertaken town after town to preach the word of God. Its practice and its good reputation are much greater and more widespread than people think” (ACOSTA, II, 1987 [1588], p. 331). This conception was an instrumental idea of the mission and carried out to solve the problem of the Jesuits in Peru of having to assume doctrinas de indios to carry out tasks of evangelization.

Acosta’s definition of “mission” leads him to state that in the Church there have been two different and complementary ways of carrying out evangelization since ancient times. One way would be the so-called “fixed” mission, which consisted of evangelizing and educating the populations in order to settle permanently in the place and which could be identified in the Peruvian context with the “parsons” of indigenous peoples. The other form, which would later be known as “volante” mission, would be characterized by being made up of religious who did not have a fixed residence and who moved through territories that were not close to their residences, and they did not stay long in the places. of indoctrination. Due to the existing need to know the way of life, culture and language of the indigenous people and the difficulties of the territory they inhabited, Acosta proposes that the mission should remain for a longer period (ACOSTA, II, 1987 [1588], p. 331-333).

As a Jesuit, Acosta starts from Ignatian foundations to define the meaning of the “mission”: God wants the salvation of the indigenous peoples and for that, Christians need to proclaim Jesus Christ, because the very salvation of all men depends on knowing him and, therefore, of the indigenous people themselves (TORRES-LONDOÑO, 2019, p. 63-64). The idea of “mission” in Acosta can be characterized by three elements. First, the mission is universal in the sense that the Indians, as rational and complete men, had also been called to salvation (LOPETEGUI, 1942, p. 273-276). Thus, his missiology led him to reflect on the “anthropology” of man, converting his classification of “modern” barbarians into three groups, into an imperative of the new mission (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 59-71).

The second element refers to the content that indigenous people should know in order to obtain salvation. Acosta claimed that the indigenous people, even though they were rude and ignorant, should know the mysteries of Christian dogma (ACOSTA, II, 1987 [1588], p. 219-221). Acosta realized the danger of relaxing on the subject of explicit faith and had learned through the “scandal” of the Dominican Francisco de la Cruz (1529-1578)⁵. This religious had been condemned to the stake by the Court of the Inquisition, in Lima, for claiming that the Indians did not need to believe in God due to their imperfect natural reason, making the sin of idolatry to be seen by the Dominican as a simple or venial sin (ACOSTA, II, 1987 [1588], p. 213-215).

The third element is related to the role of idolatry among indigenous people, thus determining the content of their religious beliefs. The characterization of idolatry as a “plague” or “disease” – an appropriate image to highlight the danger of contagion and the “poison” that killed man’s soul – was intended to establish a policy to confront these same indigenous beliefs. Acosta thus associated the notion of idolatry with the need for containment, isolation and extirpation measures as appropriate remedies for the patient (ACOSTA, II, 1987 [1588], p. 255-271). These associations materialized institutionally through the opening of schools for the children of curacas, prisons against idolaters, extirpation visits and missions and doctrinas de indios (MONUMENTA PERUANA, II, 1958, p. 59-60; COELLO DE LA ROSA, 2006, p. 83-84).

Johannes Hoornbeeck

Johannes Hoornbeeck was born in the city of Haarlem in 1617⁶. His family had fled to the northern territories of present-day Holland due to the religious wars and persecutions facing the Spanish against the Protestant Dutch. Both his grandfather and father were merchants and members of Calvinist churches. The city of Haarlem was an important commercial center located in the north of present-day Holland, but due to the conflict with Spain it had been partially destroyed. The city suffered a seven-month siege in 1573 by Spanish tercios and Dutch troops from Amsterdam. After the surrender, the defenders of the city were massacred, the citizens’ belongings were expropriated and the city was subject to the obligation of a millionaire payment (WILSON, 1968, p. 11).

At the age of fifteen, Johannes would begin his theological studies at the University of Leiden. The city had an institution that had been opened as a reward granted by Stadholder⁷ William I of Orange (1533-1584), due to the resistance against the Spaniards. Both the city of Leiden and its university benefited from government measures that sought to establish a policy of religious tolerance, bringing people of different reformed dogmas to the city, as well as members of Jewish communities from Spain and Portugal.

By the time Johannes Hoornbeeck entered university, Leiden had become a major international trading center with important textile manufactures. The United Provinces were connected with the rest of the world through commercial establishments they had in different parts of Asia, Africa and the Americas. An important reflection of this new panorama was the opening of the Seminarium Indicum, an institution created by Antonius Walaeus (1573-1639) and which operated in the city of Leiden between 1622 and 1632. The purpose of the seminar was to train “ministers” of academic excellence and high piety so that they could carry out missionary activities anywhere in the world. Walaeus, an important theologian of the Reformed Church, started from the idea that religions such as Islam were in a position of inferiority in relation to Christian dogma. For the theologian, Islam had distorted Christ’s teaching, denying his divine nature and recognizing him only as a prophet. His stance was based on a comparison between Christianity – mainly in its reformed version – with the beliefs of pagans and infidels, Christianity being the only true and possible human parameter (VINK, 2015, p. 130-131).

Upon finishing his studies in Leiden, Hoornbeeck would play the role of minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in that city, in 1638⁸. Five years later, he obtained a doctorate in theology and became a professor at the newly founded University of Utrecht, where he taught with Gisbertus Voetius (1589-1676), of whom he had been a student. Voetius was an important Calvinist theologian who started out as a professor of theology and orientalism in Utrecht and was sworn in as the first rector of the University (GOUDRIAAN, 2006, p. 7-14). His interest was centered on church administration and when he touched on the subject of missions in “heathen” lands, what he looked for was the fit of these missionary pastors and the churches they had erected within a larger organizational framework. Regarding the methodology to be used to convert them, Voetius fully endorsed Hoornbeeck’s reflections (GOMMANS; LOOTS, 2015, p. 51-52; SPAANS, 2018, p. 13-15).

Later, Hoornbeeck would work, in 1654, at the University of Leiden, teaching theology. There, he would find a more “turbulent” environment than in Utrecht due to disputes around the influence of Cartesian ideas on issues related to theology, philosophy and natural sciences. It is also from this period, exercising the chair of theology in Leiden, which can be identified with disputes around an orthodoxy of the reformed dogma. According to historians Gommans and Loots, Hoornbeeck would be related to the Nader Reformatio or “Advanced Reformation”. For the authors, this Advanced Reformation was a movement that had influences from the English Puritan movement of the 17th century, with an emphasis on lifestyle and government. In this way, if it was close to pietistic trends due to the emphasis on the role of the family in matters of the moral life of the community, it differed from these currents due to the attempt to involve government authorities in the fight against sins and in the control of the norms established by the religious community. This element would lead him to associate himself with Hoornbeeck’s reflections on the mission of pagans with partisan groups of the Advanced Reform (GOMMANS; LOOTS, 2015, p. 47-48).

This identification of Hoornbeeck with the Advanced Reform group would be questioned by other historians. Spaans claims that in the period when Hoornbeeck was working as a professor in Leiden, there was a diversity of groups and currents that influenced the Dutch Reformed and that in his case he had an extensive relationship with several academics and theologians from the United Provinces and abroad. Thus, to state that Hoornbeeck was close to the Nader Reformatio, seen as an orthodox and even more renovating current, would be reductionist, mainly due to the importance he gave to Catholic authors in his main work (SPAANS, 2018, p. 25-26). Hoornbeeck would die in 1666, aged 48, from gout and kidney stones.

The Dutch context and the idea of mission

The Dutch Reformed Church’s interest in the theme of the mission to “pagan” peoples is directly related to the territorial and commercial expansion of the United Provinces around the end of the 16th century. The creation of trade and colonization mechanisms for the Dutch, through the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC, 1598) and the West Indische Compagnie (WIC, 1621), allowed the Dutch to face the challenge of how to approach the natives of the territories where they carried out their trade, first through the establishment of trading posts and then, seeking to colonize these territories (BOXER, 1977 [1965]; KLOOSTER, 2016). The attempt to conquer and colonize the territories that were on the Atlantic coasts from 1630 onwards, as would be the case in Brazil and Angola, responded to commercial plans that had been established by the two companies (KLOOSTER, 2016, p. 35).

The phase of territorial expansion of the United Provinces would reach its limit in the second half of the 17th century, encompassing insular territories of Java, Malacca and Moluccas, the islands of Formosa and Ceylon, the administration of the commercial warehouse of Dejima in Japan and territories of the Cape of Good Hope. The commercial companies had the attributions of monopolizing trade with India, governing and administering justice, establishing alliances with the native governments – an important element for the establishment of trading posts – and maintaining an army and a fleet. But there was also the task of hiring and retaining pastors from the Reformed Church to serve as support for the Dutch soldiers themselves and in order to initiate activities to indoctrinate the natives (SPAANS, 2018, p. 11-13).

Johannes Hoornbeeck states that the Dutch themselves were compelled to carry out navigations to places that were still little known and that were beyond territories in possession of the kings of Spain and Portugal – with whom they were at war – and that had been granted in a “arbitrary” by the pope (HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 49-52)⁹.

Hoornbeeck’s own work conducts a “prospection” of authors who wrote about the conquest and colonization of territories then recently known to Europeans. Spanish, Portuguese and French authors who wrote about the navigations and the conquest of India, Brazil and the Caribbean, Africa, China and Japan¹⁰ are on parade. There is an interest of the reformist in collecting and presenting information about the government and customs of these populations that could serve commercial interests, but this was not Hoornbeeck’s objective¹¹. It seeks to establish a broad panorama of the place occupied by these territories and populations within a Christian understanding of the world, understood broadly and within the framework of a “universal history” that was gradually constituting itself as an area of knowledge (KOSELLECK, 2010 [1975], p. 98)¹². The information that Hoornbeeck sought to make available to his readers was related to the manifestations and religious beliefs of these “pagan” nations – such as descriptions of the idolatries of the Americans, the shamanic cults of the Siberians or the persecutions that the “civilized” Japanese carried out against Christians – and how they could be “situated” or organized around Christianity (SPAANS, 2018, p. 9-10).

The context is marked by the need to rethink the world that was opening up to the exploration of Europe, both to the East and to the West. Cosmography was not simply a physical science about the universe, but started from the Bible and, in the end, returned to it (SPAANS, 2018, p. 4). In this way, Sebastian Münster (1488-1522) in his Cosmographia Universalis (1544), began the work following the trail traced in the Scriptures by several genealogies of biblical characters and which soon developed through the “scientific knowledge” collected in various navigations and explorations around the world for the purpose of establishing an appropriate complement on the knowledge of the physical world to the Scriptures (McLEAN, 2007, p. 57-58; 66-68). If his work stands out as a product of the scientific, mathematical and cartographic knowledge of the time, it can also constitute an important exponent of a “moralized” geography, that is, an effort of a Christian and providential knowledge in which an attempt was made to update the huge amount of knowledge acquired from the explorations of the century within a Christian understanding (McLEAN, 2007, p. 281-282).

The “moralizing” and providentialist features of Münster’s work could be found in broad strokes in important works in the Dutch context. A relevant example is Gerard Johannes Vossius (1577-1649), with his book Da Theologia Gentili (1641). His monumental encyclopedia on “pagan” beliefs and rituals, aimed to present the various manifestations of idolatry that had been collected and cataloged from the expansion of geographical knowledge about the world and to seek and identify the elements in these idolatrous beliefs that were characterized as being the result of a natural knowledge about God. Starting from the idea that men first had knowledge of the existence of God and that due to the Devil, sin and ignorance they began to worship different gods (polytheism), Vossius strongly intertwined the plurality of beliefs and pagan gods with the gradual distancing temporal and spatial in relation to the Christian world. In this way, knowledge about “pagan” idolatry also acquired a “moral” geographic character, insofar as greater spatial and temporal distancing was correlated with distancing from the Christian world (POPKIN, 1990, p. 10-11; BEN-TOV, 2013, p. 157-160).

This interest in describing the world and its inhabitants would be fed and strengthened at the same time by an editorial boom in the United Provinces. In cities like Amsterdam and Leiden, an important publishing industry developed, with numerous publishing houses that produced books both for the local market and for export (WILSON, 1968). Books of the genre, related to exploration and travel, as well as topics related to “pagan” nations, had a captive audience due to the demand of the Dutch avid for information about the world. An example of this development of the book, from an industrial as well as a cultural aspect, can be evidenced by Willem J. Blaeu (1571-1638) who, in 1599, created a publishing house specialized in maps and navigation charts. Over time, the publishing house would specialize in editing maps and atlases, but it would not close space for the publication of books either, such as Da Theologia Gentili by Gerard Johannes Vossius. The importance of the publisher’s work, which had the knowledge of Willem, and later his son Joan (1596-1673), would be officially recognized with the appointment of the two as cartographers of the East India Company. Between 1662 – four years before Hoornbeeck’s death – and 1665, the eleven volumes of the Atlas Maior, sive Cosmographia Blaviana, qua Solum, Salum, accuratissima describuntvr, would be published in Latin by the publisher Blaeu, the most important work ever published on world cartography and geography (DE LA FONTAINE, 1973; 1981; CLAIR, 2007 [1976], p. 362).

The cultural context of the United Provinces, in relation to an interest in exploration and navigation, as well as a knowledge of the religious beliefs of extra-European nations, can be highlighted from the work of Vossius and the Blaeu publishing enterprise. This same context is the one that relates to Hoornbeeck’s work. The interest in cartographic and geographic knowledge and in the history of the religions of these nations was intrinsically associated with the work of Hoornbeeck for his reflections that pointed to the elaboration of an appropriate notion of mission within the dogma proposed by the Reformed Church of Holland.

Having defined the context that explains the relationship between the expansion of Holland and the need to understand this new world, it is necessary to understand the purpose of Hoornbeeck’s book. If in the first part of the work, the author analyzed the religious beliefs of contemporary “pagan” nations, in the second, he would focus on the purpose of the mission as a way to convert the “pagans”. For this, he carries out an evaluation of previous experiences of successful missions and why he dwells on the work of José de Acosta.

The mission as a global experience space

The main goal of Hoornbeeck’s book was to clarify the obligation that the Reformed Church of Holland had to preach the Gospel to those who were considered “heathens”. The purpose was to strive for the conversion of the indigenous and “pagans” who began to be contacted by the Dutch from the commercial expansion and the conquest of new territories outside Europe. His book was intended to become a tool for those destined to preach the Gospel, who should be specially prepared to argue with “pagans”. Although he considered Catholics primarily as competitors on the subject of conversion, he wisely asserted that it was more profitable to convert a “pagan” into a Christian than to try to convert someone already a Christian to another different denomination¹³, “It is more worthwhile and more useful to have converted a heathen into a Christian than to have converted a Christian into a member of a different Christian denomination, regardless of whether it is a better one” (HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 42).

In the presentation of the book, Hoornbeeck enunciates three purposes. The first is to bring information about the religion and beliefs of the “pagans”, both ancient and modern. The observations recorded in his work collect information about “pagan” nations from territories that were just being known by Europeans, but highlighting those who had more frequent contact with the Dutch. In this way, information was recorded on the “religion” in Asia of Hindus, Malays, Chinese and Japanese, some African peoples Siberians, Lapps and Eskimos, as well as American Indians. In the case of the Peruvian indigenous people, Hoornbeeck uses López de Gómara, Girolamo Benzoni, José de Acosta, Garcilaso de la Vega and Antônio de Calancha as his main sources. The second is to clarify the disputes that took place between Christians and “pagans” on topics such as the idea of a world created by a single God, the denial of the existence of several gods and the error of worshiping idols.

By analyzing the disputes that were held by the first Christians and the Fathers of the Church against the “pagans”, Hoornbeeck highlights the elements that allowed the Christians to impose themselves on them in the period of the Empire of Rome, such as the disputes about the falsity of their gods and the error of their wisdom. Lastly, and most importantly, the effort to carry out the conversion and salvation of these “pagans”. For this last purpose, a more complete approach to the work of José de Acosta can be found. The choice of his words in Latin are a clear reference: “Consilium, pro curanda ipsorum & promonda, qui disputeis finis semper esse debet, conversione ac salute” (HOORNBEECK, 1669, p. 4)¹⁴.

This third purpose, enunciated by Hoornbeeck from the parallel he establishes with Acosta, firmly intertwined the process of territorial expansion with evangelization itself. Acosta explained that the existence of large amounts of gold and silver that were hidden in the hidden and rugged lands of the indigenous people was due to the divine plan with the purpose of attracting the Spaniards to these territories, who, in their desire to enrich themselves, would also carry out the effort to convert the natives (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 531-533). Hoornbeeck asserted that Providence itself had also driven the Dutch into far and wide lands, not only for the enrichment and glory of the Dutch nation, but principally to share the greatest wealth of the nation, which was the Reformed faith.

For who would believe that by the singular providence and gift of God these things have happened to our people only to make them explore and occupy these regions or to take away the riches of the earth or for a larger or superfluous quantity of material things, to the glory and the idle triumph of the Dutch name, instead of, what is more likely, to bring knowledge and worship of God the Maker of Everything to lands that so far have been strangers to the community of humanity and religion, and to people who know nothing but the earth and earthly matters.

(2018 [1669], p. 39-40).

For Hoornbeeck, it is evident that it will not be possible to discuss with “pagans” and indigenous subjects about religion based on their own foundations and the writings they produced. Also, by reviewing the writings of the Fathers of the Church and those who continued them after the fall of the Roman Empire, such as Thomas Aquinas, Hoornbeeck finds a set of arguments that could be used to try to convert the “pagans”. Thus, we present the contemporary experience of conversion of “pagan” and indigenous nations, in particular, the experience of the Jesuit José de Acosta with the Peruvian indigenous people. From this set of bibliographic sources, Hoornbeeck establishes that the first theme to develop is about God, that he is unique and about who He is.

The idea of his writing was to transmit to his readers – mainly to theology students and future pastors – the necessary contents to carry out the evangelization of the “pagans”. Explaining about the concept of God, why He was unique and His attributes – such as being perfect, eternal and omnipotent –, part of the foundation that all peoples of the world had a first idea about God (HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p 220). By emphasizing that God was unique, Hoornbeeck sought to associate the enunciation of this truth with his character of being a perfect being. The very idea that the “pagans” had of the existence of several gods was based on the absurdity that they were perfect in a certain attribute, but not in others and therefore the idea of the need that there are several gods to cover the spectrum of reality. From this imperfection, Hoornbeeck took the opportunity to emphasize that God is unique because He is a perfect Being. Thus, he tries to transmit to future missionaries the indispensable elements of his preaching, adapted to the way “payers” and indigenous people understood religion.

In the following we show that the same God is one, and not more. This is proven first of all from the nature of God that, because it is very perfect, can be only one. This is proved in the first place from the nature of God, that because it has to be the most perfect, cannot be but one. Suppose that there are several gods: they will have all, or some, or one and the same, or different forms of perfection: if each of them has some perfection, then none of those is God, because he is not perfect in every way or has all and the most absolute perfection. Neither can they have all perfection, unless it is the same perfection. And also, the same perfection, this is his nature, and therefore there will not be more Gods, but one, or one having the same nature of all perfection. If they have diverse forms of perfection, while one has a perfection that the other lacks, neither will be God. Because God means a being in every way and absolutely perfect (HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 220-221).

If in the first expository chapter on the indispensable elements for the formation of Reformed pastors Hoornbeeck had started with the explanation of how God should be made to understand God for the “pagans”, in the following chapters he would expose themes related to how these had a notion of the existence of a single God who was creator and ruler of all, without having had access to revelation by divine grace. An example brought is the reference to the cult of the god Pachacámac by Peruvian indigenous people, who was characterized as being an invisible god and that the Incas sought to impose on the people the cult of the Sun and the Moon,

“across the Peruvian mountains, there were also Indians, called after Coca, who did not worship the sun, the moon, or anything lower than that, but someone whom they said was higher than all those other things: they complained that they had been forced by the power and the orders of the Incas to worship the sun and the moon”

(HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 232).

To these elements, one more would be added, which Hoornbeeck would consider important to build the contents and arguments that would be appropriate to transmit among the indigenous people: the existence of the soul and the belief in life beyond death. The Reformed theologian would point out that the idea of the existence of the soul among the “pagans” was a widespread belief, with some believing that it was immortal; but also, that there was no consensus on the fate of the soul after death and whether the body and soul would resurrect or not.

Subsequently, Hoornbeeck develops themes that are related to customs and ways of life in order to introduce the elements of a Christian life. The theologian retrieves from José de Acosta an idea attributed to the “specialist” in indigenous issues, the graduate Polo de Ondegardo (1500-1575), who stated that “first there is a need to take care that the barbarians learn to be men, and then, the to be Christians” (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 539). The positive assessment that the Dutchman gives to Acosta is due to having a direct experience in the evangelization of the “pagan” indigenous people and to having produced a strong reflection on the mission. Offering information on the history, government and religion of the Incas and Aztecs, taken from his book Historia natural y moral de las Indias, Hoornbeeck stated that the Jesuit also “deserves to be read and recommended”, mainly for his book De procuranda indorum salute. For him, Acosta presented a “manual” on how to proceed to convert the indigenous people. Thus, Acosta’s De procuranda became a missiology manual that should not only be read by Catholics, but also that Dutch reformers could obtain useful information for their missions. For Hoornbeeck, the Jesuit established a methodology, listed the difficulties and obstacles that the missionaries would encounter in conversion and pointed out the care that should be taken when living and working with them.

He applies himself to this matter and diligently carries on, discarding old views that are not helpful in the present circumstances, and also offering things that may help in dealing with the Indians, and especially the Peruvians, and strategies to convert them to the faith of Christ. He explains what obstacles hinder the work, for what kind of scandals one has to watch out, and what is the best way to live and to work with them. He does this in such a way that people involved in the same discussion can use his work and his observations and profit from them

(HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 185).

The knowledge that Acosta possessed about the Peruvian indigenous people and his effort to establish a comparative framework with other “pagan” nations, allowed him to state that “These Indians have always seemed to me a kind of midpoint between the others: starting from them it is possible to arrive more easily at a judgment of the extremes, so to speak” (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 59-61). At the same time, he emphasized that for the indigenous people to first “learn to be men” it was necessary to impose the authority of a “Christian prince” on their nature prone to vice (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 571). Hoornbeeck highlighted Acosta’s pages on the vice of drunkenness in the natives. Aware of the damage caused by the ingestion of various alcoholic beverages among the indigenous people, the Jesuit recommended that the production of grapes and corn – with which these drinks were made in Peru – should not be prohibited, but that public control should be increased at events and festivities where such products were consumed. His suggestion presented a criticism and an appeal to end the abuses that the Spaniards themselves, including the clergy, committed against the indigenous people in their eagerness to get rich (HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 282; ACOSTA I, 1984 [1588], p. 567-569).

For Acosta, the drunkenness of the indigenous people was extremely harmful, due to the fact that their intelligence or ingenio was of a servile nature and their customs were different (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 571). This nature affected the way drunkenness should be combated: through the use of public power. Drunkenness made it easier for the indigenous people to commit other crimes and faults: incest, sodomy, libidinous practices, violent acts and others, especially the practice of idolatry, which was the root of all evils (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 573). Thus, Acosta establishes, from his experience with the indigenous people, a relationship between idolatry (as the root of all evils) and indigenous customs and practices. With this relationship, Hoornbeeck will be guided in the subsequent descriptions of the customs of the Japanese, the Chinese and other “pagan” nations, with the purpose of establishing the relationship of different and scandalous habits in the eyes of Christians (HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 282-284).

If one attitude should stand out in Hoornbeeck’s work, it is that of wanting to make a critical judgment about the action of the mission with the indigenous people, starting first from a reading of previous experiences, how the evangelization of the indigenous people carried out by the Spaniards would be, and, in especially by the Jesuits, in which he sought to highlight the elements that should be assimilated or followed by the Reformed Dutch (GOMMANS; LOOTS, 2015, p. 52). Thus, he recognizes the importance of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide created by the Catholic Church in 1622¹⁵ and advises that the Reformed Church should establish a similar institution.

But now I ask every one of our people who has sufficient wisdom and judgment and is notable for his doctrine as well as for his piety and especially who is touched by the zeal to promote Christ and his kingdom, that they diligently consider whether it is not useful that a similar congregation de Propaganda Fide is founded among Reformed Protestants, all the more so because a purer doctrine and worship of God exists and is practiced by them

(HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 339).

It highlights the action of Catholic seminaries that were opened for the conversion of infidels, pagans, heretics and schismatics, with the aim of forming religious people who are fully dedicated to the conversion of these nations and peoples that were far from the faith, recommending that reformed people establish, as well, institutions to fulfill the same purpose “Furthermore it will greatly contribute to this goal if there is a seminary of those who are being appropriately prepared by all kinds of studies and exercises to properly undertake a mission among the nations. A seminary such as that exists with the Roman Catholics and used to exist with us from time to time” (HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 341). Hoornbeeck compares Catholic seminaries with the Seminarium Indicum that was established by Antonius Walaeus in the city of Leiden in 1622. This seminar had the objective of training pastors to carry out mission actions in the Eastern India, which is why candidates were instructed, in addition to teaching Latin and Reformed dogma, learning the languages spoken in India and the Malaysian islands, as well as Islam and Hinduism (VINK, 2015, p. 129-133).

Hoornbeeck’s assessment about the care that should be given to the formation of missionaries and the way in which they should carry out their work of evangelization rested on the evaluation of the conversion experience carried out by the Spaniards. Based on the information and denunciations contained in the Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (1552), by the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566)¹⁶, Hoornbeeck states that the people chosen to deal with the conversion of the “pagans” needed to be virtuous, without vices and scandals, pious and of good behavior; the best and not those who only crossed the ocean in search of well-being and riches

In particular we should take care that whoever is sent there for such a purpose is free from greed. For one thing this has great force and energy to divert someone from his plan, and it does not allow him to do anything else, certainly not such saintly and difficult work which says to turn the mind to higher things and away from this as well as from other faults. And it does even prevent a human being to be who he is, but it makes him into someone completely different, someone completely unworthy of his status. I omit to what unspeakable crimes, to what cruelties and all sorts of evildoing this unique desire to have, this ‘damned hunger for gold’ not only stimulates, but even compels people

(HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 359).

Las Casas, along with other writers, would be responsible for bringing to the surface the tragic stories of the indigenous people who were subjected to the Spanish conquest – raw material of the later Leyenda negra¹⁷ – and which, for Hoornbeeck, had as its main negative consequence the staining of blood and violence the action of taking to the non-believers, the Gospel.

This same attitude, of criticism and appreciation of elements from previous experiences, will also be repeated in relation to the work of José de Acosta. The Jesuit not only denounced the scandals committed by the Spaniards, but also sought to assess errors and establish a new way of indoctrinating the indigenous people. Acosta had understood that the first Spanish experience had associated the spread of the Gospel with violence and had led him to believe that “Consequently, they judge our faith by our conduct. Because there is a greater tendency to believe by what is seen than by what is heard. Rarely does it manage to persuade a word that is in contradiction with the facts” (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 179).

For Hoornbeeck, the selection of missionaries who should convert “pagans” and infidels should be guided mainly by the ability of those chosen to lead a life in line with what they preached as an example of Christian life. Already the separation of attitudes from the message, led the natives to discredit the words of the Spaniards. Acosta claimed that the greatest responsibility for the Indians not to advance in conversion did not lie with them, but with the Spaniards themselves who, through example, taught the Indians to steal, lie, have concubines and other vices (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 371). Acosta demonstrated his confidence that the evangelization of the Peruvian indigenous people would advance over time, even with the opposition and violence of Spaniards who behaved like vulgar mercenaries. The natives who had converted demonstrated that the achievement obtained in evangelization was already a positive example of the possible results to be obtained if one proceeded in the correct way “what has been achieved so far with them is certain proof that in no way should we despair of the salvation of so many people” (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p 231). Hoornbeeck knew that the error of the Spaniards in converting the natives was not restricted to them alone, but that it could also be committed by others, such as the Dutch Reformed “People should not think that these statements were made only by Roman Catholics or about Roman Catholics and can and should not apply in equal measure to our own people” (HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 356).

A concern that Acosta rescues is that the indigenous people should not become enemies of God and Christians. Hoornbeeck understands that the Spaniards’ mistake was to have started countless wars against the natives with the purpose of conquering and converting them and, for that, they submitted them through violence. This situation led Hoornbeeck to discuss the issue of fair titles to carry out the war against the indigenous people or not, with Acosta himself as one of his main guides. The Reformed Dutchman was aware of Francisco de Vitoria’s (1483-1546) views on the just cause of war and the later derivations that were made from his Relecciones¹⁸, but there is one main element to which he gives priority (HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 363-364).

Acosta’s opinions were not just the product of academic experience and philosophical reflection, but stemmed from a direct knowledge of the situation of Spaniards in the Indies and from living with the natives around the conversion effort. Acosta stated that the Spaniards had no right to wage war against them if they simply did not accept becoming Christians “Because of their infidelity and because they ignore Christ or because they reject him after having announced it to them, we have no right or just cause to declare war on them” (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 259).

Hoornbeeck highlighted that for the Jesuit there were no just causes for war against indigenous people, either to penalize them because of serious sins and faults they committed – since that right did not correspond to the Spaniards, but to the legitimate indigenous authorities – or because of their idolatry. Whatever Acosta’s justification may have been, the damage that war did to the natives and to conversion was much greater. This damage was not simply the large number of dead and the huge contingents of enslaved people or their properties destroyed, but mainly, the growing hatred that the indigenous people began to feel towards God and Christians.

This is the extent of the damage the Spaniards have done by their enormous cruelty and greed. They did this damage not only to themselves, but they also created a connection between detestable misbehavior and the most sacred religion and its founding father Christ. All other Christians do the same, when they insist on the same behavior and lead a life unworthy of their confession, and expose it to the hate and abuse of all people. For the heathens, however barbarian and uncivilized they are, judge people and their belief by their behaviour.

(HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 363).

What Hoornbeeck recognized in Acosta as a reflective and just stance on the problem of justifying war against the indigenous peoples, stemmed from the acceptance that it was only possible to carry out a defensive war – and not an offensive one – by the Spaniards or any other nation that sought to establish itself with the “pagans” and indigenous people. Therefore, starting from Acosta’s ideas, Hoornbeeck postulates that the natives – and all kinds of “pagans” – should be taught what is just and healthy, as well as in civilized life and religion. Recalling, therefore, the maxim used by Acosta about indigenous people being first taught to be men and then taught to be Christians (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 539).

Being in favor of carrying out a just war, only when it had an eminently defensive character, Hoornbeeck detailed that in the defense of the missionaries who went to preach among the natives and who led an honorable and virtuous life, without harming anyone, this war should not constitute the first step in evangelism, but bringing the doctrine to those would constitute the first step. War would only be an option of extreme necessity “Certainly, to be just, every war has to result from injustice done by the other party and has to be necessary for your own defense, so that it is defensive rather than offensive” (HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 365).

In this way, Hoornbeeck recognized that the violence practiced by the Spaniards had generated great hatred among the indigenous people, which made the missionary work of Catholic religious difficult, and that Acosta’s analytical effort was aimed at unlocking the difficulties that also existed on the part of the indigenous people. For this, the theologian identified that the indigenous people had “prejudices” that were contrary to Christianity and that expressed the difficulty of abandoning their traditional beliefs and accepting Christianity as the only religion

These prejudices are directed against the doctrine of truth and the teaching of Christ. Because these prejudices are varied in nature, they should be shaken out one by one. More in particular, they should be refuted: be it that they have their origin in the heathens’ present condition, namely that they would prefer to remain in it, or in the difficulty and the inconvenience of changing their religion, or finally in the Christian religion or belief

(HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 367).

The reverence which the “heathens” had for their ancestors, as well as their inherited ways of life and customs, had led to the fact that superstition and idolatry had lodged deeply in their being. Hoornbeeck sought to reinforce, in his teaching to future pastors, the attention they should pay to the renunciation of pagans in order to convert and to the effort to make them aware of the importance of assuming a new pact with the true God (HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 370). This action of assuming the new should be conducted by exemplary missionaries who practiced what they preached and took into account Acosta’s lesson: “As far as ours are concerned, they tend to greatly slow down the conversion of the Indians; their habits of terrible example, such as greed, violence and tyranny, because although they confess that they know Christ, nevertheless they deny it radically with their actions” (ACOSTA, I, 1984 [1588], p. 371).

Acosta and the Jesuits thus become the model to be followed by the reformed theologian Hoornbeeck. He distinguishes that among the infidels there were people who possessed a more favored intelligence and others who were ruder. This difference was necessary because it was important to tailor the Christian message to its listeners.

They should instruct them in the first and revealed chapters of Christianity and wisely avoid or hide points of discussion as much as they can, or pay attention to points of discussion relevant for the heathens rather than to those that are under discussion with the Christians, putting the emphasis on simple rather than on more subtle questions.

(HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 373).

Hoornbeeck brought up a discussion raised by the Jesuit Francisco Xavier (1506-1552)¹⁹ about the contents that should be offered to “pagans”, in view of their nature and ingenuity. To this end, the missionary described the daily activities he carried out with the natives, in particular, with the help of some indigenous people, he tried to translate Christian prayers and commandments into his language with the aim of reciting them daily within the small groups of faithful and curious who were forming. Francisco Xavier stated in a letter from January 1544, when speaking of the inhabitants of Cape Comorin, in the extreme south of India, that “The reasons that these idiot people have to be given should not be as subtle as those that are written by very scholastic doctors” (MONUMENTA XAVERIANA, I, 1899, p. 291). The discussion about the capabilities of the indigenous people would later be resumed by Acosta,

How will the catechists teach and learn the Indians all these subjects with ease? For this, first of all, a double type of catechism is needed. One, synthetic and brief so that, if possible, the Indians can learn it even by heart, and in which all the points that are necessary for a Christian regarding faith and morals are summarized. Another, more developed, in which those same points are explained in greater detail and detail and are emphasized with more reasons. The first would rather be intended for the use of the disciples; the second, for teachers

(ACOSTA, II, 1987 [1588], p. 293).

The need to produce material to be used with the natives and that was written in the very languages they spoke, led Hoornbeeck to recognize the need for missionaries to know the language of the natives. The examples brought by the reformer came mainly from the Jesuits: Juan Fernández de Oviedo (1526-1567), Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), Martino Martini (1614-1661), Pierre Pelleprat (1606-1667), among others (HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 374). But this plethora of Jesuit figures also had their reformed Dutch counterpart in the figure of Antonius Walaeus and his Seminarium Indicus.

Knowing the language of the natives served to preach and pray in their own terms. Hoornbeeck takes several examples about preaching to the natives, mainly the Jesuits. The success of the Jesuit missions in the East, in India and in the Americas was recognized by Hoornbeeck and led him to seek to establish a model to be applied by the Reformed Church of Holland in the territories of the East India Company. The futility of preaching to the natives in Latin or Spanish, as recognized by the Third Council of Lima, from 1582-1583 (ACOSTA, II, 1987 [1588], p. 63-65; HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 376), and the need to memorize the contents of the catechism and doctrine, using various devices, such as music (ACOSTA, II, 1987 [1588], p. 339; HOORNBEECK, 2018 [1669], p. 385), would constitute additional lessons that Hoornbeeck would seek to impart to future predikants.

Conclusion

The Dutch Reformed theologian Johannes Hoornbeeck wrote his book De conversione indorum et gentilium, having as a model the work of the Jesuit José de Acosta, De procuranda indorum salute. Acosta’s work was not only a source of information about the Western Indias. For this, there was his own Historia natural y moral de las Indias, in addition to other books on the same subject. De procuranda constituted the main inspiration and model of how the mission among “pagan” nations should be within the proposal elaborated by Hoornbeeck. In this way, the mission in its Dutch Reformed version would begin to have characteristics that had been inspired by the Society of Jesus and Acosta’s reflection. Far from the common representations that antagonized Catholics and Protestants, Hoornbeeck proposed a reformed missionary practice that was based on an exercise of appropriation and assimilation of the Jesuit experience and Acosta’s ideas.

• 1
  Article not published in a preprint platform. All sources and references used are cited in the article. My sincere thanks to the anonymous reviewers of the Journal of History, whose feedback was essential for the improvement of this article. I also appreciate the critical reading done by Maria Cristina Bohn Martins.
• 3
  With the title “De natura Novi Orbis libri duo”, it was published in Latin alongside “De procuranda”. The two chapters mainly dealt with the geographical phenomena that stood out in India and aligned with the accepted knowledge of the world, focusing on topics such as the habitability of the Equator and the torrid zones, as well as the antipodes. Subsequently, these chapters would be translated into Spanish and published as part of his “Historia”.
• 4
  The translation of Acosta’s “Historia” into Dutch was carried out by Jan Huygen van Linschoten, a skillful explorer and cartographer, who would later publish “Reys-gheschrift vande navigatien der Portugaloysers in Orienten” in 1595 and “ Itinerario, Voyage ofte schipvaert van Jan Huyghen van Linschoten naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien, 1579-1592” in 1596.
• 5
  The Spanish Dominican Francisco de la Cruz arrived in Peru in 1561. Graduated in theology at the University of Valladolid, he would assume the chair of theology at the University of Lima. Later, he would hold the position of rector of the university and would be a close collaborator of the archbishop of Lima, Jeronimo de Loayza. The Dominican would become the confessor of Maria Pizarro, a young woman who, at the end of 1570, showed signs of being possessed by the devil. From the investigation opened in 1571 by the Court of the Inquisition of Lima on this case, Francisco de la Cruz would be investigated, due to heretical statements in which he called himself king and pope of India, announcing a destruction of Europe and a government in the Spaniards’ India and Indians. As a result of the harsh conditions of the Inquisition prison, De la Cruz would suffer psychic imbalances that would lead him to claim that Maria Pizarro was the means through which the archangel Gabriel expressed himself and he was his prophet. He was convicted of pertinacious heresy, dogmatizing and preacher of a new sect. He would be condemned to die at the stake in the auto de fe of 1578.
• 6
  Information about the life of Johannes Hoornbeeck is taken from the introduction to the English version of his De conversione indorum et gentilium written by Joke Spaans.
• 7
  From the Dutch stadholder, it was a political office in the provinces of the north of Holland that, when they were later unified by the “Union of Utrecht” within the United Provinces, would occupy the supreme position, being chosen by the legislative assembly and bringing together the function of government and captain army general.
• 8
  The denomination of “Reformed Church” is a use that occurred after the installation of Protestant communities in Dutch territory. Within Lutheran and Calvinist churches, the motto ecclesia reformata, quia semper reformanda (“the church reformed, because she must always be reformed”) gained importance within the communities that developed in the United Provinces. Although the origin and paternity of the denomination of Dutch Reformed Church are not known, some scholars claim that the authorship was Hoornbeeck himself and aimed to differentiate the interpretation that the churches of the United Provinces would be carrying out of the Lutheran dogma and, mainly, of the Calvinism, understood as a Zweite Reformation or “Second Reformation” (LIEBURG, 2014, p. 43-46).
• 9
  Klooster introduces in his work, an appreciation taken from a pamphlet of 1630 in which a Dutchman stated that “The kings of Spain do not know most of the East and West Indies, so what right can the Spaniards have to forbid the Dutch to trade, traffic and sail there?”, commenting that it would be frivolous to appeal to the papal dispensation because the pope “has as much right to decide on the matter as the donkey he rides or the youngest boy in his kitchen” (KLOOSTER, 2016, p. 37 ).
• 10
  The list of authors cited by Hoornbeeck is long and expresses the interest that the expansion of world geography and the description of new nations aroused in Holland. He mentions authors who described the Spanish possessions, such as Girolamo Bertoni, Bartolomé de las Casas, Antônio de la Calancha, Francisco López de Gómara, Garcilaso de la Vega and José de Acosta, as well as others who reported the territories held by the Portuguese, such as the Itinerary by Jan Huygen van Linschoten and Jean de Léry. His work also contains information about China and Japan taken from Catholic missionaries sent on missions, such as the Augustinian Juan González de Mendoza, the Jesuits Martino Martini, Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault.
• 11
  The importance of information about territories that could be commercially exploited by the Dutch can be perceived when faced with the case of J. H. van Linschoten (1563-1611), who belonged to a family of Dutch merchants who traded in Spain. He settled in 1576 in Seville, in order to better learn about mercantile activities. Due to the stricter control of the Inquisition, he decided to move to Lisbon where, even though he was a Calvinist, he got the position of clerk to the new Portuguese archbishop of Goa, Friar Vicente de Fonseca. His stay in Goa, between 1583 and 1589, in the service of the archbishop, allowed him to secretly collect nautical and commercial information about the activities of the Portuguese. Upon his return to Amsterdam, in 1593, he began a hectic publishing activity, publishing several books on the exploration of territories and the possibility of carrying out commercial activities in these places (TIELE, 2016 [1596], I, p. XXIII-XXIX).
• 12
  In Hoornbeeck’s book there is a dynamic in its structure that responds to its constitutive elements. On the one hand, the presence of a sacred and biblical history that seeks to be imposed as the framework and that would have the purpose of organizing, within the authority of the Scriptures, the existence of new nations of “pagans” that had to be resignified in the light of the new knowledges. On the other hand, the expansion of knowledge of the world led to the search for a reflection of its history in universal terms, which was only possible, in that period, based on Christianity itself.
• 13
  All translations from English to Portuguese in this article are by the author.
• 14
  “An advice for their care and promotion, which must always be the objective of the debate: conversion and salvation”.
• 15
  Propaganda Fide was created by Pope Gregory XV in 1622 in Rome. The purpose of the Congregation was to organize and coordinate the missionary activity of the Church throughout the world. The importance that the Congregation acquired as a supervisory institution of the Church’s missionary activity can be highlighted by the constant participation of the pope, responsible for establishing the basic guidelines of the missionary policy to be implemented.
• 16
  Bartolomé de las Casas wrote Brevísima relación around 1542. His book is within the context of the intense struggle of the Dominicans around the efforts to defend the rights of the indigenous people, which would be crowned with the Leyes Nuevas of 1542 by Philip II. Published the manuscript in Seville in 1552 without authorization from the Crown, the book sought to make known to the king and his readers the evils suffered in India and the atrocities committed by the Spaniards in their conquest. The cruel “stories” of the Spaniards brought by Las Casas serve not only to produce an ethical rejection of the armed conquest, but also to denounce that the Spaniards, by exercising violence, abandoned the mandate received from the popes to Christianly evangelize the natives.
• 17
  The leyenda negra is a set of images built around the Spanish nation since the 16th century, which aimed to associate Spain with a series of statements that characterized it in a grotesque, cruel and bloodthirsty way. These statements were driven by an anti-Spanish propaganda and editorial policy that was organized and supervised both by governments opposed to the Hispanic Monarchy, as would be the case of the United Provinces, and by members of Protestant churches, as would be the Reformed Church. Within these images built around Spain, the work of Bartolomé de las Casas constitutes an important element because the information about the conquerors in the Indies served to thicken the denunciations of savage, bloodthirsty and ferocious behavior against the Spaniards.
• 18
  The Dominican and theologian Francisco de Vitoria is an outstanding subject of Hoornbeeck, due to his clear position in relation to the jurisdiction of the Pope and the Spanish Crown in relation to India. For Vitoria, the pope did not have jurisdiction over the political government of the indigenous peoples, nor did he have the right to grant secular government over the indigenous peoples to others, in this case the Spanish and Portuguese. In the same way, he recognizes that the natives governed themselves properly and that they had their properties and businesses. Therefore, regardless of their beliefs and sins, he recognizes that they were rightful lords of their lands and governments.
• 19
  One of the founders of the Compañía de Jesús along with Ignácio de Loyola, Francisco Xavier was the first Jesuit to go on a mission. In April 1541, he left for India, accompanying the Portuguese expedition that led to the governor, Martim Afonso de Sousa, arriving in the territory of Goa, capital of the Portuguese territories, in May 1542. It is from the first years of his stay around Goa and Costa da Pescaria and in close contact with the Paravá indigenous peoples, who began to develop a reflection on the mission among the “pagans”. In the epistle of 1544, Xavier details the need to translate into native languages everything related to Christian doctrine and that could be taught in a simple way. His impressions on the Brahmins also appear and how the content of the doctrine should be adapted to bring them closer to Christianity.

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Edited by

Responsible Editors

Miguel Palmeira e Stella Maris Scatena Franco

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  23 Oct 2023
• Date of issue
  2023

History

• Received
  11 Nov 2022
• Accepted
  03 May 2023