My History Paper

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Hypocrisy and the Church’s Power

Almost four hundred years ago, the events shown in Lieutenant Nun: Transvestite in the New World occurred. Well, at least some of them did. The world five centuries ago was one of colonization, growth, and conflict. By no secret of its own, the Catholic Church survived and thrived by entrenching itself deep into the countries that embraced it. The book shares that the Catholic Church possessed power over the political, legal, social structures of the New World and failed to represent the Counter-Reformation ideals of the time. Not only did they exercise this authority, but the Catholic Church controlled a great deal of land and property, which allowed them financial control.

The Spanish Empire in the Americas, during this time period, extended from today’s California/Baja region south into parts of Argentina and Chile. Since the Catholic Church was the official church of Spain, much of Spain’s control and holding on its territories was held by the church. With every military conquest of the colonies, the Spanish Catholic Church would send in clergy and build churches, monasteries, convents, cathedrals, etc. After its rise to control during the Inquisition, the Catholic Church was used by the Spanish government as a mechanism with which to subjugate the population (or vice-versa, for that matter). The priests and friars would help to convert the population in an effort to make them loyal to the church. In many instances, the natives didn’t have a choice – convert or die.

As the book Lieutenant Nun began, we saw Catalina de Erauso as a nun-in-training in a convent in San Sebastian, Spain. From the beginning of her life, the church played a predominate role in her life. It leads one to believe that the church quite possibly had a powerful role in most people’s lives. The opening paragraph betrays the church involvement in her family. “In 1589, they placed me in a convent of Dominican nuns there in town, San Sebastian the Elder, with my aunt dona Ursula Unza y Sarasti, who was my mother’s older sister and the prioress of the convent (Erauso, 3).”

Rolling through the New World and leaving the killing strewn behind her, Catalina de Erauso stopped to describe only the most epic details. Upon arrival into each new city or kingdom under Spanish control, the most impressive site she saw were elements of the church. “With Trujillo behind me, and having traveled more than eighty leagues, I came to the city of Lima, capital of the opulent kingdom of Peru, which includes a hundred and two Spanish cities, not to mention many towns and villages, twenty-eight bishophrics and archbishopfrics, a hundred and thirty-six sheriffs, and the Royal Courts of Valladolid, Granda, Charcas, Quito, Chile, and La Paz. The city of Lima has an archbishop and a cathedral, much like the one in Seville (though not as large), five benefices, ten canons, six whole and six half prebends, four priests, seven parishes, twelve convents of friars and nuns, eight hospitals, a hermitage (of the Inquisition – the other is in Cartagena), a university…It also has a viceroy and the Royal Court which govern the rest of Peru, and many other splendors (Erauso, 16).”

From the description alone (and we know much of it to be fairly true), the church’s presence in Peru’s capital city was astounding. Not only does the church display presence, but control – specifically, financial control. What must it cost to build and keep the structures standing? We know that most of this came from dues to the church and taxes. The grandeur and styles of the Bishops and hierarchy of the church showed no loss in financial backing. In fact, many times as Catalina was leaving the refuge of the church, she was given money. This power over the land and quasi allegiance from the people, especially the Spaniards living in the New World, made the Catholic Church into a para-government organization.

In most instances, at least in the book, the clergy disregards the authority of virtually anyone, from the viceroy down to the local sheriff. During a debacle in the center of one town, Catalina shared, “The police showed up and tried to drag us out of the church, and with that two Franciscans from across the way slipped me into their monastery…. (Erauso, 46)” Due to their control of the local resources, the government could do nothing but follow what the church said. These sheriffs and other government officials involved in the book show a respect, not to mention, deep reverence for the church. While in La Paz, Catalina said, “The governor kept the church surrounded, with me under lock and key, for a month or so, and then the guard was removed. One of the local priests reconnoitered the roads and outlying hills, gave me a mule and a little cash-on orders from the head bishop, I can only guess-and I slipped away down the road to Cuzco (Erauso, 50).” If most things were owned by the church, the clergy had to answer little to the convening authorities. Even the Pope, as a proponent of the Counter-Reformation and head of the church, had little involvement and had no control over the acts of the church in the New World. While he may have heard some of the events that went on in the New World, crossing the Atlantic was a harsh and brutal journey and word didn’t travel too fast.

Whether it was the unreliable communication or simply the distance, the church in the New World used this excuse to exercise their power – not that the church in Europe wasn’t guilty of doing the same thing. Unlike the Counter-Reformation that was occurring in Catholic Europe, the church in the New World demonstrated no such qualities. Throughout the book, the clergy members depicted exactly opposite of what one would expected out of the church. The Counter-Reformation, as a response to the Protestant Reformation, began as a catalyst to eradicate corruption and non-Catholic ideologies from the church. One element central in the Counter-Reformation, honor for the basic Catholic doctrine, caused the orders such as the Jesuits, Ursulines, and Capuchins to form. Orders made this increased fervor for the traditional Catholic culture almost a popular trend among clergy in Europe and it slowly spread to the New World.

Amidst the chaos of the Middle Ages, the church was viewed as a safe refuge. To escape authorities or if you had been wrongly accused, one would enter a church and claim asylum. The person seeking asylum would then be tried or dealt with by the church. As time passed, the church’s role as a refuge continued, especially during the Reformation. During the Inquisition the church gained increasing legal power, taking prosecuting and sentencing almost anyone that resisted. According to the account of this book, the church’s legal role carried over into the New World.

Catalina de Erauso was lucky the church had such control in the New World. The fact that she survived as a “he” through countless conflicts and legal accusations was not without assistance from the power of the church. While coming to her aide, seemingly oblivious to her sex, the clergy use their involvement to spite the regional governments. Had most of these clergy known her true story, and thus its opposition to the typical morals upheld within a church, would they have responded in the same way?

Towards the end of the book, she meets a bishop and shares her story. “’Senor, all of this that I have told you….in truth, it is not so. The truth is: I am a woman…….at a certain age I was placed in a convent……I left the convent…went to such and such a place, undressed myself and dressed myself up again, cut my hair, traveled here and there, embarked, disembarked, hustled, killed, maimed, wreaked havoc, and roamed about, until coming to a stop in this very instant, at the feet of Your Eminence (Erauso, 64).’” After she proves that she is, in fact, a woman, the bishop says, “’Daughter….my doubt is gone. I believe you now, and I shall believe from this day on whatever you may choose to tell me – I esteem you as one of the more remarkable people in this world, and promise to help you in whatever you do, and to aid you in your new life in service to God (Erauso, 66).’”

Frankly, I was stunned by this reaction. Catalina had been living in direct disobedience to the precepts and beliefs of the Catholic doctrine and the bishop seemed quite lenient. This feeling was not isolated to the bishop. Throughout the course of her travels, Catalina killed ten people – from what is mentioned – and spent time in seven different jails. She also seemed to have no second thoughts about stealing from her twenty different masters. Despite her reckless violent behavior, the church provided refuge and saved her from prosecution over fourteen times. Further on in the book, Catalina appeared before the Pope to share her story. In response, “His Holiness seemed amazed to hear such things, and graciously gave me leave to pursue my life in men’s clothing, all the while reminding me it was my duty to lead an honest existence from that day forward, that I must refrain from harming my fellow creatures, and that His commandment, Thou Shall Not Kill, carried with it the vengeance of God for those who transgressed (Erauso, 79).” Although the Pope pleads with her not to perform more killings, he seems to condone the cross-dressing life of a transvestite.

The Catholic Church, with all its wealth and power, demonstrates classic entropy seen in most moral institutions. Behaving opposite of the counter-reformation in Lieutenant Nun, clergy and priests alike appear no better than the population who’s supposed spiritual well-being they are overseeing. Is it possible that the Catholic Church of the New World was guilty of hypocrisy? While we enjoy the thrill of reading about the exploits and adventures of Catalina, valuable lessons can be learned. Perhaps, consistency is “key” in holding to ones’ own standards and the words of leaders should be taken with a grain of salt.