Statement of Sergeant Major Francisco Gómez to the Inquisition, 1626

Alonso de Benavides summoned Francisco Gómez to confirm the earlier testimony he had received about Governor Don Juan de Eulate. Gómez was a partisan of the governor and clearly had been tipped off about what the inquiry was about, as he only recounted the episode about the governor stating that being married was better than being a member of the clergy. It is obvious from Gómez’s statement that he did his best not to directly implicate the governor or himself, vacillating about what he remembered and what had been said. During questioning, Benavides also revealed that Gómez was a member of the wagon-train that had escorted Governor Eulate to new Mexico when he assumed office in 1618.

Despite the fact that Gómez had been given a position of honor as the standard bearer for the Holy Office of the Inquisition when the Edict of the Faith had been announced earlier that year, his support for Governor Eulate made Benavides suspicious. Many years later, his son Francisco Gómez Robledo was arrested by the Inquisition and tried on suspicion of practicing Judaism but was acquitted.

A paleographic transcription of Gómez’s testimony in Spanish is available in the Cibola Project’s “Cross vs. Crown in New Mexico, 1626.”

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Statement of Sergeant Major Francisco Gómez to Friar Alonso de Benavides

19 May 1626

Santa Fe

In the town of Santa Fe, on the 19th day of the month of May in the year 1626, in the afternoon, before Father Friar Alonso de Benavides, Commissary of the Holy Office in these provinces, there appeared, having been summoned and having sworn under oath to tell the truth, a man who said his name was Francisco Gómez, Sergeant Major of these provinces, married, a resident of this said town, and one of its first founders, about forty years of age, more or less.

Asked if he knows or supposes the reason for which he has been summoned, he said he supposes it is for what he will declare: that about six years ago, a little more or less, when this declarant came from New Spain, he found in this town that there was public talk and rumor that Don Juan de Eulate, then governor of these provinces, had said that the state of marriage was as good as that of the religious, and he does not remember well whether he said “and even better than that of the religious if they are in a bad state,” and although this was public talk and rumor, this declarant recalls having heard it from Captain Gerónimo Márquez and Captain Francisco Pérez Granillo and others, and that it might well be that he heard it from Don Juan himself, but he does not remember.

He was told that in this Holy Office there is information that Sergeant Major Francisco Gómez, apart from what he has declared, about seven years ago, when coming with the said Don Juan de Eulate as he traveled to these provinces to assume the office of governor, in a certain place along the road, heard either the said Don Juan or other persons make the said statement that the married state was more perfect than that of the religious, and that whoever said it did so in the presence of the said declarant, and that, being reproved for saying it, reaffirmed and repeated it with some words in reproach of the religious state.

Being asked, for the reverence of God, to recall his memory and tell the entire truth, he said that he does not remember with full certainty who made the statement, but that, vaguely and with poor memory, it seems to him that he heard it said by Don Juan de Eulate on the occasion in question, and that this is the truth according to the oath he has made.

His testimony was read to him, and he said it was well written, and that he has heard the edicts of our holy Catholic faith read on this occasion in this town, and although they touch on these matters, he did not recall what he has now declared when they were read; and that now, because of the questions put to him, he remembers it to the degree he has stated, and that he does not say or refrain from saying it out of any bias. He was charged with secrecy, promised to keep it, and signed with his name.

Friar Alonso de Benavides {rubric}    Francisco Gómez {rubric}          Witnessed by

Commissary                                                                                      Friar Pedro de Ortega {rubric}

                                                                                                                 Notary

I have clear suspicion that this witness did not wish to tell the truth, being partial to the accused.

Friar Alonso de Benavides {rubric}

Commissary

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Sources:

Viridiana Rivera Álvarez and Jerry R. Craddock, “Cross vs. Crown in New Mexico, 1626” UC Berkeley Research Center for Romance Studies, Cibola Project, 2019. Available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0xq1g5b3 

Archivo General de la Nación 

Inquisición, Volumen 356, Expediente 107, fol. 269v-270r, (Images 83398-99)

Available at: https://repositorio.agn.gob.mx/