Statement of Maese de Campo Pedro Durán y Chávez to the Inquisition, 1626

Pedro Durán y Chávez appeared in several other witness statements to the Inquisition regarding the conduct of Governor Don Juan de Eulate. It’s not surprising he had frequent interactions with the governor given his rank as Maese de Campo of New Mexico. Yet when he came forward voluntarily to testify, he reported only a single incident that he had heard second-hand from the governor and chose not to implicate him in it or any other case.

Durán y Chávez even went as far as to cover for the governor over the incident in question, which was also reported by Matías López del Castillo and Diego de Vera—regarding a student in Spain who contended that the Holy Trinity consisted of four or more persons instead of three. His account that the governor admitted that such a thing was heresy hardly seemed worthy of mentioning to the Inquisition at all.

The fact that Durán de Chávez was surely aware of the governor’s more serious transgressions and chose not to report them shows that he was a partisan of the governor. Benavides chose not to add a note about him in his notebook, but later testimony from others alleged that Durán y Chávez was an enemy of the church and an ally of the governor.

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

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Statement of Maese de Campo Pedro Durán y Chávez to Friar Alonso de Benavides

30 January 1626

Santa Fe

In the town of Santa Fe, on the 30th day of the month of January in the year 1626, in the morning, before Father Fray Alonso de Benavides, Commissary of the Holy Office of these provinces of New Mexico, there appeared, without being summoned, and swore in due form to tell the truth, a man who said his name was Pedro Durán de Chávez, a native of Llerena and one of the first settlers of this town, and Maese de Campo of these provinces, 60 years old. For the relief of his conscience, he states and denounces that about three years ago, more or less, while this declarant was in the house of Juan de Eulate, then governor in this town, they were having a conversation about matters of Castile and about students.

Don Juan de Eulate told this declarant that a student, whose name he did not mention, had gone to his homeland to be ordained by the bishop of Calahorra, and that being rejected by the examiners for a fault in regard to the Trinity, the said student, irritated by this, maintained in certain theses that the persons of the Holy Trinity were four, and that because he defended these conclusions successfully, he was ordained. Don Juan de Eulate, when telling this to the declarant, did not elaborate further nor say whether the student had been reproached for that conclusion. But when this declarant, scandalized as a faithful Christian, responded that such a thing was heresy, Don Juan de Eulate also admitted that it was heresy and that he considered it as such.

This declarant does not know that anyone else is aware of Don Juan de Eulate having said this, since he told it to him alone. And this is the truth according to the oath he has made. After his statement was read to him, he said it was well written, and that he did not speak out of hatred, promised secrecy and signed his name.

Friar Alonso de Benavides {rubric}                      Pedro Durán y Chávez {rubric}        

Commissary                                                                                                        

Witnessed by

Friar Pedro de Ortega {rubric}

                                                                                                       Notary

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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. 268r, (Image 83395)

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