The Horrors of the Aztec empire
At this point, we must take a moment to consider the Aztecs and their religion. It was a religion the likes of which the Spaniards had never seen, for it was a religion of incredible amounts of human sacrifice. There was not just one sacrificial ceremony that they practiced, but since they believed in multiple gods, there were all sorts of sacrificial rituals they participated in throughout the year, so that the empire was a constant flow of blood. I cannot mention every ritual in detail, but I will give you a few examples and quotes, so that you can begin to understand what the Conquistadors were up against.
Here is what one historian writes: “ the Aztecs believed they were indispensable partners of the gods in preserving the unity and harmony of the cosmos. As the sun god daily warred against the moon god and star gods, it was their sacred duty to nourish the sun god Huitzilopochtlil to strengthen him in his battle; the very survival of the world depended on it, and the sun god was on a strict diet of blood, human blood. The result was human sacrifice, not just in the capitol, but in virtually every village in Mexico and beyond. In every village in Mexico stood a temple of varying sizes, often resembling the pyramids of egypt. The lower parts of the temples often were tombs for departed aristocrats. There were steps up the side and at the top was a flat surface on which rested a chapel-like structure. When the time for sacrifice came, the victim was led up the temple stairs and laid facing upwards on a slab rock. The priest then used an obsidian knife to slash open his chest, pull out his still palpitating heart and hold it up, still beating before the sun god. The victim was then decapitated and his body was rolled down the temple steps where the people dismembered it and cannibalized its flesh. Caso explains the significance of Aztec cannibalism: “Aztec cannibalism was a rite performed as a religious ceremony, so much so that he who had captured a prisoner could not eat his flesh because the captive was looked upon as his son. It should not be forgotten that in the minds of the Aztecs, the human victims were the very incarnation of the gods whom they represented and whose attire they wore, and when they ate their flesh, they were performing a kind of communion with the divinity.””
You see, this was not a merely violent society, which still had some barbaric practices. It was dark. It was a spiritual battlefield where the kingdom of darkness had utterly entrapped an entire continent in demonic destruction. This is what gripped the Conquistadors upon their arrival and spurred them on to act. As one historian puts it, “The conquistadors believed in God fiercely and unreservedly, but they believed also, above all else, in the devil. Now, the new world was the empire of the devil, the devil with multiform face, always hideous. The somber Mexican divinities, Huitzilopochtli (the sorcerer-hummingbird) and Tezcatlipoca (the smoking mirror), the horrible Kinich Kakmo of the Mayas, the Peruvian Viracocha who symbolized boiling lava, the sinister totems of the Arauanians and Diaguites… Why the medieval demon with short horns, lustful eye, and a tail that was curled like a vine shoot seemed a good devil beside such as these! Spaniards, who in Estremaduran twilights had taken the flight of a bat for the passing of the evil one, were naturally terrified before these monsters of stone, with bared fangs and gleaming eyes that seemed to come to fantastic life as night fell. How could they have watched an Aztec ceremony without nausea? The black robed priest with matted hair, burrowing with their knives and the breasts of their victims, the human skulls piled up at the feet of the temple, the cannibal feasts around the statues spattered with putrid blood and the charnel-house stench which all the perfumes of mexico were never able to hide. Such things froze the spirit of the conquistadors, surpassing the nightmares of their childhoods. Satan himself was there, and his worship was celebrated among the dismembered corpses. His maleficent power was honored. He was no longer, as in Spain, a familiar accomplice that could be driven off by a flick of the finger, or the shameful spectre, slipping furtively through one’s conscience but put to flight by a sprinkling of holy water, he was enthroned. Carved in granite, encrusted with precious stones and encircled with golden serpents, he was the superb incarnation of evil. He glorified sin. Nothing was lacking in this perfect representation of hell, not even the pots in which certain tribes of the Colombian jungle cooked their enemies alive. This, indeed, was Satan himself, adorned with all his lugubrious attractions. Why, therefore, should we be astonished at the reactions of the Spaniards? In the depths of the Indian sanctuaries, they could see the prince of darkness standing in all his macabre splendor. Looking heavenward, they could distinguish the silvery figure of saint james galloping across the clouds. The conflict between the true and the false, between good and evil, was manifest in this double apparition. The problem was simple and their duty was clear. The Indians were possessed with the devil, who had to be exercised.”
At this point, having discussed the horrors of the Aztec empire, let us discuss for a moment the mindset of the Conquistadors – the Spanish explorers and conquerors that voluntarily fought with Cortes and followed him. They are so often accused of being evil and wicked men. Who did nothing but murder, rape, and pillage for gold. This is far from the truth. These were sincere men who sincerely conquered under the banner of Christianity. Many of the atrocities attributed to them were not actually committed by them, but by the local tribes that fought alongside them. They sincerely believed that these peoples needed to become Christian and that is a never told reality of their motivation. They wanted to see these lands become Christian.
Here is how a French Historian puts it, “They [the conquistadors] had grown up in the shadow of cathedrals and the odor of incense from their earliest years, while the first words they had uttered had been the names of the saints. The conquistadors, although for the most part illiterate, had no need of letters to feel the same fanatical spirit as did the horsemen of the prophet when they invaded the old greco latin world, or the crusaders when they spread over the syrian plains, or their own fathers at the reconquest of Granada. They had been told, they had been convinced, that millions of Indians would burn forever in hell if they, the conquistadors, did not bring them the faith. They believed this, quite simply. Religion was for them not a pretext, but a banner. The existence of God in three persons, the immortality of the soul, sin, the last judgment – it never occurred to any one of them to dispute these facts, or even to discuss them. These men of war and passion had retained the faith of little children. Their confessions were sincere. They participated in the mass, not only in the flesh, but also in the spirit, the worst of them died in penitence. Pierced by arrows, or with the sword blade in the throat, or tied to the stake under torture, they called loudly for the last rites. So “color of religion,” what an error! No ulterior motive colored the faith of the conquistadors. They remained men of the middle ages. Religious hypocrisy had not yet been invented. It was to turn up late, covering iniquity with its black cloak. The hypocrite is a creature of the 17th century.”
Now listen to this in Cortez’s own words in a speech to his men, as they recuperate during the several day long battle for Tenochtitlan, and plan their next day’s strike, “… My brothers, I give many thanks to Jesus Christ to see you now cured of your wounds and free from sickness. I’m glad to find you armed and eager to return to Mexico City to avenge the deaths of your comrades and recover that great city. This I trust in God we shall soon do…because you are who you are, and the enemies are the same as they have been, and we shall do so for the christian faith that we proclaim. The principal reason for our coming to these parts is to glorify and preach the faith of Jesus Christ, even though at the same time it brings us honor and profit, which infrequently come in the same packag. We cast down their idols, put a stop to their sacrificing and eating of men and began to convert the Indians during the few days we were in mexico. It is not fitting that we abandon all the good that we began. Rather, we should go wherever our faith and the sins of our enemies call us. They indeed deserve a great whipping and punishment, because if you remember, the people of the city, not satisfied with killing an infinite number of men, women and children, in sacrifices to their gods, devils rather, eat them afterward, a cruel thing, abhorrent to God and punished by him, and one which all good men, especially christians, abominate, forbid, and chastise. Moreover, without penalty or shame, they commit that accursed sin because of which the five cities, along with sodom, were burned and destroyed. Well then, what greater or better reward could one desire here on earth than to uproot these evils and plant the faith among such cruel men by proclaiming the holy gospel? Let us go then, and serve God, honor our nation, magnify our king, and enrich ourselves. For the conquest of Mexico is all these things. Tomorrow, with the help of God, we shall begin.”
Cortez’s peaceful, patient, persuading approach and Christian vision
So having met with Moctezuma and held him hostage, Cortez peaceful met with him, ate with him and spoke with him for many days, during which time Cortez preached the gospel to Moctezuma and implored him to become a Christian. In one conversation, this is what Bernal Diaz says Cortez spoke of to the Moctezuma, “We told them we were christians and worshiped one true and only God named Jesus Christ who suffered death and passion to save us. And we told them that the cross was a sign of the other cross on which our Lord God was crucified for our salvation, and that the death and passion which he suffered was for the salvation of the whole human race, which was lost, and that this our God rose on the third day, and is now in heaven. And it is He who made the heavens and the earth, the sea and the sands, and created all the things there are in the world, and he sends the rain and the dew, and nothing happens in the world without his holy will. That we believe in him and worship him, but that those whom they look upon as gods are not so, but are devils, which are evil things. and if their looks are bad, their deeds are worse, and they could see that they were evil and of little worth, for where we had set up crosses such as those his ambassadors had seen, they dare not appear before them through fear of them, and that as time went on they would notice this. The favor he now begged of him was his attention to the words that he now wished to tell him. Then he explained to him very clearly about the creation of the world, and how we are all brothers, sons of one father and one mother, who were called Adam and Eve, and how such a brother is our great emperor, grieving for the perdition of so many souls, such as those which their idols were leading to hell, where they burn in living flames, had sent us, so that after what Montezuma had now heard he would put a stop to it and they would no longer adore these idols or sacrifice indian men and women to them. For we are all brethren, nor should they commit sodomy or thefts. He also told them that in the course of time our lord and king would send some men who among us lead very holy lives much better than we do. Who will explain to them all about it, for at present we merely came to give them due warning. And so he prayed him to do what he was asked and carry it into effect.”
The incredible feat of conquering an empire in such a short time
Consider what one historian says, “Let us pause for a moment to consider this man, Hernando Cortez. He lands in an unknown and hostile land and sinks his own ships, leaving no way of escape. Time and again he enters pagan temples, reeking with human gore, the very citadels of Satan as he sees them, to preach Christ before hostile priests and warriors and destroy their idols and roll them down the temple steps, knowing the next headless corpse to come rolling down the steps might well be his own. repeatedly, he faces enemy armies numbering hundreds of times his own and charges into battle against them. And then, on November 14th, six days after arriving in Mexico city, he enters the palace of the most powerful emperor of the western hemisphere and makes him his prisoner. Whatever his faults may have been, it can hardly be said that Cortez lacked courage.”
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