Christianization processes in Peru: study of the sermons of Fernando de Avendaño (1600?-1649)

Abstract

This research is the result of the critical analysis of some pieces of a sermonary for Indians published in Lima in 1649. Its author was the Creole clergyman Fernando de Avendaño, who was influenced both by the effects of the relevant Third Council of Lima (1582-1583), as well as the consequences of what was called “the discovery of idolatry” by the priest and doctor Francisco de Ávila in the Central Sierra of Peru, in the district of the bishopric of Lima, starting in 1607. The important economic growth that occurred place in the viceroyalty of Peru led to the development of strong competing interests in the colony's society, among which were those of the Church at an institutional but also social level. Avendaño was a priest of Indians, or doctrinero, before becoming canon of the Lima cathedral. The objective is to understand, in a diachronic vision and in its most essential features, how the colonial social and economic context in which the sermons were written and the direct relation of this context with the social promotion of their author.