A Jesuit Procurator navigating the Empire in the Early Modern Period

What is it about?

In the first half of the seventeenth century, the connection between the Peruvian Jesuit Province and the royal and papal courts was best served with the figure of the procurator, a mix of agent and diplomat; an institution deeply rooted in the political and constitutional traditions of the Spanish Monarchy. Yet, the Spanish American realms made use of the figure of the procurator in new ways, not always to the satisfaction of the Crown or the religious institutions which elected those agents to be represented. Father Alonso Messía Venegas (Seville, 1565-Lima, 1649), son of a conquistador and descendant of a converso lineage, twice a procurator for the Jesuit Peruvian Province, Messía embodied the possibilities and limits of the role, intertwining Jesuit and personal agendas within a global empire.

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Photo by The Cleveland Museum of Art on Unsplash

Photo by The Cleveland Museum of Art on Unsplash

Why is it important?

An interesting case study that sheds light on the way different realms, institutions and cohorts within the Spanish Empire kept an active line of communication with the decision-making centers in the early seventeenth century, while advancing own agendas.