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None of the old explorers have exactly had it easy of late, but few have suffered at the hands of our self-appointed guardians as much as Hernando Cortez. The bare mention of His name (it seems) requires a pejorative adjective ("the ruthless Cortez"). To the sensitive the world over, Cortez has become the quintessential "ugly European."
If you have been following these articles, I hope you are beginning to question the judgment of modern men in general and historians in particular. Whenever I run across a man that is universally condemned by our contemporaries, I generally suspect I have found a friend. In regard to Cortez, my suspicions were correct.
Judul Asli
1993 Issue 10 - His Story - Gods Providence, Cortez the Infamous - Counsel of Chalcedon
None of the old explorers have exactly had it easy of late, but few have suffered at the hands of our self-appointed guardians as much as Hernando Cortez. The bare mention of His name (it seems) requires a pejorative adjective ("the ruthless Cortez"). To the sensitive the world over, Cortez has become the quintessential "ugly European."
If you have been following these articles, I hope you are beginning to question the judgment of modern men in general and historians in particular. Whenever I run across a man that is universally condemned by our contemporaries, I generally suspect I have found a friend. In regard to Cortez, my suspicions were correct.
None of the old explorers have exactly had it easy of late, but few have suffered at the hands of our self-appointed guardians as much as Hernando Cortez. The bare mention of His name (it seems) requires a pejorative adjective ("the ruthless Cortez"). To the sensitive the world over, Cortez has become the quintessential "ugly European."
If you have been following these articles, I hope you are beginning to question the judgment of modern men in general and historians in particular. Whenever I run across a man that is universally condemned by our contemporaries, I generally suspect I have found a friend. In regard to Cortez, my suspicions were correct.
exactly had it easy oflate, but few have suffered at the hands of our self-apPointed guardians as much as Hernando Cortez. The bare mention of His name (it seems) requires a pejo- rative adjective ("the ruthless Cortez"). To the Sensitive the world over, Cortez has become the quintessential "ugly European." If you have been following these articles, I hope you are beginning to question the judgment of modem men in general and historians in particular. Whenever I run across a man that is universally condemned by our con- temporaries, I generally suspect I have found a fliend. In regard to Cortez, my suspicions were correct. In the providence of God, Cortez was a contemporary of another man destined for renown, Martin Luther. Both men would become mightily in- fluential on the Church ofjesus Christ. AsJohnEidsmoehasobselVed, "Cortez led half the Western Hemisphere out of paganism into the Roman Catholic Church, while Luther led half of Eu- rope out of Roman Catholicism into the Protestant Reformation." (Colum- bus and Cortez, Conquerors jor Chlist, p. 148. Much of what is found in this article is amplified in this fine volume and I happilyreferyou to Dr. Eidsmoe's world Typical of the men of the Middle Ages, Cortez was a devout Christian who viewed the world as God's stage. Though moderns scoff, the reality is that Cortez viewed himself an ambas- sador of Christ delivering the savages of this "new world" from the clutches of Satan into the anns of the heavenly Father. His address to his men as they embarked on their expedition (Febru- ary 10, 1519), is indicative of his views: "We are on a crusade. We are march- ingas Christians into a land ofinfidels. We seek not only to subdue boundless tenitolY in the name of our Emperor Don Carlos, but to win millions of unsalvaged souls to the True Faith. By the force and righteousness of our own Faith, we shall gain crowns for our- selves in the heaven to come." (Ibid., p. 166) That these were not mere words was demonstrated over and over. In evelY city through which he passed, "Cortes called the priests and 'caciques' togetherand,afterJeronimo de Aguilar had preached them a selmon in their own tongue, he delivered a no-non- sense, proconsular type of speech. In the words of Diaz: 'He told them as best he could, through our interpreter, that if they wished to be our brothers they must throw their idols out of this temple, forthey were very evil and led them astray. He said they were not gods, but abominations which would bring their souls to hell. '" (Jon M. White, Cortez and the Downjall oj the Aztec Empire, p. 163) The boldness and zeal of these addresses are aston- ishing. Their sincerity and compas- sion are apparent for all to see. Cortez's practice of proclaiming the gospel was followed in the march through Mexico. Jeronimo de Aguilar (the Catholic priest who sewed as an interpreter) records the essence of Conez's address to the natives of the town of Tabasco on the Yucatan Pen- insula: "Cortes told them of their blind- ness and great vanity in worshipping many gods and making sacrifices of human blood to them, and in thinking that those images, being mute and soulless, made by the Indians with their own hands, were capable of do- ing either good or harm. He then told them of a sing Ie God, Creator of Heaven and eanh andmen, whom the Chris- tians worshipped and served, and whom all men should worship and selve. In short, after he had explained the Mysteries to them, and how the Son of God had suffered on the Cross, they accepted it and broke up their idols. Thus it was that with great reverence, before a large concourse of Indians, and with many tears on the part of the Spaniards, a Cross was erected in the temple of Potonchan, and our men first, kneeling, kissed December, 1993 ;. THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon ;. 13 and worshipped it, and after them the Indians." (And this was not the last time tears of joy and compassion were shed by these so-called "heartless" Spaniards.) Later, Montezuma sent official messengers to speak with Cortez. While they were in the campo f the Spaniards, the time came for the Ave Maria. When Canez and his men knelt before the cross to say their prayers, Montezuma's am - Finally, Cortez stood in the pres- ence of Montezuma himself to bare witness to Christ. Again we quote Diaz: ". . . we told them we were Chris- tians and worshipped one true and only God, named Jesus Christ, who suffered death and passion to save us, and we told them that a cross was a sign of the other Cross on which our Lord God was crucified for our salva- Canez would later describe his preaching before Montezuma and his officers in these words, "I made them understand by the interpreters how deceived they were in putting theirhope in idols made of unclean things by their own hands. I told them that they should know there was but one God, the Universal Lord of all, Who had created the heavens and earth and all things, and them and us, Who was without beginning and bassadors asked the mean- ingfortheceremony. Diaz nOtes: "As Cortez heard this remark he said to the Pa- dre de la Merced who was . present: 'It is a good op- portunity, father, as we have good material at hand, to explain through our interpreters matters touching our holy faith.' And then he delivered a discourse to the Caciques so fitting to the occasiOn that no good theologian could have bettered it. "It is more than a little high- minded for modern evangelicals to denounce the theological errors of a man who had none of the advantages we enjoy 450 years after the Reformation. immortal; that they should adore Him and believe in Him and not in any creature or thing." Qon M. White, op. cit., p. 214) None of this is to say that Conez was without fault or at all times con- sistent with his profession or utterly pure in his mo- tives.Ofcoursehewasn't. N or did he ever try to defend himself in such terms. He was a sinner and never professed to Viewed in the context of the theological 'darkness' of his day, Cortez's faith is remarkable." After telling them that we were Chris- tians and relating all matters pertain- ing to our holy religion, he told them that their idols were not good but evil things which would take flight at the presence of the sign of the cross, for on a similar cross the Lord of Heaven and earth and all created things suffered passion and de;l.th; that is it He whom we adore and in whom we believe, our true God,Jesus Christ, who had been willing to suffer and die in order to save the whole human race; that the third day He rose again and is now in heaven; and that by Him we shall all be judged. . Cones also told them that one of the objects for which our great Em- peror had sem us to their country was to abolish human sacrifices, and the other evil rites which they practiced and to see that they did not rob one another, or worship those cursed images." tion; and that the death and passion which He suffered was for the salva- tion 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, forwherewe had set up crosses such as those his ambassadors had seen, they dared not appear before them, through fear of them and that as time went on they would notice this." 14 THE COUNSEL ofChalcedon 'r- December, 1993 be Otherwise. Nor is it to say that his faith was without errors. To those of us who rejoice in the Reformation, his preaching has, at nu- merous points, painful deficiencies. He was a man of his day. He was trained under a defective theology and consequently, imbibed many of the errors of the Roman Church (as did many sincere believers in the loth century prior to the blossoming of the Reformation). Conez was devoted to the faith as it had been presented to him. It is more than a little high-minded for modern evangelicals to denounce the theological errors ofa man who had none of the advantages we enjoy 450 years after the Reforma- tion. Viewed in the context of the theolOgical "darkness" of his day, canez's faith is remarkable. Frankly, it is far more easy to tolerate Cortez's theological errors than it is to stomach the many comparable errors of evangelicals who refuse to study or even seriously consider the discern- ing, Reformed scholarship available today. But all this notwithstanding, it ought to be plain that to portray COltez as a mindless, greedy, clUel, tyrannical demagogue is more than a little amiss. It is well-nigh impossible for us as 20th centUlY Americans to understand the Medieval mind. Sunounded as we are with neo-naturalists and their "half-world" view, we cannot imagine a culture filled with men who saw God's hand in everything and viewed His purpose as the great end of all things. Cortez and his men were part of a different world. Their faith in God and His Word was whole-hearted, sincere, and guileless. Their belief in the reality of the devil was straightfor- ward and unquestioning. They longed for heaven and were terrified of hell. They were devoted to the tlUth and honified by heresy. They were men who, for all their faults and shortcomings, had grown up in a dominantly Christian culture and to whom the paganism of the natives of Mexico was a loathsome astonishment. They saw in the de- pravity of the Aztecs (the human sac- lifice, cannibalism, immorality, per- versity, pornography, homosexnality, etc., etc.) the very society of Satan. Their faith made their duty plain. French historian Jean Descola states, "In the depths of the Indian sanctuaJ:- ies they could see the Prince of Dark- ness standing in all his macabre splen- dor. Looking heavenward, they could MERICA he First 350 Years distinguish the silvery figure of Saint James galloping across the clouds. The conllict between the tlUe and the false, between good and evil, was manifest in this double apparition. The prob- lem was simple and their duty was clear," When one considers what these men saw and expelienced and when one remembers that they witnessed their own companions as well as the natives undergoing unspeakable tor- tures, one is amazed there was not more blUtality than that which did occur. Their clities notwithstanding, the response of the conquistadores was often amazingly restrained and their compassion for their enemies quite amazing. (The condescending denunciations from modem profes- sors who have never been face to face For over 100 years Americans have been subjected to historical misin- formation. We have been given lies for truth and myths for facts. Modem, unbelieving historians have hidden the truth of our nation's history from us. America:TheFirst350 Years not only corrects the lies, but also points out things "overlooked" by modem historians. It interprets American history from a Cluistian perspective so that you hearnotonlywhat happened, bywhyit happened-and whatitmeans to us today. 32 lectures on 16--90 minute cassettes, 200 page note- book, 16 page study guide, lecture outlines, index & bibliography. special rate for Counsel of Chalcedon readers-- --------------------------------------- AMERICA: The First 350 Years--$64.95 x Louisiana residents add 7% sales tax ~ ) = SHIPPWG AND HANDLWG: Add 10% (15% UPS) = (Check or Money Order) Total Enclosed (name) (Street Address or P.O. Box) (City) (State) (Zip) PLEASE ALLOW 4-6 WEEKS FOR DELIVERY Send self-addressed stamped envelope to receive more information December, 1993 l' THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon * 15 with "paganism in the raw" are the cheapest of cheap shots. But then again, unfounded prtggishness has al- ways been at a discount behind the tenured walls of our honored "institu- tions of higher learning.") Their violent acts must be seen in the light of the realities they faced. It was literally a life and death situation (for them as well as for the benighted people of Mexico). Ifthey failed, not only would they die, but (and what was just as important to these men) the people who had been deceived by "the old Dragon" would pertsh. Descola remarks, "the violent acts of the Con- quistadors. . . . though sometimes performed 'in the name of' religion, were never 'under the pretence of religion." (Eidsmoe, op. cit., p. 162) That is to say, though they might, at times, have gone too far, the conquis- tadors were never insincere. They had legal warrant (from the Pope) and they were on a crusade, not to defeat the Mohamedans but to convert the hea- then. Their religion was "not a pretext but a banner." (Ibid., p. 163) To the hypocrttes of our age who know nothing but pretense, this seems impossible. And the fact that most scoff at this view of the conquistadores says far more about the bankruptcy of our times than it does about the sins of those in the past. (I CRAMP1ON, CaNT. FROM PAGE 12 accomplishment. Thus, the gifts and graces are to be used for His glory. 2) Because it is the Spirtt who empowers every believer in Chrtstian life and service, personal inadequacies should not deter or discourage us. 3) Since the gifts are sovereignly dispensed by the Spirtt to the church, possession or lack of a particular gift should be no cause for prtde or regret. 4) The fact that no one person has all of the gifts of the Spirtt reveals to us the need for the unity of the church, the fellowship of the body, etc., forthe full spiritual development of the individual and the corporate cOIJlmunity. 5) The fact that we can come to the Spirtt in prayer encourages us to pray for His sanctifying work in us, both individually and corporately. Prayer for guidance, a greater understanding of His inspired Word, the advancement of His Kingdom, etc., should be a part of our daily walk with God. "Come gracious Spirit, heavenly dove, With light and comfort from above; Be Thou our guardian, Thou our guide; O'er every thought and step preside. The light of truth to us display, And make us know and choose Thy way; Plant holy fear in every heart, That we from God may ne'er depart. Lead us to holiness, the road Which we must take to dwell with God; Lead us to Christ, the living way, Nor let us from His presence stray." (Simon Browne) n 16 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon December, 1993
Arguments of Celsus, Porphyry, and the Emperor Julian, Against the Christians: Also Extracts from Diodorus Siculus, Josephus and Tacitus relating to the Jews
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 13 of 55
1604-1605
Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of The Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing