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The history of religious instruction in New Spain commences with Pope Leo X's bull of April 15, 1521 consenting to Cortés' appeal for missionaries. In 1524, a mere five years after his entrance into Mexico, Cortés welcomed the "first twelve apostles," or Friars Minor of the Franciscan order who eventually laid the foundation for evangelization on a collective and individual basis. In this they were aided by the Dominicans (1526), the Augustinians (1533) and, lastly, the Jesuits (1572). Numerous schools, colleges and universities predate the arrival of the Jesuits with their focus on scholastic theology and philosophy over basic literacy skills. A unique plan of rudimentary inculcation was based on methods of adaptation, or the marriage of European and indigenous didactics into an "audiovisual campaign" designed to stimulate the imagination of the catechumens. The specifics of how to attend, doctrinally, to the spiritual welfare of the neophytes were outlined in the Laws of Burgos of 1513.

From the very inauguration of their missions these men of the cloth met personal and cultural challenges which varied in degree of severity. Insufficient linguistic training and limited field experience impeded meaningful communication; unsettling conflicts in the ideological and material framework of the two cultures paved the way, alternately, for constructive and destructive phases of christianization in the face of Inquisitorial orthodoxy; the shortage of basic supplies and volunteers made more acute the unequal distribution of resources, personnel, and inexact planning; and hostilities from natives and particularly resident Spaniards were underestimated and aggravated tensions. These mechanics of teaching Christianity in New Spain were readily addressed in the volley of pictorial images fashioned to satisfy European curiosity and to recruit missionaries.

One immediate avenue of inoculation was the illustrated catechism designed by Pedro de Gante (1479-1572) to teach the Pater, the Ave, the Credo, and other customary prayers. Gante, a relative of Carlos V, preceded the arrival of the Twelve by one year, accompanied by friars Juan de Tecto and Juan de Aora. His correspondence with kings and lay brothers reveals intense activity within or near church enclaves: constructing residential vocational and religious schools, maintaining a demanding teaching schedule of song, prayer, reading, writing and preaching, and performing mass baptisms. By initially targeting the children of Indian nobles and leaders, he guaranteed his mission the obedience and following it required. The method of re-fashioning indigenous hieroglyphics to achieve Christian symbolism is attributed to fr. Jacobo de Testera, who wished to compensate for his ignorance of the native language. José de Acosta explains this ideographic writing system applied by Indians under clerical supervision: "They had their figures and hieroglyphics: those that had form or figure were represented by their proper images, and those that did not were represented by characters that signified them. To denote these words: 'I, a sinner, do confess' they painted an Indian upon his knees at a religious man's feet, as if he were making confession; and for 'to God most mighty' they painted three faces, with their crowns, like the Trinity; and for the glorious Virgin Mary, they painted the face of Our Lady, body at half length, with a little child; and for S. Peter and S. Paul, two heads with crowns, and some keys and a sword; and where images fail they insert characters."

This reliance on graphic art as the sole form of communication involved the repetition and promotion of syncretized conventional figures and idols in primary colors. The catechism is to be read from left to right across both pages. De-coding the text, though challenging, is facilitated by consulting the trilingual editions of the "doctrina cristiana" published by friars and widely circulated throughout cities and provinces.

• line 1 across: Instructions on how to sign / [Free us from] the enemy, [give us] salvation
• line 2 across: that truly / in the name [of] the Father
• line 3 across: the Son / the Holy Ghost. Amen. And
• line 4 across: [our] Father [in] heaven/hallowed [be they] name, [thy] kingdom [come]
• line 5 across: [thy] will [be done on] this earth always / [on] earth today

Common beliefs held in both Catholicism and the native religions in a heaven, hell, salvation, immortality of the soul, and a true God, made possible the promotion of intelligible figures, idols, and saints. The native polytheistic religion with its hierarchical priesthood also embraced sacraments which approached in symbolism those of communion, confession and baptism.

Amongst the pedagogical strategies employed to confront the language barrier were: to memorize prayers entirely in Latin; to mix in the same sentence hieroglyphics, the Latin alphabet and pictures; a phonetic system of approximating the Latin alphabet by coupling it with native objects whose initial letter represented the desired sound; to pair the forms of letters to common objects for easy comprehension ("D" as a bull's head viewed sideways, "F" as a curved handle dagger with scabbard, "G" as the circular pattern of a snail or flugelhorn, "M" a three-legged stool or crown with three crests, "S" as a curled snake). When all else failed, there were pantomimic gestures to fall back on.

Concurrent with the hieroglyphic catechism there existed a second method of promoting doctrine: the use of "lienzos" or large canvases on which were painted biblical arguments for the daily tutelage of native audiences. These iconographic mnemonics were fashioned after the indigenous codices. Gerónimo de Mendieta in his Historia eclesiástica indiana commented on this process: "And when the preacher wished to teach the Commandments, they would hang the canvas with the Commandments next to him, on one side, so that with a pointer…he could go about showing the section he wished. And he did the same when he wished to preach about the articles of faith, hanging the canvas on which they were painted. And in this fashion the entire Christian doctrine was clearly and distinctly revealed to them, in their own way." (Completed in 1596, Mendieta's history, though widely circulated, was not printed until 1870.)

Fr. Diego Valadés (1533 -- ?), mestizo, disciple, and close collaborator of Gante, provided a compendium of culture, theology, history, philosophy and catechisms in his Rhetorica Christiana, one of the few books to be published in Mexico before 1600. It contains 26 original engravings which treat various aspects of religious education in the New World, ranging from the Creation to the structure of the Catholic Church. His "Model of What Friars Do in the New World of the Indies" depicts educational labors undertaken in a spacious patio at the corners of which sit four open-air chapels, "the most original contribution of Mexican design to the world repertory of specialized building forms." At top left, female children sit segregated from males (top right); this image is mirrored below for women and men. At the center, the first Twelve shoulder the bier of the Church (the Gantesque figure of the Holy Ghost-fluttering bird within): San Francisco and fr. Martín de Valencia occupy the extreme positions. Scenes of the clergy at work unfold on either side of a burial and chorus of children. To the right a friar teaches the creation of the world by use of a canvas drawing; on the left Pedro de Gante employs like menas to teach the alphabet through figures; other priests expound the sacraments of matrimony (flowering tree), perform a nuptial ceremony and register in writing a betrothed couple. Confession, penitence, baptism and other active ministrations complete the picture.

The chronicles offer abundant testimony to the protestations lodged by Spaniards who felt that the Church, in offering asylum, social and instructional programs, infringed on their rights (assumed or granted) as Spaniards to govern the Indians. Only danger to society and to the Faith, it was felt, could result from offering higher education to inferior beings incapable of salvation. This body of testimony also relates how the Indians struggled to identify with the spiritual essence of teachings and how they were often "moved to devotion" by pageantry designed to overwhelm their senses. This mode of presentation is depicted in an emotional and staged scene of Calvary, memorative of the realia utilized in popular dramatic reenactments of biblical histories. Before the senate and people of Rome [SPQR], with his rosary and cross in hand, the friar points to a live suffering Christ whose holy blood is collected by angels. Our Lady of Sorrows prostrates herself at the base of the cross as a crowd of inspired neophytes—America united in Catholicism—looks on. Alternately, in the upper corners angels relieve the saved and condemned companions of Christ.

Biblical stories translated into Mexican languages were altered to accommodate a limited understanding of the original arguments. Early plays on record, such as "La conversion de San Pablo" (1530), "Juicio Final" (1533) and "La caída de nuestros primeros padres" (1539), relied heavily on native actors, interpreters and properties and were based on a series of contextual images that exemplified sacred material in the most elementary of terms. The question was to deliver the spiritual or practical essence of the argument quickly and in straightforward terms, rather than delivering it with storyline precision. Given the spontaneous oral and written fashion in which the plays were assembled, and the initial absence of plot formulae involving complicated, abstract ideas and actions, we find dramatic oversimplification and evidence of textual variances and inaccuracies; gesture, intonation and familiar context required no more than a loose structure.

Governed in part by a medieval frame of reference in matters of form, content and style, these trilingual dramatic interludes began with lavish and attractive processions throughout the streets before returning to the church yard where, with the populace in tow, sacraments were administered (mass, baptisms, confessions). Much like the illustrated catechism and "lienzos," rudimentary plays were an extension and expansion of an ideographic type of education; they too relied on an interpretative approach to de-coding. Together, the three systems of visual instruction shared common formulae for promoting the Faith and aided in the swift indoctrination process.

Of paramount concern was combating the spiritual and moral deficiency of the Indians, and the lack of devotion exhibited by Spaniards whose lifestyle of indulgences and abuses was said to set bad examples. "Preaching in the New World," and other drawings by Valadés, were later used, with slight variations, by Mendieta and Juan de Torquemada (Monarquía Indiana), who embellished the originals with notes of local color.

From a commanding Renaissance pulpit, a Franciscan priest teaches to an overflowing congregation of women, men and children the Passion of Christ. He gesticulates with his left hand and indicates with a pointer the story as depicted in seven drawings overhead to his right. The attentive Indians, stylishly coiffured, are attired in European costume: their native cotton blankets worn knotted over one shoulder (tilmas) have given way to Roman togas, complemented by sandals and slippers. Sermons and homilies, however inspired, could fall short of the mark: the friar's evangelical fervor is in sharp contrast to the weary head-in-the-hand pose struck by the acolyte seated on the steps behind him as he marks the time with an hourglass.

Gante made note of how the friars were initially spread out over nine convents, separated by some seven to 50 miles, oftentimes living in native houses while they traversed the countryside in search of subjects to receive baptism. Before us stands the noble figure of Valadés, crosier in hand and clothed in the typical Franciscan garb of a frock with rolled-up sleeves, large hat and prominent cross around the neck. To the left, a converted Indian interpreter (cross around neck), in Romanesque dress, leads a heathen member of an arms-bearing tribe to partake of the friar's message; the scene is witnessed by two women with children who make an offering of a basket of fruit. Instructional materials and the tools of sacrament (chalice, incense burner) are carried by young boys. In the background, friars and the recently converted scale mountains in order to spread the gospel. In many cases, the inspirational message achieved the desired end of surrendering the arms of war for those of salvation.

Misunderstandings occasioned by linguistic difficulties, zealousness, cultural anomalies and pockets of Indian resistance are amply recorded in early narratives such as that of friar Ramón Pané who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage and who, under the Admiral's orders, lived amongst the natives of Hispanola in an attempt to learn their language, customs and religion. Pané related one unfortunate encounter where natives buried Christian images and urinated upon them in a ceremony reminiscent of their fertility rites. This deed was misinterpreted by the Spaniards, who tried the transgressors and burned them at the stake.

The trials of preaching in the wild were treated in a drawing original to Mendieta's text and shows one of the earliest known scenes of the slaying of missionaries by Indians. The subject is the death of fr. Juan Calero, "the first martyr of the old Christians of the new Church." In 1541, an uprising in Jalisco spread to neighboring towns, amongst others that of Tecuila. The resident priest of the town did not speak the language and fr. Calero went to calm the rebellion, promising the fierce and independent Chichimecos pardon for the death of certain Spaniards, and for their having reclaimed their idols and evil worship; they rejected his proposal. Mendieta relates that Calero, on returning to his convent, encountered another group of Chichimecos who had not been privileged to the previous exchange and who took as affront Calero's presence in their village. "The barbarians followed that docile lamb with their bows and clubs. As the saintly martyr saw them approach in that fashion, he kneeled giving thanks to Our Lord for the mercy that he bestowed upon him in that they should kill him for his love and for the confession of his saintly faith. The barbarians discharged their arrows against him, and pierced, he fell to the ground, confessing the Name of God amongst those incredulous beings. Not content with their deed, they shattered his teeth with the clubs. They also gave him blows to the head, and although blood ran from many parts, seeing that he was still not completely dead, they finished slaying him by hailing stones."

The simple architectural elements highlight the confrontation scene and chronicle the friar's journey from town to town. In a clearly Gantesque catechistic gesture, the index finger is raised heavenward to indicate "salvation," "today/now."

1. Catechism: the Pater Noster [Lord's Prayer] in Indian hieroglyphics, from Pedro de Gante, Catechismo de la Doctrina Cristiana (Mexico, 1553).
2. "Model of What Friars Do in the New World of the Indies," Diego Valadés, Rhetorica Cristiana (Perusa, 1579).
3. The Didactic Play: engraving from Gerónimo de Mendieta, Historia eclesiástica indiana (Mexico, 1596).
4. Preaching in the New World: detail from Gerónimo de Mendieta, Historia eclesiástica indiana (Mexico, 1596).
5. Vox clamantis in deserto: engraving from Diego Valadés, Rhetorica Christiana (Perusa, 1579).
6. The Perils of Exhortation: engraving from Gerónimo de Mendieta, Historia eclesiástica indiana (Mexico, 1596).

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