Paper short abstract:

As prior of the Jeronymite monastery at El Escorial, García de Santa María had presided over the burial of Philip II. Reluctant to accept appointment to Mexico as archbishop, his arrival there 1602 triggered heated controversies with the ecclesiastical chapter, the viceroy, and the Inquisition.

Paper long abstract:

This paper addresses a set of conflicts based on the introduction of liturgical novelties into Mexico during the first years of the 17th century by the new archbishop, García de Santa María, who was the Jeronymite friar who had attended Philip II at the Escorial and had officiated at his burial. Promoted to archbishop of Mexico by the Duke of Lerma, probably as part of Philip III's valido's project to remove the influence of former king's councilors and to move the court to Valladolid, García de Santa María only reluctantly went to New Spain in 1602. Once there, flush with ideas about liturgy and relics based on his years as prior at the Escorial, the new archbishop had considerable difficulties in implementing his desired practices, and both his plans and his personal authority were challenged by the cathedral chapter, the viceroy, and the Inquisition. A series of serious confrontations, some spectacularly public, were the result. The paper examines these troubles in an effort to light on a variety of religious, juridical and social issues that characterized Mexico at the turn of the 17th century.