Abstract

MEJIA CHAVEZ, Carlos G.. “Those People with Little Fear of God” The Letters of Censorship and Excommunion (New Spain, 17 ^th Century ). Estud. hist. novohisp [online]. 2024, n.70, pp.5-35.  Epub Apr 05, 2024. ISSN 2448-6922.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iih.24486922e.2024.70.77738.

The purpose of this work is to offer an approach to the use of letters of censorship and excommunication in New Spain during the 17th century. I maintain that the request for these legal documents served as a popular resource to demand justice from the ecclesiastical authorities due to damage against an individual or property. Thus, excommunication was regarded within the collective imagination as a penalty so terrible that, contrary to what was stipulated in the ecclesiastical codes, it implied the absolute condemnation of the accused both in earth and the hereafter. Derived from the study of sources located in various funds of the National General Archive (Archivo General de la Nación) in Mexico, and based on the approaches exposed by some theorists of the judicial history of the New Spain Catholic Church, I will outline a proposal regarding the use of letters of censorship, the role that excommunication could play within the collective imagination, as well as the work carried out by the ecclesiastical instance as a determining forum of justice against other secular organizations.

Keywords : New Spain; excommunication; councils; ecclesiastical justice.