Francisco Morales

Forgotten Franciscans: Works from an Inquisitional Theorist, a Heretic, and an Inquisitional Deputy by Martin Austin Nesvig (review)

The Latin American Originals series, published by the Penn State University Press, presents in this volume three texts written by sixteenth-century Franciscans somewhat overlooked in the history of the evangelization of New Spain. Two of them were important Franciscan figures. Alfonso de Castro was a well-known author who as a theological adviser attended two sessions of the Council of Trent (1545–1547 and 1551–1552). Diego Muñoz was the first chronicler of the Franciscan province of St. Peter and St. Paul in Michoacán and the first Franciscan criollo to become minister provincial in New Spain. Alonso Cabello was an intellectually brilliant, though controversial, young friar with an adventurous spirit, whose ideas would probably have been ignored had the Holy Office of the Inquisition not prosecuted him.