Aristotle and the Bible under the mesoamerican roof. Christianization through narrative assimilation of elements of nahuan beliefs and history in Jerónimo de Mendieta’s Historia eclesiástica indiana

Abstract

The paper examines the use of important themes from the Nahua prehispanic tradition—the story of legendary Toltec monarch-priest Ce Acatl Topiltzin—as well as the huehuetlahtolli speeches, in a vision which the Franciscan friar Jerónimo de Mendieta (1525-1604) unfolds in his work „Historia eclesiástica indiana”. The monk’s approach is compared with the writings of other colonial ecclesiastic authors. Mendieta and Sahagún take advantage of certain substantive analogies between the native religion and the European classical and Christian themes in order to create a new colonial narrative about the Nahuan past and the contemporary realities of the indigenous people. Although Mendieta does not employ such complex and elaborate references to Graeco-Roman mythology as Sahagún, the author of „Historia ecclesiástica” formulates his vision in a similar fashion, taking the themes in question out of the native context and using the story of Ce Acatl as well as the huehuetlahtolli speeches to demonstrate the ancient provenance of the Nahua civilization and show that their immanent values are comparable with Christian ones.