The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

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in ep. 1: the bishop was unable to immediately depart

due to a commitment to preach the crusade by order

of Pope Leo X.

In those months between 1516 and 1517, Gerald-

ini was in northern Europe paying a visit to various

European capitals, by order of Leo X, in defense of the

Christian cause against the Turks.

In Spain, the situation was somewhat tense. In the

period between the death of King Ferdinand (January

1516) and the accession to the throne of the new sov-

ereign, Charles V (Ferdinand’s grandson), the country

was being run largely by Cardinal Cisneros, who felt

impelled to conduct aggressive and despotic policies.

As for the situation in the New World, he attempted

to counter the institution of indigenous enslavement

quite forcefully (he also attacked the mismanagement

of Christopher Columbus). Previously, he had or-

ganized a series of missionary expeditions, especially

among the Franciscans, for the conversion of the na-

tives (1500, 1502, and 1508), establishing a set of rules

that would protect the well-being of indigenous peo-

ples. Later, he tried to find a solution to the thorny

problem of the

encomiendas,

and on November 1516

he sent a commission to Santo Domingo made up of

three friars from the Order of Saint Jerome (Bernardi-

no di Manzanedo, Luigi de Figueroa and Alfonso de

Santo Domingo) with the task of reorganizing the indigenous peoples and administering the new territories.

However, this commission sparked opposition among the powerful officials who administered the Indies,

as well as the

encomenderos,

so much so that the Hieronymite commission was forced to withdraw to Spain

shortly after the summer of 1519. It was then that the investiture documents to officially present Geraldini to

Pope Leo X as Bishop of Santo Domingo were quickly drafted.

Alessandro Geraldini was aware of all these difficulties. In a brief drafted and revised between 1519 and

1520, and addressed to the Council of the Crown (ep. 16), he requested the power to control the assignment

of Christianized natives to the Spanish colonists, a key aspect for an economy that was entirely dependent on

indigenous labor; the appointment of a presiding magistrate for the Real Audiencia (the highest political and

judicial body in Santo Domingo); and the organization of education for the children of the

caciques

(traditional-

ly the heads of the tribal communities in Latin America), already initiated by the Hieronymite friars. However,

as indicated above, the Hieronymites had just departed from the island when Geraldini arrived, without being

able to put a stop to the violence and abuses of the Spaniards against the indigenous people. Only the requests

relating to the issues of education and canonical appointments were accepted by the Spanish authorities (for

trusted persons). That same letter serves as a detailed and lucid report on a series of key points in the life and

problems of Geraldini’s diocese, and the intuition that the problems stemmed above all from the kinds of Eu-

ropeans who were arriving in the New World: “deterrimae pessimarum gentium illuviones” (ep. 16.13),

i.e.,

“a flood of the worst criminals.” By the end of July 1519, he asked King Charles to provide adequate buildings

for the Dominican diocese, because “ego episcopus nullum tugurium, nullum tegumen habeo”

(ep. 20.5),

while also demanding the 8000 ducats that King Ferdinand had intended for the construction of the cathedral,

and which at that time were in the hands of the royal treasurer of Hispaniola, Miguel de Pasamonte. Several

Cover of

Itinerario

por las regiones

subequinocciales

(Itinerary through the

Subequinoctial Regions)

of Alessandro Geraldini.

Academy of History