The pleasant historie of the conquest of the VVeast India, now called new Spayne: atchieued by the vvorthy Prince Hernando Cortes, marques of the Valley of Huaxacac, most delectable to readeLópez de Gómara, Francisco
History
The pleasant historie of the conquest of the VVeast India, now called new Spayne: atchieued by the vvorthy Prince Hernando Cortes, marques of the Valley of Huaxacac, most delectable to reade
López de Gómara, Francisco
Cortés, Hernán, 1485-1547; Mexico -- History -- Conquest, 1519-1540; Nahuatl language -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Our almighty God after he had finished and made all the former workes
with his own blessed hands, made one man & one woman, and being so
formed and wrought, he put a soule and breath into each body, and
then deliuered the worlde vnto them, shewyng them Paradise and glory.
So that of that manne and woman, we all mortall menne procéeded in
generation, and in this sorte are the handy worke of God, kinsmen and
brethren. Nowe if we will come vnto God our father, it is néedefull
and necessary that we be good, vertuous, pitifull, innocent and vnder
obedience, the whiche yée can not be if you worshippe statues, images,
idols, and vse bloudy sacrifice of mans fleshe. Is there any of you
that woulde willingly be slayne? no truely: why then doe you slea
other so cruelly, and where you can put no soules, why doe you take
them from thence? there is none of you, nor your false Gods, that can
make soules, nor can forge mens bodies of fleshe and bone, for if yée
coulde, there is none of you woulde be without children, accordyng to
your owne appetite and desire, in fashion, beautie and workemanship.
But where our God of heauen dothe make al creatures, he vseth therein
his owne discretion, and giueth chyldren to whome hée pleaseth: and
therefore is he GOD alone, and for these causes shoulde yée haue,
estéeme, and worshippe him for suche a mightie God, desiryng of him by
prayers to giue rayne and temperature, that the earth may bryng foorth
Corne, Fruite, Hearbes, Fleshe, Foule, and all other necessaries for
the sustentation of lyfe. All these thyngs the harde stones giueth not
vnto you, no nor yet your dry woodden images & colde mettall, neyther
yet the small séedes wherewith your seruaunts and slaues, with theyr
filthy handes doe make these images and foule statues, the whiche yée
doe worshippe. O what fonde people and madde religious persons, who
worship theyr owne workemanshippe, doe ye thynke that they are Gods
that rotte and moldre away, and haue no lyfe, and can neyther helpe nor
kill: Therefore I say vnto you, that nowe and hereafter there is no
cause that yée shoulde haue any moe idolles, nor yet any moe slaughters
for sacrifice, no nor yet to make any moe prayers or supplications vnto
them, beyng bothe Blinde, Deafe, and Dumme.
Will yée knowe who is God, and where he is: lifte vp your eyes vnto
Heauen, and then shall you vnderstande that aboue is a Godhead or
Deitie that moueth the heauens, and gouerneth the course of the Sunne,
ruleth the Lande and replenisheth the Sea, who prouideth for Man and
Beast bothe Corne and Water. This God whome yée nowe imagine in your
hartes, him (I say) serue and worshippe, not with death of menne or
blouddy sacrifice abominable, but with deuotion and humble prayer as we
Christians doe. And consider well, that to teach and instruct you these
things, was the cause of our commyng hither.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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