Lamy of Santa Fe (30 page)

On the road one day Lamy's train saw far ahead another which seemed to have halted. Overtaking it, he saw that someone from the train—it had twenty-five waggons—was being carried by Mexican teamsters into an abandoned sod hut. Lamy asked questions of others in the earlier party. This, they explained, was a merchant trader from
Santa Fe. His name was Levi Spiegelberg. Lamy knew who this was—he had already met Levi and his four brothers, whose general emporium did a thriving business in the Santa Fe Plaza. What was being done to Levi now? The Mexicans explained—they were sure he had cholera, and out of fear, they refused to travel any further with him. Lamy went to those who were carrying Levi away to leave him in the ruined hut and spoke to him.

“Good friend,” he said, “we willingly make room for you in our covered waggon, and we will nurse you until you regain your strength, for we could not think of leaving you here in this lonely prairie cabin. We do not believe you have cholera, and [even] if you [have] we are not afraid of contagion.”

The orders were given. Spiegelberg was taken into the bishop's train, which then moved on. In a week he was cured, and had a story to share later with his brothers—handsome and cultivated men—which bound the Spiegelbergs to Lamy in lifelong friendship.

In their slow time, they reached the Arkansas River, and crossed it safely, though the Arkansas fords were often the sites of sudden attacks by Indians, and moved on to the Cimarron River, where they paused for two days of rest. A few days later, on 14 September, about six weeks after starting out, they came to the Red River, saw horsemen, looked cautiously, and then recognized Machebeuf with an escort and fresh horses. It was a gallant welcome, still so far from Santa Fe. In three or four more days they came to an Army outpost, a fort where they slept “under a roof for the first time in two months.” On the following day they came into the meadow town of Las Vegas, and the nuns had their first sight of Mexican adobe houses, clustered around a clay chapel. All went to Mass there, and at the elevation of the Host, the nuns heard what they thought was faraway thunder; but it was only the sound made by the devout Mexicans as they thumped their breasts at the sight of God's body. How foreign it all was, with men in their striped serapes, the women wrapped in their long black shawls, head and body.

The same day Machebeuf led the main party ahead to the small way station which Lamy kept at the place which long later became the railroad junction bearing his name. The bishop had matters to attend to in Las Vegas, but soon joined them for the entry into Santa Fe on 26 September. Once again this was treated as an occasion, for the arrival of Santa Fe's first nuns was something to celebrate. Writing to De Smet four days later, Lamy said “the people made them a grand reception. A great number of persons, more than a thousand, went out to meet them,” and conducted them into town and through “triumphal arches” to the old cathedral of St Francis, while the bells in
its twin adobe towers rang out over town. It was “a reception such as we had never seen before,” reported Mother Mary Magdalen.

At the cathedral door the rural dean awaited them. Vested in surplice and stole, Vicar Ortiz offered them the asperges, and then all proceeded to the altar to sing the Te Deum to the
baile
music of violins, guitars, and drums, which was now given sacred intention by being played in a slow wailing tempo. At the end, Lamy gave his newcomers the episcopal blessing, and with that, the first move toward building his new era was made and sanctified.

The second, which followed almost at once, broke over the diocese and himself with the echoing fury of a high mountain storm.

V

THE ANTAGONISTS

1852–1856

i
.

The Pastoral Letter

T
HE FEES WERE “ENORMOUS,”
Lamy exclaimed. He was referring to the levies laid upon the New Mexicans by the priests for the occasions which both marked the stages of life and supported the clergy. His intention to reform abuses included this one, and he seemed to have given it much thought during his long travels East and West during the summer of 1852. If a couple asked to be married they were charged from twenty to twenty-five piastres (a coin, or its equivalent in goods, equal to the Mexican peso, then worth more than ten of today's United States dollars). If they wanted a child baptized, the fee was one and a half piastres. If they must bury the dead, each interment cost sixteen piastres. In the pathetic values of most families such fees in the aggregate of a lifetime's pious needs amounted to a fortune. What was more, the native clergy kept for themselves most of such revenue, and made extraordinary charges for other occasions—there was that pastor who said Mass only once a year for his people and then charged eighteen dollars for it. Again, the collection of “tithes” yielded money equivalents for the diocese of Durango, yet with a great share retained by the local clergy. The worst of penalties were imposed upon people who refused to pay, or simply could not: they were deprived of the spiritual formalities without which they believed their lives were not blessed.

The problem for Lamy was, accordingly, in part ethical, in part practical. In the first place, the Church was the most wanted of institutions among the New Mexicans; it was one designed to serve human good, and Lamy was committed to this purpose; but if it was to function, it must be supported materially. In the second place, how could material support best be obtained? He would always receive some aid from Paris—but by no means all that was needed. The rest of it must come from the direct beneficiaries of the Church—the people. He
must bring them whatever relief he thought just, he must ask for some share of their goods for the continued support of the whole of his diocese (Durango's share no longer existed) and even like his predecessor, he must impose firm means of insuring such support. As he worked toward his solution for the problem in the autumn of 1852, it became clear that the people must gain by it, and the clergy lose their direct control of their benefices which they had abused and enjoyed through custom so long established as to seem a vested personal right.

Once he knew in detail what he would command, he gave it substance in his first pastoral letter, to be read in all the churches as soon as possible. Printed as a pamphlet for distribution, and appearing in the columns of the
Gaceta de Santa Fe
for 1 January 1853, it confirmed what he had verbally announced in part on other occasions. It revealed his own character even as he devised that of the reforms he proposed.

Addressing his “much beloved brothers,” he began his letter by reminding all of his establishment of the school for boys, and the convent school for girls. Both schools, especially the new one for girls, had not yet called for great expense, compared to those which had been needed for repair of the old garrison chapel of the
Castrense
. Whatever had been undertaken so far was for the spiritual and temporal good of the faithful of the territory, and for the seemliness of divine worship. Let all put their trust in God, who knew the purity of “our intention,” without which nothing could prosper; and at the same time let it be hoped that the faithful would take advantage of opportunity now given them to give their children a decent and religious education; for “the greatest heritage which parents could leave their children is a good education which is worth far more than the most brilliant success, since riches without education do more harm than good.”

Now, therefore, continued the pastoral letter, the bishop judged it suitable at this time to publish the ensuing regulations which would take effect on New Year's Day 1853—the following week. In effect, the costs for church services would be reduced approximately by two thirds: eight piastres for a wedding, one for a baptism, six for a burial. Moreover, for those who could not pay in full, they could pay half at one time, the rest later.

So far, so good, for the laity.

The next regulations were aimed at the clergy. What was now required made plain what had been amiss before.

When requested to conduct particular services or ceremonies, each pastor would respond according to his discretion; sung Masses would
be conducted as usual, except that the pastor was not to receive any recompense
before
the day of the service, and the same provision would apply to all other services. The pastor henceforth would say Mass once a month on any convenient day of the week in every chapel which was more than three miles from the parish church and which had a neighborhood of thirty families. (This had never been observed before.) The pastor's share of the parish revenues was now
lowered to one fourth
, which would provide an appropriate and decent subsistence for the holy ministry. Knowing the poor state of the church buildings, the new regulations reserved another quarter of the total revenue for their restoration and for those furnishings so necessary to the proper offering of divine worship; but such funds would be expended
under the bishop's supervision
. Knowing also the costliness and scarcity of candles in the territory, the poorest persons and areas were dispensed from the use of candles in the holy services.

After the compassion and realism implied in such new rules, the bishop hoped, in his letter, that the faithful would approve of his use of the church revenues for the decent maintenance of the bishop and the clergy, the proper observance of divine service, and the establishment of schools—all to be supported by the system of tithes long established in Catholic countries by Vatican decree. True enough, there was no civil law to compel anyone to pay his share of these; but Catholics properly instructed in the obligations of their religion knew that they were required in conscience to give in proportion to the gifts they had received from Almighty God, and all were under the obligation to obey the Church in this matter as in others. Satisfaction was to be taken from the knowledge that in the past year the greater part of the faithful had met their obligation, and it was hoped that the few who had failed to do so would not oblige the imposition of severe penalties for their disobedience. But if anyone persisted in ignoring this law of the Church, and the ecclesiastical authority, he would, as heretofore, and with great pain and regret, be denied the sacraments, and be regarded as outside the fold.

Those difficult specifics firmly established, the bishop must proceed to matters more general in the society, for he was responsible before God for the souls of “his much beloved brothers,” and he would fail in his duty if he did not in all loving-kindness bring up certain scandals which were most common in the territory.

“I wish to speak,” he wrote, “of divorce, dances, and gambling.”

He hoped that no one would take in bad part his admonitions, for which he would draw freely from the Gospels. Therefore:

No matter what was permitted by man's own laws, divine law taught, concerning matrimony, that “whom God hath joined let no man put
asunder” (Matthew 19:6). Further, said the bishop, those who did not keep the conjugal fidelity promised in the sight of heaven and earth could not hope for a happy life, or anything but divine punishment. As for dances, he proceeded (now touching on a local indulgence whose disorder was a scandal to all foreign observers), they were conducive to evil, occasions of sin, and provided opportunities for illicit affinities, and love that was reprehensible and sinful, and—citing the exhortations of St Francis de Sales—were a recreation closer to paganism than to Christianity; in fact, a school of immorality and vice. How many persons who habitually frequented this profane diversion had lost their fear of God, their innocence, their honor?

Concerning the way gambling was practiced here, unworthy of any Christian, it was “absolutely and essentially evil and reprehensible,” and for such reason prohibited by both civil and Church laws. Let it be remembered that Sarah, that holy woman, when proclaiming her innocence before God, declared, “You know, Lord, that I have never trafficked with gamblers.”

Then, “much beloved brothers, let us conclude with the Apostle,” he wrote finally, arranging excerpts from Ephesians 4: 27–31. “Neither give place to the Devil. Let him that stole steal no more … let him work with his hands that which is good.… Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.… Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.” And I Corinthians 6: 9—”Be not deceived, neither fornicators,” he quoted, and then adjusted the text to his hearers, “nor adulterers, nor highwaymen, nor those given to drinking, nor blasphemers, nor thieves, shall inherit the kingdom of God … therefore glorify God in your body.”

“We direct that this pastoral letter shall be published in all the parishes on the Sunday after it has been received,” stated the printed circular, and it ended, “Given at Santa Fe, Feast of the Nativity, 1852,” and was signed, “
Juan, Vicario Apostolico de Nuevo Mejico.”