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This text was composed by Fray Miguel Agia, famous theologian and canonist and reader of the same subjects at the Franciscan studium in Lima. As stated in the long subtitle of the text, Father Agia wrote this document to add his ecclesiastical and theological scholarship to the debate that had arisen with the publication of the Royal Decree of November 24, 1601 in Valladolid, whose central theme revolved around around the personal service and the divisions of Indians in the Kingdoms of Peru. Said paragraph reads as follows:“Sobre la verdadera inteligencia, declaración, justificación de una Cédula Real de su magestad, su fecha en Valladolid en veynte y quatro de nouiembre del año pasado de seycientos y uno, que trata del seruicio personal y repartimientos de indios, que se usan dar en los Reynos del Piru, Nueva España, Tierra Firme y otras Prouincias de las Indias para el seruicio de la Republica y asientos de Minas, de oros, plata y azogue”.

When Agia exposes her views “on true intelligence,” he reveals her realistic approach to American reality. It is a work that, as in the case of writings of Indian jurisprudence, seeks to preserve the health of the natives, especially with regard to their dignity. It is no coincidence, then, that the hermeneutics used by Father Agia from the Franciscan perspective has been not only to the liking of the viceroy, but also useful for the Kingdoms of Peru: “y en quanto a las conclusiones y cosas de derecho que trata me parece auerlas resuelto doctamente y con mucha curiosidad y diligencia y por ser en materia tan extraordinarias y en que con tan buen juyzio y ponderacion toca tantas y tan importante cosas del estado y buen gobierno de las Indias”.

Jean Christian Egoavil
Proyecto Estudios Indianos

Digital Resources

• Edición y estudio preliminar de F. Javier de Ayala