Gage, Thomas
by Hether Sebens
The early seventeenth century in Europe was both an exciting and
difficult time to live in. Monarchies fought for new political and religious ideas, and
employed imperialism to create new areas for economic and religious expansion. Thomas
Gage, an English Dominican friar, was a product of this new Europe as well as a victim of
it. His work, The English-American, or a New Survey of the West Indies, gives
insight into the struggle between Roman Catholicism and the new Protestant Reformation,
life in Spanish America, and the rise of imperialism in Europe. Gage’s personal life,
reflected in his work, was one of betrayal and uncertainties, coupled with a love for the
Amerinds in Spanish America and a religious fervor.
Thomas Gage was a Dominican friar in Mexico and Guatemala from 1625 to
1637. During his time as pastor in Guatemala, he became disillusioned with Spanish America
and returned to England. Caught up in the political turmoil of the Cromwellian years in
England, Gage converted to Protestantism, betraying his family and friends. He then wrote The
English-American specifically as an invitation to England to invade Spanish America
based upon morality. His book, published in 1648, begins with his introduction to
missionary work in Spanish America, and ends with his renunciation of Roman Catholicism in
1642. All of these events in his life reflect the larger trends in Spanish America and
Europe.
J. Eric S. Thompson and Norman Newton present Gage in two different
lights. Both point to the religious atrocities (betrayal of Catholics in Cromwellian
England) that Gage committed late in his life. How they approach that aspect of his life,
however, is drastically different. Thompson states that superficially Gage was a
self-seeking scoundrel, but underneath he was a "bewildered victim of his failure to
reach a clear and lasting decision on his religious beliefs" (Thompson xv).
Throughout his life, Gage struggled between his Roman Catholic background and his own
religious doubts. Gage’s analysis of religion in Spanish America is largely biased
due to these personal conflicts, and hence contains many slanders and a general hatred of
priests and friars in America. Newton is more cynical of Gage’s life, and more
accepting of Gage’s observations. Newton sees no reason to believe Gage is
fabricating lies about Roman Catholicism and the role of the Church in Spanish America.
Newton states that all of the abuses Gage refers to can be found in the records of the
Mexican courts (Newton 12). He states Gage’s life was run more by secular than
religious motives, seeing Gage as hypocritical, attempting to gain money from the system
just like the men of cloth he denounces in his book.
These basic differences in approaches to Gage’s life and work
permeate every aspect of their analyses. Gage does give many reasons to doubt the validity
of his religious accusations. He wrote his book during a time of massive aggression
against Catholicism in England. Part of his negative remarks of friars and priests in
Spanish America is to play to the emotions of the readers. There is also a degree of
personal bias in his work, yet Gage’s religious comments cannot be completely
disregarded. Spanish documents support Gage’s accusations of the atrocities of the
conquistadors in Spanish America and of the "looseness" of the Church.
Gage’s life and work form a compromise between these different ideas.
Thomas Gage was born into a devout and loyal Roman Catholic family, at
a time when this loyalty was seen as treason against England and was usually practiced
behind closed doors. His three older brothers lived religious lives: his brother Henry
fought on the continent for Catholic Spain; George was a diplomat and priest; and William
was a member of the Jesuit order. Like many young Catholic men of England, Gage’s
family sent Thomas to study in continental Europe. Thomas studied in a Spanish school
staffed by Dominicans. Newton suggests that this early life of danger and intrigue, due to
his religious background, had a damaging effect upon young Thomas (Newton 24). This life
indeed must have been very confusing to a young man searching for his identity. The
strength of his family’s Catholic beliefs against England, stress of religious
persecution, and distance from family and home country are a heavy burden for a young man
to bear. His life lends itself to an intense psychohistorical analysis that is yet to be
written.
Thomas’ father decided Thomas could best serve his family and his
faith by becoming a Jesuit. Thomas’ early connections with the Dominicans led him to
become a Dominican friar himself. This decision caused a fight between Thomas and his
father, one that is clouded in mystery today. In his book, Gage only mentions this
incident in brief. He says his father wanted him to be a Jesuit, and, since Thomas
refused, he disowned Thomas. More specifically, Thomas not only refused to join the
Jesuits but also "proved in [his] affections a deadly foe and enemy unto them"
(Thompson 10). This vagueness of this statement causes historians to debate its meaning.
Both Thompson and Newton believe there is more to the story than Gage
was willing to tell in his published work. There is a record of a Thomas Gage being
arrested in 1617, held as a dangerous man, and brought before the Privy Council. Thompson
simply dismisses this as not "our Thomas" (Thompson xxvii). Newton believes this
is the same Thomas Gage. He continues that maybe the Privy Council released Thomas in
return for agreeing to serve as a counter-intelligence agent for Protestant England, which
was not uncommon (Newton 199). According to Newton’s theory, this is why Gage would
have been disowned. Newton, however, admits himself that this is a wild hypothesis. This
assessment seems a bit extreme, but the incident with his father definitely affected
Thomas’ religious development. Whether the arrest in 1617 and Thomas’
father’s anger were related is irrelevant, however interesting the debate is.
Thomas’ most superficial reaction to the argument with his father was to get as far
away from England as possible. Travel and overseas missionary work greatly interested
Gage, so in 1625, Gage volunteered for the Dominican mission to the Philippines.
Manila was the center of Spain’s Asian Empire, and the friars
played a very important role. The friars controlled the investment banking of the
Philippines, and often became rich from their dealings, similar but to a larger extent
than in Spanish America (Newton 74). Once in Mexico (modern-day Mexico City), Gage heard
from a friar who ran away from his duties in the Philippines that the superiors in the
Philippines were cruel and harsh. Furthermore, the friars there focused more on
parishioners’ wives and wealth than on their salvation. Gage saw this secular world
of the Philippine Church as excessive and immoral. Gage, with three other friars, escaped
Mexico and their duties in the Philippines. They moved south towards Guatemala, hoping to
find a life there, or at least a passage back to Spain. Gage spent two years in the friary
in Guatemala City, and the next five years as a priest in the Guatemala valley towns of
Mixco and Pinola.
Nowhere Gage traveled in Spanish America appealed to the strict
Dominican heart inside of him. From his first impression of the Church in Spanish America
in Vera Cruz to the last in Panama, Gage found fundamental faults. His first encounter
with men of the cloth in America was the Prior of the cloister at St. Dominic Vera Cruz.
Gage expected to find the Prior’s quarters filled with books, but the Prior only had
a few, which were dusty. In place of books he had a guitar and luxuries adorning his
quarters (Thompson 33). This was extremely disappointing to Gage who expected to find a
learned and simple man. Gage also tells of friars playing cards, and one friar who
jokingly took the winnings by brushing them into the sleeve of his robe, mentioning the
forbidding of Dominican friars to touch money. He shows his outrage by saying
"…the looseness of their lives sheweth evidently that the love of money, of
vainglory, of power and authority over the poor Indians, is their end and aim more than
any love of God" (Thompson 45). He continually speaks of the looseness and corruption
of the friary in Spanish America, and his book contains many insults at Roman Catholicism
in general. He lived a difficult life of discipline and danger in England and on the
continent, yet when he reached Spanish America, there were many men of the cloth who were
slack in their religious fervor. This would definitely be a shock to a sincere and
determined Dominican friar.
Gage lived for three years in the cloister at the City of Guatemala,
where he studied. His love of learning was satisfied by his work at the cloister, however
it raised difficult questions on his belief, such as the idea that the Virgin Mary cannot
be without sin. At this point, Gage wished to return to England, but the Prior refused,
citing that all friars had to remain in the Americas for ten years (Thompson 249).
Unfortunately, Gage had no knowledge that Rome had sent him a license to return to
England, for the license never reached Gage. This refusal to let Gage leave led him to
find alternative means to return to Europe. Disillusioned, Gage accompanied Friar
Francisco Moran into new territories of Guatemala to learn language and customs of the
Amerinds, and then preached to two communities of Mixco and Pinola for five years. It is
clear to Newton that Gage intended to buy his passage back to England through exploiting
his parishioners: "poor Gage, tempted by necessity and strong desire, celebrated his
liberation from the chains of Roman Catholicism by rushing to embrace the same sin he had,
up to them, so roundly condemned" (Newton 122). Gage gathered about 9,000 crowns
during his five years in Mixco and Pinola (more than needed for a simple and devout friar
as he claimed to be), but his works also show that he felt the need to lead Amerind souls
to salvation and generally aid their lives.
Gage gives a detailed account in his book about the transactions
involved in preaching. Legally, the cloister was entitled to all money collected from the
parishioners after the priest’s living expenses were deducted. The priest received
the profits from the common piece of land in the town. In addition, he received money for
all church duties. As Gage comments, the Indians, Creoles, and Spanish never visited a
priest with "empty hands" (Thompson 259). He received money for souls in
purgatory, sodalities, offerings of food when Mass was sung and for saint’s images,
four crowns for each feast (five in a year), Christmas and Easter offerings, communicants,
confessions, and money to perform marriage, death, and baptism rites. Christianity among
the Indians seems to be more a substitution of saints and priests for the old gods, so
they would pay for these blessings. Gage continues ‘Thus all the year are those
priests deluding the poor people for their ends, enriching themselves with their gifts,
placing religion in mere policy. Thus the Indians’ religion consists more in sights,
shows, and formalities than in any true substance" (Thompson 240). Christianity in
the Americas was merely idol worship with new names, and the priests and friars reaped the
benefits.
In some places, the priests/friars were seen as gods on earth. On the
way to Guatemala, Gage had a difficult ride though tough terrain. The Indians, thinking it
a miracle that he survived, called him a saint, which Gage did not enjoy. He asked the
friar of the area to tell the Indians the truth, yet the friar refused. He said,
"such simple-minded errors should not be discouraged, for so long as the Indians
thought the friars to be on the very brink of divinity, so long they would obey them in
everything, so that their persons and fortunes could be commanded at pleasure"
(Thompson 101). Indeed, many self-seeking priests and friars could travel to Spanish
America and gain fortune and power through their control over the Indians.
This, according to Newton, is what Gage eventually wants to capture. Gage goes to the
Provincial of Guatemala who persuaded Gage that he could get all kinds of money from the
towns of Mixco and Pinola. Gage learned he could gather about 2,000 crowns per year from
Mixco and Pinola. Gage’s immediate predecessor sent 400 crowns to the cloister. Gage
proudly told the Provincial he could send 450 crowns per year, allowing him to gather
money from the parishioners and look good in front of his superior (Newton 131). Although
Gage did fall prey to some of the corruption in Spanish America, he still held to his
devout beliefs.
Four events happened in Mixco/Pinola during Gage’s years that
increased his wealth, more so than any friar in the area before him (Thompson 262). They
also show how Christianity in Guatemala was viewed by Indians as a mere superstitious
religious, incorporating rewards for payment. In Gage’s first year, the towns had
difficulties with locusts. The peasants paid for blessed wafers with saints painted on
them, in order to bury them in their fields and keep away the locusts. In the second year,
there was a massive plague, which killed over 200 people. Gage received money for each
person over eight years of age that died. In addition, the effects of the plague worried
the Creole landlords, who feared the loss of labor. They, therefore, forced all Indians
over the age of twelve to marry. Gage married over eighty couples that year, gaining money
for each performance of the marriage rites. There were also great storms and an earthquake
that required more processions with images to protect the people, gaining more money for
Gage.
Many Indians embraced this new religion brought by the Spanish. It
ended human sacrifice, fulfilled the ancient prophecies, and was a passive way to support
the new Spanish leaders. However, some Indians clung tightly to their old faith, seeing it
as a way to exert their bravery and independence in the midst of new conquerors. He
admits, "most of the Indians are but formally Christians, and only outwardly appear
such, and secretly are given to witchcraft and idolatry…" (Thompson 268). Gage
encountered three incidents of such religious resistance; an old woman accused of
witchcraft, an old man who was a member of a nahualista cult, and a group of brothers who
revered an old idol. The old woman, Marta de Carrillo, was thought to have killed
two-thirds of those who had died in Pinola. The entire town feared her. During Lent one
year, she brought more money than most, but Gage believed this was merely to raise his
opinion of her. When he asked her about witchcraft, she cried, saying she had been
wronged. She begged for Communion the next day, but Gage refused, stating he could not
give Communion to one suspected of being a witch. That night and the next day, there were
strange occurrences, weird noises, and decay in all of the food offerings the woman had
brought to Gage. Gage sent her to the City of Guatemala where she finished the last months
of her life in prison. Like in Europe, witchcraft was a serious charge in Spanish America.
Gage had little patience for such cohorts of the Devil, as was common among the religious
men of America.
The second incident surprised Gage. An old man, Gómez, whom Gage believed to be a devout Christian, called Gage on
his deathbed, asking for the last rites. After Gómez’s death, members of the town
approached Gage telling him that Gómez was in fact a chief of wizards and witches in the
town and often took the shape of a puma. On once such puma excursion, he met his
mortal enemy in the form of a jaguar and lost his life due to this battle. This was
Gage’s first encounter with nahualistas, an ancient animal cult older than the
religions of the Aztecs and Toltecs. This animal cult had a large following among the
people in town. Gage does not seem at all skeptical about the validity of humans changing
forms into pumas and jaguars. As Newton explains, modern writers tend to explain the
events without trying to explain the transformations, for there are no adequate theories
in which to explain it. He continues that it is not unusual for Gage to not be baffled,
for his faith explained it as a simple result of a pact with Satan (Newton 146). The story
of Gómez and the following story of the Fuentes brothers
shows that the Roman Catholicism, and hence the culture of the Spanish, in Spanish
America, was not completely embraced by the Indian population. The Indians adopted those
aspects of religion and culture that they found useful to their daily lives. The remainder
of their efforts were used to deceive the conquerors into thinking they were completely
"Spanish-ized."
Gage learned in Mixco the four wealthy and important brothers named
Fuentes represented this dichotomy of pious on the outside, yet retaining the old gods in
their private life. These brothers, and other unnamed members of the town, worshiped a
wooden idol located somewhere in the forests. Gage discovered the idol and took it to
church the next Sunday. He quoted Exodus "you shall have no god before me" and
pulled out the idol. He continued by challenging the idol to speak and show its power,
taunted it, and then burned it, telling the people to forsake this god and Gage would
protect them from the Inquisition. This action placed him in grave danger, and Gage was
attacked by the followers. The Spanish landlords disagreed with Gage’s actions, but
Gage refused to change his mind. Gage spared those who begged for forgiveness and became
pious Christians from prison and banishment. His fervent and harsh responses to these
incidents show that he genuinely cared for his duties as caretaker of the Indians’
souls in his area.
Gage also gives the reader insight into the struggles between Spanish
and Creole, ruler and Indian. His physical descriptions of people and places in Spanish
America are a trusted authority, along with Spanish governmental and ecclesiastical
documents. Hs is unique in that he is the only Englishman to have an intimate knowledge of
Spanish America. There is a degree of racism in Spanish America that Gage captures in some
of his first observations. When staying in Mexico, he meets a man who tells him the food
may look very appealing, but that it provided little nutritional value. The man relates
this to differences in race: "as in meat and fruit there is this inward and hidden
deceit, so likewise the same is to be found in the people that are born and bred there,
who…are inwardly false and hollow-hearted" (Thompson 60). Gage posits this is
why he is always hungry in Spanish America. Gage’s own observations, though, show the
Indians to be hard working, determined, and full of valor. The mixed breeds, or
blackamoors as Gage calls them, are vain, dress well like the Spanish, and live lives of
scandal. The Spanish government itself showed respect to the Indians and their
institutions, but the conquistadors and Spanish settlers had little moral responsibility
to the Indians. The instances of Indian brutality that Gage witnesses are all, as he
points out, in violation of Spanish law.
In Mexico he gives a detailed account of the city, noticing that most
Indians were forced into ghetto living, and had little education. The artisans of the
Indians, and Chinese, were the best in their field, but seldom did they gain wealth from
their work, as did the Spanish artisans. While in Mexico and trying to escape into Spanish
America from his duties of the Philippine mission, he learned that the friars in Mexico
would not help him due to the conflict between Creole and Spanish friars. Gage chose to go
to Guatemala because most friars there were from Spain and would help him in his
endeavors. He learned from his experiences of the hatred between Creoles and Spanish
firsthand in Oaxaca. Gage relates one Spanish friar noted for his learning, was
excommunicated due to finding money in his quarters. Yet, Gage notes, all of those in the
town were guilty of the same "sin." Their motive was hatred against those
Spanish-born in high positions (Thompson 113). He continues that once in Guatemala, the
Prior did not send him back to Mexico or cause him trouble because of his use to offset
the power of the Creoles.
Another example he gives of the conflict between the Creoles and the
Spanish is in Chiapas. Here Creole women were fond of chocolate and turned church services
into a coffeehouse. The Bishop tried to end this, and was consequently found dead. The
rumor was that the women, who so hated the Bishop for this restriction, poisoned him with
chocolate, hence the proverb "Beware the chocolate of Chiapa" (Thompson 145).
This showed the fight between the secular powers of the Creoles and the religious orders
of the Spaniards. Moral zeal of the church was dangerous in seventeenth-century Mexico.
Gage also gives an observation about the abuse of Indians as slaves
through a particular Juan Palomeque. This man lived among his slaves, and took pride and
pleasure in breaking the spirit of his slaves (Thompson 199). He would purchase brave
women just to defile them. He would sleep with the wives of male slaves and torture the
males. This abuse and torture was expressly forbidden by Spanish law, yet Juan Palomeque
would use his money and power to buy himself out of trial. It is common for outsiders of
Spanish America to blame Spain and the Church for these atrocities, as Gage sometimes
does, but it was the Creole encomenderos who did not follow the rules. Gage explains the
work tax where three to four weeks out of the year, Indians were to give work to the
Spanish. Spain tried to fix the wages and regulate conditions, but more often than not,
the Creole landlords would refuse payment and employ violence in the workplace. The
Spanish law was not always enforced, but if Spain had tried to enforce the laws protecting
the Indians, the Creoles would have revolted and Spain, in turn, would have gone bankrupt
(Newton 116). The law remained, but in many areas, more often than not, it remained only
in name. As a priest, Gage’s responsibility was to calm the Indians whenever mutiny
arose, telling them to bear the sufferings for God and the Commonwealth. Gage describes
the one consolation that the suffering Indians had: the drink. As Spain realized that the
drunken Indian was becoming an increasing problem, they passed laws saying that no one was
to sell wine to the Indians. Certain Creoles and Spanish, however, continued to sell, and
the local government merely turned its back. In this, the "Europeans were creating
the ‘Indian’" (Newton 120).
By 1635, Gage was ready to return to Europe. He requested leave from
the Provincial but was denied, instead being transferred to Petapa. After a year at
Petapa, Gage decided to run away. He lost most of his money to pirates along the way to
Panama where he gained passage through his service as a chaplain. Once in England, he
could not get along with his fellow Dominicans and traveled to Rome. His doubts about his
faith continued, until events showed that Catholicism was not going to return to England,
and he converted to Anglicanism, and then to become a "Preacher of the Word."
Thompson believes Gage swam with the tide in his conversion, but had to convince himself
that he made the right decision the rest of his life (Thompson xxxviii). Gage married,
became a preacher, and sent three men to their death in order to convince himself of the
rectitude of his chosen path.
Gage published his book in 1648. He begins his book with a letter to
His Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax, Captain-General of the Parliament’s Army. He
explicitly states his purpose for writing the book was to "impart what I there saw
and knew to the use and benefit of my English countrymen" (Thompson 3). His wrote his
book, however, for many reasons. He partly wrote it to quell the demons inside of himself,
to prove that he had conquered his past of Roman Catholicism and religious doubt. He
partly wrote it to share his experiences of the fraudulent Spanish American priests, for
whom he had so much hatred. He also partly wrote it to show the immorality and
"butchery" of Spanish America in general, giving a good moral reason for England
to invade Spanish America.
By 1654, Cromwell was turning to an overseas empire, and Gage’s
book provided the propaganda and inside information that he needed. Cromwell called upon
Gage for further information pertaining to invasion, upon which Gage informed Cromwell
that Spanish America was thinly populated and undefended in the interior. The Indians
hated the Spanish and when the time came the Spanish would not be able to count upon them.
In fact, they would support anyone who would give them liberty. The jealously between the
Creole and the Spanish would cripple their efforts, and the Spanish were lazy and lusty,
not expecting anyone would invade them. Finally, Gage told Cromwell that God would help
the English (Thompson xlii). All of these ideas were postulated in the first chapter of
his book, the letter to Sir Thomas Fairfax. In general his book showed that the Spanish
were exploiting the Indians and that any attempt to take them away from Spanish rule would
be justified using moral terminology. It pointed to the treatment of the Indians, and the
"looseness" of the Church.
Newton in particular notices that Gage made special note of things that
would be helpful to an army, such as roads, fortifications, populations and lay-outs of
towns, sensitive areas that might have something to gain from the removal of Spanish power
(Newton 10). The English did not need much persuasion to believe that the Spanish Empire
was cruel and unjust. England’s imperialism could be justified as anti-imperialism
against Spain. Gage suggested to Cromwell that England attack Hispaniola. At the end of
1654, Cromwell sent a military expedition to Hispaniola with Gage serving as the chaplain.
The attack on Hispaniola was a complete failure. The Indians fought with the Spanish and
the Spanish were prepared. Gage’s prediction of the success of an English invasion of
Spanish America was wrong. After this failure, the expedition sailed to Jamaica and
captured it, thus forming the first Caribbean land under British soil. This was
Gage’s last adventure, and he died on Jamaica (possibly of fever) in 1656.
Gage’s life was a struggle between his Roman Catholic heritage and
his doubts, leading to his conversion and subsequent traitorous acts against Catholic
family and friends. His attempts to publish a book that would lead the English into
victory against the Spanish Empire failed. His book, however, went through six editions
and five languages until Europe’s interest in Central America dwindled. His book
provides historians and readers alike with a sense of Spanish America in land, people, and
spirit.
Newton, Norman. Thomas Gage in Spanish America. New York: Barnes and Noble,
Inc., 1969.
Thompson, J. Eric S., ed. and introduction. Thomas Gage’s Travels in the New World.
Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958.
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