"The Superlative Sin of All Sins": Sexuality and the Franciscan Missionary Discourses in Eighteenth-Century New Spain

Certainly, nothing attracted more the interest of the early modern Catholic Church than the sins of the flesh which, it was thought, corrupted the body as well as the soul. In fact, sermons against lewdness were pivotal in any Franciscan preacher’s repertoire. That sexuality was the most recurrent theme in eighteenth-century mission sermons underpins Franciscan anxieties with the body and its organic needs. Lewdness was perceived as a strong force that frantically drove men and women into a horrendous habit difficult to stop which, hence, hindered redemption and salvation. Religious men adamantly targeted popular dances, gambling, and theatrical representations, which they viewed not only as competition to their own ministry but also as empires of lust.

This paper analyzes the complex reasons behind the Franciscan writings, taking into account that Franciscan missionaries exercised moral vigilantism of their Catholic flock in colonial Mexico while also feared their own fall into sinful acts. Some friars were indeed prosecuted by the Inquisition for sexual solicitation in the confessional while attending their evangelical duties in their itinerant evangelical campaigns. Sermons were thus not only preached, but they were written to inculcate in their own brethren certain gender and moral views. In fact, many missionaries struggled with their own sexuality. Their quest for self-denial and imitation of their spiritual leaders Jesus Christ and Saint Francis was at its best a long process that sometimes came to a dead end. Despite their oaths, Franciscan spirituality gave space to worldliness. Even if it was the result of the devil‘s snare, as they thought, friars fell to their own instincts as humans. This paper hence peruses sermons to better comprehend how religious men reflected on their own desires and fears.