Viceroy Toledo and the Church

The historiographical debate about Viceroy Toledo’s reforms has been strongly influenced by twentieth-century political agendas and various concerns about how the Andean nations were or should have been constituted.  The viceroy’s supporters and detractors have tended to overlook the wider political and religious underpinnings of his tenure as viceroy of Peru.  Toledo’s administration coincided with the beginnings of the Catholic Reformation in Europe and was shaped by the king Philip’s decision to adopt the decrees of the Council of Trent as law of the Spanish monarchy.  Focusing in the viceroy’s relation with the Catholic Church and his involvement in the making and implementation of missionary policy, this paper argues that Toledo’s government could be seen as part of a wide-ranging plan to transform society, rooted in the Counterreformation.