Mendicant millenarian mendicant epistles: Correspondence of Fray Jerónimo de Mendieta to Juan de Ovando (1571-1573)

Abstract

This article deals with some epistles that the Franciscan Jerónimo de Mendieta wrote to Juan de Ovando during the first years of the 1570s and in which he addresses various political, economic and social aspects of the New Spanish reality. The main line of reflection that will be addressed in these documents has to do with the circulation of information that was sent from the New World to be discussed within the royal courts ofPhilip II. On the other hand, we are interestedin highlighting some fragments of this correspondence to give an account of the topics of discussion that were held between the mendicant orders and the peninsular royal officials and the types of institutional discourses that were enforced in the territories of the Catholic Monarchy.