Aztec And Spanish Religion Comparison Essay, Research Paper

Compare and contrast essay

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE AZTEC AND SPANISH RELIGIONS

When analyzing the & # 8220 ; Age of Discovery & # 8221 ; , one ever thinks of Columbus foremost. Since Columbus was identified with being an employee of what is now known as Spain, we frequently focus on Spanish geographic expedition as a starting point for the & # 8220 ; age of find & # 8221 ; . One of Spain & # 8217 ; s most ill-famed conquerings involved Mexico and a people known as the Aztecs. The Aztecs, like many other Indians, were thought to be pagans that needed to be conquered and converted. The focal point of this paper is non on the conquering of Mexico, but instead a survey of the faith that was conquered every bit good as the faith making the conquest. The Spanish and Aztec faiths will be examined in three countries: Gods, priests, and the military connexion. There were few similarities between the Aztec and Spanish faiths, but the countries that are similar might be flooring.

God

The Aztecs were a folk that migrated from the North, perchance the Rocky mountains, the Great Basin, and California. & # 8220 ; Most likely they were ab initio a crude conquest folk who settled on the shore of the Texcoco lake in the Valley of Mexico at the beginning of the 14th century & # 8221 ; . As the Aztecs conquered their neighbours in the Valley, they began to absorb the faiths of those folks into their ain civilization. The two chief tribes the Aztecs seemed to hold sculpted their faith from were the Toltecs and the Teotihuacan. Due to these factors the Aztecs had a battalion of supreme divinities. The most powerful and most often worshipped God was Huitzlopochtli. Huitzlopochtli was the God of war and defender of Tenochtitlan. Huitzlopochtli & # 8217 ; s temple was the chief pyramid in the centre of Tenochtitlan and the site of legion human forfeits. The following two Gods were likely of equal importance. Quetzalcoatl was the serpent God and God of civilisation and acquisition. Quetzalcoatl is besides the name of a legendary priest-ruler, the rubric of high priest, and a royal rubric. Quetzalcoatl is believed to hold been acquired from the Toltec folk where as a God and legend he originated. Tlaloc was the rain God and he shared the platform of his temple with Huitzilopochtli. Tlaloc was really of import to the Aztecs due to the fact that their civilisation was based on agribusiness. The God of maize was Centeotl. It might sound uneven to hold a maize God, but maize was the Aztecs basic nutrient. Coatlicue was she of the snake skirt. Ettecatl was the God of air current. Huehueteotl was the old divinity besides associated with fire. Fire was given great regard being that it was a priestly responsibility to keep the fires in the temples. Mictlantecuhtle was the God of the dead. Ometecuttlti and his married woman, Omecihuatl, created all life in the universe. The God of dark and black magic was Tezcatlipoca. The supplications of this God were associated with royalty. The Sun God and primary beginning of life was Tonatiuh. Tonatiuh was of importance when forfeits were made to him during enthronement rites. Aztec metropoliss were built in the east west way of the Sun. Tonantzin was among the many names for the female Earth divinity. Xilonen was a principle divinity stand foring corn. Xipetotec was the God of springtime and regrowth. The Aztec Gods represented the most of import things in Aztec life.

The Spanish faith was Catholicism which preaches merely one supreme God being our Godhead Jesus Christ. It might be problematic that Catholicism worships more than one God if you analyze the three, being the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Catholics and Christians of other denominations would reason this point boulder clay they are bluish in the face explicating that the three is one being. Another manner Catholics could be seen as polytheists is in their worship of the Virgin Mary and the saints. Mary, harmonizing to Christians, is the female parent of Jesus who was conceived by speckless construct. She was chosen by God to execute this amazing undertaking and therefore she should be worshipped, but she is non a God. Saints are non Gods either yet they are worshipped on specific occasions. Saints are people that genuinely lived at one period of clip. These people devoted their full lives to the Christian religion and would move on that devotedness by altering people & # 8217 ; s lives. When these people died they were remembered for a peculiar act of devotedness and hence worshipped by Catholics every clip they were faced with a problem that a saint was known to hold overcome.

The major difference between the Aztec and Spanish Gods was who they proclaimed to be god. The Aztecs believed everyone they worshipped was a God, where as the Spanish worshipped merely as many existences but merely called one God.

Priest

The name given to Aztec priests was chachalmeca. These work forces were the 1s who sacrificed the victims as offering to the Gods. & # 8220 ;

It was a high-level place among the Indians, much revered, and was passed down from male parent to boy like our ain primogeniture.” There were normally around six priests who were present and executing in the ceremonials. The priest who really performed the undertaking of giving the victim was known as the high priest. There were different processs performed before the forfeit or during the ceremonial, depending on the intent of the juncture. “Behind them emerged the Gods and goddesses, or instead their imitators, dressed in the proper attire of each divinity. In an orderly manner they formed around the pieces of dough. They performed a ceremonial of intoning and dancing upon them” . The priest that was the most celebrated in Aztec civilization was Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl. There are many narratives about the life and decease of Topiltzin, which one is true no 1 knows. One fable is that he was a white alien that was really spiritual and he gained acknowledgment as a swayer and priest. The other fable is that he was boy of Mixcoatl who was besides a snake God and when he was immature he went to populate in a adjacent small town where his grandparents raised him. He subsequently returned to the small town of the Toltecs where he rose as a swayer and high priest. The ground for his go forthing the small town was purportedly because of a dissension within the religious order over human forfeits. The cabal that opposed Topiltzin sent magicians to acquire him drunk and have him perpetrate incest with his sister. Due to this great embarrassment, Topiltzin left but promised to return one twenty-four hours. Cortes was believed to be Topiltzin.

The Catholic faith had priests besides. The equivalent of the high priest would be the Catholic Pope. The Catholic Popes that were in office during the clip of geographic expedition and interaction with the Aztecs were: Pius III ( 1503 ) , Julius II ( 1503-1513 ) , Leo X ( 1513-1521 ) , Adrian VI ( 1522-1523 ) , and Clement VII ( 1523-1534 ) . These Catholic Popes and other priests performed ceremonials for many occasions. During the Inquisition they performed undertakings of anguish and forfeit on heathens who did non follow the right faith. Most of these people were Jews and Muslims. They had their ownerships taken from them every bit good as the penalty they received for non to the full change overing to the Catholic religion. This period was when the & # 8220 ; Catholic Kings & # 8221 ; came to the throne and tolerance was non permitted.

The Aztec and Spanish faiths both have high priests which perform violent and non violent ceremonials. One major difference between these faiths is the function of transition which Catholic priests perform and clasp as one of their chief responsibilities in the priesthood. No where in my research did I find grounds of priests in the Aztec civilization holding the responsibility of transition and distributing the true religion.

THE MILITARY Connection

The Aztec faith incorporated the full civilization of the people. A big portion of this civilization rested on the military background of the warring folk. The Aztecs & # 8217 ; nature to pay war on their neighbours was a big portion of their rites and forfeits. If the Aztecs won a conflict, the war God must hold blessed them therefore they needed to convey all the sureties from the conquered land to be sacrificed to the war God. This worked the opposite manner as good. If the Aztecs lost a conflict so the war God was mad at them so they had to happen twice every bit many victims as they could to give. As the Aztecs lecherousness for enlargement grew, so did Huitzilopochtli & # 8217 ; s appetite for human blood.

The Spanish incorporated the military into their faith besides but for different grounds. The Spanish Inquisition was a church tally military. In the name of the Godhead, soldiers would plunder, anguish, and kill people they saw as heathens. The church was besides used to suppress people discovered in Spain & # 8217 ; s new settlements. The people of the new universe were seen as sub human animals unable to understand the true faith. These people were either converted or killed. The monastics on these expeditions were sent straight by the Catholic church. Many of the spiritual edicts presented to the freshly discovered people were besides signed or created by the Catholic church.

Both faiths reflect the hawkish attitude of their civilizations. Each incorporates force in their spiritual patterns in the name of their Gods. The difference is the grounds for the force. The Aztec & # 8217 ; s grounds being to fulfill their God & # 8217 ; s hungriness for human blood. The Spanish grounds are to delight their God by throw outing the heathens.

The Aztec and Spanish faiths were different in many ways, but they were besides similar in many ways. Both of them reflected their civilizations at that period of clip. In both instances, we would happen their actions to be abhorrent. As the Aztecs waged war on neighbouring folks, the Spanish waged war on neighbouring states and faiths. Neither faith was any better than the other ; both faiths had their good and bad characteristics.