CHAPTER 15

OF THE MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS THAT THE DEVIL INVENTED FOR HIS SERVICE

Because the religious life (which, in imitation of Jesus Christ and his holy apostles, so many servants of God, both male and female, have professed and still profess within the Holy Church) is so acceptable in the eyes of Divine Majesty, and so greatly honors his holy name and beautifies his church, the father of lies has not only tried to imitate that life but in a certain sense tries to compete with it and to make his ministers vie with it in austerity and observance. In Peru there were many monasteries of virgins, who could not be received if this was not their condition. There was at least one in every province, in which lived two kinds of women: old ones, whom they called mamaconas, to instruct the others, and young girls who stayed there for a certain time and were then taken for the gods or for the Inca. This house or monastery was called acllaguaci, which means "house of the chosen," and each monastery had its vicar or governor, called appopanaca, who had authority to choose all the girls he wished of whatever degree, of eight years of age or younger, if they seemed to him to be well grown and suitable. Shut away in the monastery, these girls were instructed by the mamaconas in different things necessary for human life and in the rites and ceremonies of their gods; they were taken away from there at the age of fourteen or older and sent to the court under close guard. Some of them were appointed to serve in the temples and sanctuaries, where they preserved their virginity forever; some were used for the ordinary sacrifices that they made of virgins as well as other extraordinary sacrifices, such as those for the health, death, or wars of the Inca. Some also served as wives or concubines of the Inca and other kinsmen and captains of his, to whom he gave them, and this was held to be a great favor. This distribution was made every year. These monasteries, which contained a large number of virgins, possessed special revenues and lands from whose funds they were maintained. It was not lawful for any father to refuse his daughters when the appopanaca asked for them in order to shut them in those monasteries, and many even offered their daughters willingly, for they thought that they were earning great merit by having them sacrificed to the Inca. If it was found that one of these mamaconas or acllas had sinned against chastity, she was infallibly punished by being buried alive or suffering some other kind of cruel death.

In Mexico, the devil had his form of nuns as well, although their profession and holy state lasted no more than a year, and it was as follows: within that very large enclosure of the chief temple, as we described it above, were two houses of retreat, one opposite the other. One was for men and the other for women. The women's house contained only virgins of twelve or thirteen years of age, who were called "maidens of penitence"; there were as many of them as of the boys. They lived a chaste and cloistered life, as virgins appointed for the cult of the god. Their duty was to wash and sweep the temple and to feed the idol and its ministers every morning from the food collected as alms by the religious. The food that they gave the idol consisted of small loaves shaped like hands and feet and others that were twisted like our honey cakes. With this bread they made certain dishes and placed them before the idol daily, and its priests ate them, as did those of Bel, of which Daniel tells us. These girls were shorn of their hair, and then they let it grow for a certain time: They arose at midnight for the matins of the idols that were invariably performed, carrying out the same duties as the other religious. They had their abbesses, who set them to making elaborately worked cloths to adorn the idols and temples. The dress that they always wore was pure white, with no embroidery or color whatsoever. They, too, did penance at midnight, making sacrifice by piercing the tops of their ears and smearing the blood that they drew on their cheeks, and in their house of retreat they had a pool where they washed off that blood. They lived chastely and discreetly, and if any was found to have committed an offense, even though the fault was very minor, she was quickly put to death without appeal, telling her that she had violated the house of their god. And they took it as an omen, and a sign that some bad thing of this kind had happened, if they saw a mouse or bat cross the chapel of their idol or that it had gnawed some veil. For they said that the mouse or bat would not have dared to commit such a discourtesy unless some crime had taken place. And so they would begin to investigate, and when they found the culprit, no matter of what rank, they sentenced her to death. Only maidens from one of six districts appointed for this purpose were admitted to this monastery, and their cloistered life lasted, as I have said, for the year during which they or their parents had vowed to serve the idol in that way, and they went from there to be married. There is some resemblance between these girls, and even more between those of Peru, and the vestal virgins of Rome of which historians tell us. This is an example of how the devil has been eager to be served by persons of chaste life, not because he likes chastity, for he is an unclean spirit by nature, but to deprive Almighty God in any way he can of the glory of being served with purity and chastity.