La clerecía regular castellana antes de la llegada al Nuevo Mundouna élite letrada al servicio de la monarquía a tráves de la predicación, la mediación y el cosejo político

Abstract

This work exposes the late medieval background of regular clergy’s political intervention in America. In Castile, clergymen belonging to different orders played an important role as counselors, informants and other political officers. They participated in the controversy of religious minorities and in the problematic of the con-versos. In addition, they took part as arbitrators, mediators and judges in several of the main conflicts of the moment. Even after the Spaniards’ arrival in the American continent, kings still entrusted political tasks to men-dicant friars. Furthermore, friars defended the natives, tried to avoid the abuses of the encomiendas and opposed slavery and conquest wars. They chose evangelization through Word, following the path initiated by some Cas-tilian clergymen towards religious minorities.