I guess I will waste a few more minutes of your time, and mine,
not to try to convince our skeptics however just that I would like a few answers to some questions.
Cactusjumper wrote
Mike,
I have no problem with conjecture......it's all we really have, after so much non-specific evidence.
The slag built into the very walls of the missions in Arizona, the string of silver mines in Arizona, the impressive treasures found in Brazil and Spain, are "non-specific evidence"? Would you also class the various statements cited from father Nentvig, Och, Segesser et al, also as "non-specific"?
Cactusjumper also wrote
As Paul stated, the Jesuits were the most highly educated men in the New World. Beyond that, mining was one of the things, I believe, that was taught by the Jesuits.
I have seen this stated and repeated, without challenge. Considering that a good number of Spanish nobility, as well as the various other Orders were also highly educated, on what do you base this statement? Can you show that no other men in the New World were as highly, or even more educated than the Jesuits?
Cactusjumper also wrote
I don't believe either side will see the conclusion of this debate.
Not when one side dismisses virtually any evidence presented,
arbitrarily, with such unfounded and wholesale conclusions like "
it was all made up". Really the main question of this thread has been whether Jesuit treasures are real or not; evidence has been presented that the Jesuit Order was wealthy in the extreme, certainly the wealthiest of all the Catholic Orders, and owned a number of mines besides a wide array of other business ventures even including slavery, which was of course acceptable at the time, yet when they were expelled, very little of their wealth was discovered in the Americas. Father Och's account of the expulsion and search, while a great read, is only his own view and spin on the events he was closest to, which would have been in the thriving capital of Mexico city not on the wild frontiers, so is only a part of the picture, and a biased one at that.
Not the
whole picture by a long shot.
Cactusjumper also wrote
Mike, <snip>
They were far from the King and the Pope. The officials in the New World were not always just around the corner. On the other hand prospectors, miners and ranchers/farmers were all over the place. Any of them would have liked nothing better than to report any misdeeds to the authorities.....and did. Often, if nothing was going on, they made it up.
Now you have made a positive statement, that these nebulous un-named prospectors, miners, ranchers, farmers,
MADE UP accusations to fling at the Jesuits.
Please provide SOME kind of proof to support this contention, thanks in advance. And NO, a Jesuit source is not going to be acceptable, since we have already posted reams of evidence pointing to the Jesuits amassing wealth and thus had implicit motives for being un-trustworthy on this account.
Cactusjumper also wrote
While loved by many, the Jesuits had more than their share of haters. Nothing has changed.
Ah, those evil Jesuit-
HATERS again. Anyone that raises objection to their practices becomes a "Jesuit HATER" so can be readily dismissed as a biased opponent, implying unreasonable prejudices on their part.
Who and whom, exactly, are these "Jesuit haters" you are and have been referring to, specifically?
Cactusjumper also wrote
Mike,
What I wrote was:
"On the other hand prospectors, miners and ranchers/farmers were all over the place. Any of them would have liked nothing better than to report any misdeeds to the authorities.....and did. Often, if nothing was going on, they made it up."
I had hoped my statement would have been taken as only relating to the New World. While I'm sure some of those charges must have been upheld, I can't recall a single case off hand. If no proof could be brought to the authorities and courts of the time, I assume most of the charges were made up.
I still do not see how or why the New World, is so disconnected from the global operations of the Jesuits; it was not a separate planet, neither was it a separate Order, all were interconnected and that almost intimately. One whole set of missions in Sonora existed solely to provide income to support their operations (planned or otherwise) in Japan; the Jesuit missions in Baja and planned expansions into northern California, were to support the operations in the Philippines. It is not logical to try to view their operations in any single region, as if it were a wholly separate entity. Spanish laws were largely the same throughout their empire too.
Next, you "
ASSUME" that the charges were,
MADE UP. Is that supposed to be a convincing counter-argument?
Cactusjumper also wrote
If I still believed in massive Jesuit buried treasures, I would probably be coming down on the other side of this issue. With all that gold and silver, they could have bought their way out of trouble. Graft being what it was, and still is, in Mexico it would have been SOP.
Perhaps they COULD have bought their way out of trouble, but this would entail spending some of that wealth which the Jesuits should not admit to having, and had shown a great reticence at parting with as happened in France when the courts there ruled they had to pay the debts incurred by members of their Order in their trans-Atlantic trade. Not without a terrific legal fight however on their part. It is pure
speculation about whether they could or could not have bribed their way out of this trouble, assuming that those in power would be corrupt enough to go along with it, and that is far from a certainty. Considering that the Jesuits had been implicated in the riots against the King in Spain, anyone whom would accept a bribe no matter how fat, would then be in very real danger from the king of Spain as a possible accomplice with the Jesuits in their plots against the monarchy.
By the way, did anyone catch the mention of the
PLOT in the King's expulsion order? Could this be a direct, if vague, reference to the Jesuit plot to betray Spain's colonies in America, which impelled the King to act
rapidly, which he also mentioned?
Perhaps, and this is almost pure
speculation, the king of Spain had some information as to the timeline of this proposed betrayal?
I look forward to your answers, thank you in advance. I hope all is well with you folks and look forward to seeing you again.
Roy