Moya de Contreras, Pedro (c. 1530–1591)

Pedro Moya de Contreras (b. 1530?; d. December 1591?), first inquisitor (1570–1573) and third archbishop of Mexico (1573–1591?), interim viceroy (1584–1585), and president of the Council of the Indies (1591). Moya was born in the village of Pedroche, in the province of Córdoba, Spain. After studies at Salamanca (1551–1554) he came under the patronage of Juan de Ovando, later the president of the Council of the Indies. In 1570 he was appointed first inquisitor of Mexico and in 1573 he was named archbishop of Mexico. From 1583 until 1586 he conducted a visita of the civil government of New Spain, the most exhaustive of the colonial period. His most important achievement was the Third Mexican Provincial Council of 1585, which established the organization of the church in New Spain. After his return to Spain in 1586, he acted as unofficial adviser to Philip II. He died in Madrid.

See alsoCouncil of the Indies .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cinco cartas del illmo. y excmo. Señor D. Pedro Moya de Contreras, arzobispo-virrey y primer inquisidor de la Nueva Espanna. Precedidas de la historia de su vida segun Cristóbal Gutiérrez de Luna y Francisco Sosa (1962).

Stafford Poole, C.M., Pedro Moya de Contreras: Catholic Reform and Royal Power in New Spain, 1571–1591 (1987), and "The Last Years of Archbishop Pedro Moya de Contreras, 1586–1591," in The Americas (July 1990): 1-38.

Additional Bibliography

Cummins, Victoria Hennessey. "Blessed Connections: Sociological Aspects of Sainthood in Colonial Mexico and Peru." Colonial Latin American Historical Review 3:1 (Winter 1994): 1-18.

Traslosheros Hernández, Jorge E. Iglesia, justicia y sociedad en la Nueva España: La audiencia del arzobispado de México, 1528–1668. México D.F.: Editorial Porrúa: Universidad Iberoamericana, 1994.

                                   Stafford Poole C.M.