On This Day In History: Spanish Priest Diego de Landa Burned The Sacred Books Of Maya – On July 12, 1562

AncientPages.com - On July 12, 1562, Spanish Franciscan priest and bishop of Yucatán, Diego de Landa, burned the sacred books of the Maya.

After hearing of Roman Catholic Maya, who continued to practice idol worship, he ordered an Inquisition in Mani. It ended with a ceremony called auto de fé, during which Landa ordered the burning of 27 Maya codices and approximately 5,000 Maya cult images.

Maya glyphs at National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico. Image credit: Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata - CC BY-SA 4.0

Only three pre-Columbian books of Maya hieroglyphics (also known as a codex) and perhaps, fragments of a fourth are known to have survived. Collectively, these works are known as the Maya codices.

Many Maya nobles were jailed, while the others, along with commoners, were subjected to examination under torture.

Scholars have argued that Mexican inquisitions showed little concern about eradicating magic or convicting individuals for heterodox beliefs.

The priest, Diego de Landa, wiped out all knowledge of the written language and nearly destroyed the spoken language too.

Being a good Roman Catholic and a carrier of the Intolerance Meme, Landa started an inquisition that resulted in torture and death across the Yucatan region.

Diego de Landa, Spanish colonial Bishop of Yucatan and writer of important historical account of the Maya. 16th century portrait in the monestary at Izamal, Yucatan. Image credit: Author unknown -CC BY-SA 4.0

He was determined to wipe out all knowledge of t he Mayan religion and saw the Mayan language and hieroglyphs as the key.

Fifty years later, in 1699, Spanish soldiers burned a town with the last school of scribes who knew the Mayan hieroglyphs. By 1720, not a single person alive knew what the hieroglyphs meant.

The Roman Catholic church punished Landa but not for torture, murder, and not for destroying the Maya's cultural history. Diego de Landa's crime was that he carried out an inquisition without authorization.
Landa spent a few years under house arrest in Spain, contemplating his disobedience, resting, and praying. Later, he was promoted to Bishop of Yucatan and sent back to Central America, where he lived the remainder of his life.

Diego de Landa, Spanish colonial Bishop of Yucatan and writer of important historical account of the Maya.

AncientPages.com