Paraguayan Jesuits Series

The Paraguayan Jesuits Collection consists of 20 manuscript and 4 printed documents ranging in date from 1639 to about 1744. A number of the manuscripts deal with the employment of Indian laborers from the Jesuit 'reductions' on the fortification of the ports of Buenos Aires; others touch on the incursions of hostile Indians against the reductions. A major emphasis of the collection, however, is on the continuing struggle between the Jesuits and the antagonistic representatives of the Church and the Spanish government.

There are manuscripts giving detailed responses to the anti-Jesuit memorials of Diego de Villalon (envoy to Spain of Archbishop Bernardino de Cardenas) in the 1650's; rebutting the charges brought by Martin de Barua in the 1730's; and, finally, a very lengthy 'examen' of the manifesto written by the Redemptorist Miguel de Vargas Machuca, dating from about 1740 and providing in its course a rather full survey of the Jesuits' difficulties with their ecclesiastical and governmental opponents. A brief survey of the available histories indicates that previous historians may not have been aware of all but two of the documents.