Acosta, José

ACOSTA, JOSÉ. - Spanish Jesuit, writer and missiologist, b. at Medina del Campo in Sept. or Oct. 1540, d. at Salamanca on 15 Feb. 1600. Having entered the religious life at Salamanca at only twelve years of age (he had four Jesuit brothers), he taught grammar in various colleges before studying philosophy and theology at Alcalá; in these years he wrote, on the instructions of the local Superiors, many "quadrimestral letters" (twelve of which were published in the Monum. Histor. Soc. Iesu, Epist. Quadr., vols. III, VI, VII). He was beginning to teach theology (Ocaña-Palencia) and was being sought as the successor of Fr. Toledo at the Roman College when he obtained his assignment to Peru (1572). Rather than a missionary in the strict sense of the word, he was there a professor of theology, preacher and organizer. Rector of the college of Lima (1575), then second provincial of Peru (1576-81), he founded various houses and missions and made the visitation of the vast province, gathering the material for his future works. He then took part, as theologian of the archbishop St. Toribio de Mogrovejo, in a pre-eminent role in the work of the III Provincial Council of Lima (Aug. 1582-Oct. 1583), of great historical importance; he drafted its acts and, with other confreres expert in the languages, composed the trilingual catechism: Spanish, Quechua and Aymara, of which he also oversaw the printing (Lima 1585; this is the first book printed in Lima); he also collaborated on the Confessionario para los curas de Indios (Lima 1585) and on other works prescribed by the Council.

Recalled to Europe, where he landed in 1587, Acosta obtained in Rome from Sixtus V the approval of the Council (1588), and printed its acts: Concilium Limense (Madrid 1590). Having returned to Spain, where he was visitor of the Jesuit provinces of Andalusia and Aragon, he devoted himself to literary composition and to preaching, using for the benefit of the missions the authority he enjoyed in this field both within his Order and in the royal Councils. Acquaviva made use of him for delicate negotiations with the court of Madrid, in the difficulties that the Society was then encountering in Spain, but here Acosta, recently appointed provost of the professed house of Valladolid, allowed himself to be induced to support with his authority the intrigues of a small faction of restless religious with mainly nationalistic aims against Acquaviva himself. With the support of Philip II he came to Rome (1592) and obtained from Clement VIII the convocation of the V General Congregation of the Society (1593-94). When it had vindicated Acquaviva and kept the Institute of the Society intact, Acosta submitted and was reconciled with the general, protesting that he had always acted in good faith (his apology is printed in Rodriguez Carracido, pp. 123-153). Having returned to Spain he resumed the government of the house of Valladolid, then of the college of Salamanca.

Acosta was a tireless writer (a complete list of his works is in the bibliography of E. Uriarte-M. Lecina). We have mentioned the writings connected with the Council of Lima. The fruit of his theological teaching in Peru are the De temporibus novissimis, Rome 1590, and the De Christo revelato, Rome 1590; Acosta himself published three volumes of Conciones, Salamanca 1596-99 (others remained unpublished). But he owes his fame principally to two works that have become classics: De natura novii Orbis et de promulgatione Evangelii apud barbaros sive de procuranda Indorum salute, Salamanca 1589 (several reprints, the last at Manila 1858; the work is commonly cited as: De procuranda Indorum salute). Without being the first synthesis of theoretical missiology, it is the first that had a wide diffusion, and its influence was very great; the work still retains its value for the general problems of missionary methodology and those of a Christian colonial policy. It enjoyed an even wider diffusion, though of less lasting value, the Historia natural y moral de las Indias, Seville 1590 (numerous reprints and translations; into Italian by Gio. Paolo Galucci, Venice 1596). Of the 7 books, the first two are the De natura novii Orbis of the preceding work; the following three treat of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms; the last two, on American ethnography, are addressed more directly to missionaries. Without being original in all its parts (the one on Mexico depends on the Historia de las Indias de Nueva España of the Dominican Diego Durán), this vast synthesis earned Acosta the name of "Pliny of the new world" given him by the Benedictine critic Fr. Feijoo.

1943), pp. 115-36; L. Kilger, Die Peru-Relation des José de A. 1376 und seine Missionstheorie, in Neue Zeitschrift für Missionwissenschaft, 1 (Schöneck 1943), pp. 24-36; A. Astrain, Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la Asistencia de España, III, Madrid 1925, pp. 401-20, for the incidents of 1932-95 and the struggle with Acquaviva.

Edmondo Lamalle