Bruce Walker - CliffsNotes on Cathers Death Comes for the Archbishop

Copyright 1999 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

All rights reserved.

www.hmhco.com

cliffsnotes.com

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

Trademarks: CliffsNotes, the CliffsNotes logo, Cliffs, cliffsnotes.com, and all related trademarks, logos, and trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

eISBN 978-0-544-18116-8
v1.0716

The episodic, nearly plotless narrative of Death Comes for the Archbishop begins with a Prologue in which the Vatican assigns Father Jean Marie Latour, a French Jesuit missionary priest serving in Sandusky, Ohio, to the New Mexico territory following the regions annexation to the United States. Latour is elevated to bishop, and sets out for Santa Fe with Father Joseph Vaillant, a personal friend from the pairs schooldays.

Latour and Vaillant are charged with reinvigorating the Catholic Church in the region after nearly three centuries of neglect. Although the region can still be considered predominantly Catholic, the faith has been usurped by rogue priests who have taken mistresses with whom they have fathered children, abused the Mexican and Indian natives, and exhibited greed.

Latour sets out to impart a disciplined approach to Catholicism in the Southwest, meeting resistance from Padre Gallegos in Albuquerque, Padre Antonio Jos Martnez of Taos, and Padre Lucero of Arroyo Hondo. Gallegos is a hedonistic glutton and gambler, Martnez a promiscuous libertine, and Lucero a greedy liar.

It takes Latour nearly a year to travel from Ohio to New Mexico, traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, and then on to Galveston by steamboat. He loses most of his possessions in Galveston when the steamboat is wrecked, but continues to travel by land across Texas and into the New Mexico territory with a mare and a pack mule.

Upon arriving in Santa Fe, the Mexican priests refuse to acknowledge Latours authority. In order to clarify the matter with the Archbishop of Durango, Latour sets out on a 3,000-mile journey. On his way, he gets lost. He is rescued by a little girl who leads him to Agua Secreta (Hidden Water). Here he learns that the priests of the region have charged exorbitant amounts to perform the Sacrament of Marriage, causing many of the natives to take wives without benefit of marriage. While admiring the craftsmanship and artistry of the native church, Latour recognizes that the natives have allowed their own superstitions to permeate their Catholic faith.

Latour returns to Santa Fe with documentation of his Vicarate, and finds that he has endeared himself to many of the towns residents as his presence has prompted some corrupt priests to resign their posts. Vaillant sets out for Santo Domingo and Albuquerque, in order to perform baptisms and marriages. The Indians of Santo Domingo, however, are suspicious of Latour due to the ill treatment they received from Spanish conquerors centuries ago. In Albuquerque, he meets Manuel Lujon, a wealthy landowner, with whom he barters for two mules.

While traveling to Mora together, Latour and Vaillant stop at a house to escape bitterly cold rain and to seek a warm place to rest. The house is inhabited by an older man and his young Mexican wife. The wife warns the two priests to leave as soon as possible because she fears her husband will kill them. When they arrive in Mora, they are followed by the woman. She tells the priests her name is Magdalena and her husbands name is Buck Scales. She reports that Buck killed four travelers on the Mora trail. Scales is subsequently arrested and hanged, and Kit Carson takes Magdalena to live with him and his wife near Taos.

Latour and his guide, Jacinto, travel west to the Indian missions. They spend time in Albuquerque with Padre Gallegos. Gallegos, afraid that Latour will ask him to accompany him on his visits to the West, wraps his foot in bandages and complains that he has gout. Latour and Jacinto push on to the pueblo of Isleta, where they meet Padre Jesus de Baca. The elderly priest lives in poverty among the Indians of the pueblo, claiming only one possessiona wooden parrot. He tells Latour that the Indians of coma own a portrait of St. Joseph that possesses the miraculous power to bring rain.

Latour earns the admiration and respect of Jacinto. He tells Latour the story of the elevated rock plateau of coma. Initially a sanctuary for Indians seeking shelter from other marauding tribes, a great church had been built in the sixteenth-century by the missionary Fray Juan Ramirez. On their return trip, Padre Jesus de Baca tells Latour the story of Friar Baltazar Montoya, a seventeenth-century priest of coma. Montoya virtually enslaved the Indians of coma, forcing the women to carry water daily up the side of the mountain to nourish his outlandish gardens. The Indians were afraid that Montoya might possess magical powers beyond the ability of the portrait of St. Joseph to bring rain.

Wishing others to admire his garden Montoya plans a dinner party. He invites several missionaries. During a story by one of the priests, a serving boy becomes distracted and spills a platter of gravy on one of the guests. An angry and drunken Montoya throws a goblet at the boy, which kills him. The guests leave, and the Indians revolt against Montoya by throwing him from the plateau.

Latour returns to Santa Fe, and dismisses Father Gallegos. Vaillant replaces Gallegos, replacing his predecessors revelry with a more austere devotion. Vaillant is dispatched to Las Vegas. On his way back to Albuquerque, he stops to administer Last Rites to residents of a Pecos Mountain village who are afflicted with black measles. Vaillant becomes afflicted as well. Latour travels to help his friend, and stops along the way to visit Jacinto, his wife Clara and the couples sick child. Latour ponders the impact of white settlement among the Indians and the diseases the whites have spread.

Latour and Jacinto set out toward Vaillant but encounter a blizzard. They seek refuge in a cave that Jacinto confides has been used for Indian ceremonies. Jacinto beseeches Latour to never mention the cave to anyonea request that Latour honors. The two weather the storm in the cave and find Vaillant the following day. Kit Carson is already there, and they take Vaillant back to Santa Fe.

Carson tells Latour about a white trader named Zeb Orchard. Orchard is a recluse, but Latour arranges a stay with him to learn more about Indian customs and ceremonies. Orchard belittles Indian customs, but Latour confesses that the Indians veneration of customs and traditions is similar to the Catholic faith.