Bernardino de Cárdenas Ponce

Bernardino de Cárdenas y Ponce, O.F.M., (1579?–1668) was a friar of the Franciscan order and Bishop of Asunción and later Santa Cruz de la Sierra. He served as Governor of Paraguay from March 4, 1649 – October 1, 1649. He ordered the first expulsion of the Jesuits from the Governorate of Paraguay, although this expulsion did not last; he was deposed as governor following a battle against the Jesuit armies.

He was born Cristóbal de Cárdenas in La Paz, Upper Peru. He studied theology at the Jesuit College of San Martin in Lima, and changed his given name to Bernardino upon joining the Franciscan order. Cárdenas served at the Convent of Chuquisaca from 1614-1620 and as a missionary among the Quechua Indians from 1621-1627, and traveled through both Upper and Lower Peru. Cárdenas impressed the Real Audiencia of Charcas, and was appointed Bishop of Paraguay in 1638. However, it was not until 1641 that he left Upper Peru for Córdoba to be consecrated as bishop by the Bishop in residence. There was a minor dispute first, however; the Bishop of Córdoba was a Jesuit, and while the governmental approval of the appointment was complete, the papal bulls had not yet arrived, and the Jesuit order supported the idea that only the pope could ordain a bishop. Nevertheless, the Bishop of Córdoba consecrated Cárdenas, and Cárdenas departed for Asunción.

Cárdenas arrived in Asunción, the same year as the new governor, Gregorio de Hinestrosa. Both men were proud, and a feud for power developed between the two. The feud eventually expanded to include the Jesuit Fathers as well, who managed the nearby Jesuit Reductions. While Cárdenas spoke warmly of the Jesuits at first, praising them in a letter written in 1643, the Jesuits eventually backed Hinestrosa, an open admirer of the Jesuits, in the political struggle between the governor and the bishop. In turn, this caused Cárdenas to criticize the Jesuits; he claimed the Jesuits were teaching "heretical principles" to the Indians, and threatened to expel them from the province in September 1644. These stances gained Cárdenas the favor of many of the Paraguayan settlers, who disliked the Jesuit missions as economic competitors among other complaints. Governor Hinestrosa turned to the Jesuit armies of Indians to take control of the situation in Asunción; he compelled the local diocese to depose Cárdenas on the grounds his consecration had not been valid, and exiled him from Paraguay in November 1644.

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