Pedro Moya de Contreras
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The Most Reverend Pedro Moya de Contreras |
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| Archbishop of Mexico | |
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| See | Mexico |
| Installed | June 17, 1573 |
| Term ended | December 7, 1591 |
| Predecessor | Alonso de Montúfar |
| Successor | Alonso Fernández de Bonilla |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | November 21, 1573 |
| Consecration | by Antonio Ruíz de Morales y Molina |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1527 Pedroche, Córdoba, Spain |
| Died | December 21, 1591 (aged 63–64) Madrid, Spain |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
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Archbishop Pedro Moya de Contreras |
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| Viceroy of New Spain | |
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In office September 25, 1584 – October 17, 1585 |
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| Monarch | Philip II of Spain |
| Preceded by | Luis de Villanueva y Zapata |
| Succeeded by | Álvaro Manrique de Zúñiga |
| President of Council of the Indies | |
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In office 1585 – December 21, 1591 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1527 Pedroche, Córdoba, Spain |
| Died | December 21, 1591 (aged 63–64) Madrid, Spain |
Pedro Moya de Contreras (sometimes Pedro de Moya y Contreras) (c. 1528, Pedroche, Córdoba Province, Spain – December 21, 1591, Madrid), prelate and colonial administrator who held the three highest offices in the Spanish colony of New Spain, namely inquisitor general, Archbishop of Mexico, and Viceroy of Mexico, September 25, 1584 - October 17, 1585. He was the 6th Viceroy, governing from September 25, 1584 to October 16, 1585. During this interval he held all three positions.
Moya de Contreras received the degree of doctor of canon law from the University of Salamanca. Later he became head of the cathedral school in the Canary Islands, and then inquisitor of Murcia.
In 1571 he became the first inquisitor general of New Spain (and thus the first inquisitor general in the New World). He established the Tribunal del Santo Oficio in Mexico City in 1571. As inquisitor general he required people of New Spain, from the oidores (members of the Audiencia), nobles and religious to the most humble members of society, to solemnly swear to defend the Catholic faith and persecute heretics "as rabid dogs and wolves, infectors of spirits and destroyers of the vineyard of Our Lord." He celebrated the first auto-da-fé in New Spain in 1571.
Two years later, on June 15, 1573, Moya de Contreras was chosen Archbishop of Mexico and consecrated bishop on November 21, 1573 by Antonio Ruíz de Morales y Molina, Bishop of Tlaxcala (Puebla de los Angeles). He served until 1591, the year of his death. In 1585 he convoked and presided at the Third Provincial Council of the Church in Mexico, which established standards for the Church that endured to the end of the colonial era. This council banned the enslavement of the Indians. As both archbishop and viceroy, one of his major concerns was education of the Indians. He founded the Seminary of the Indies, to teach them Christian doctrine, reading, writing, singing and trades.
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