Vincente de Valverde

Vicente de Valverde y Alvarez de Toledo, O.P., or Vincent de Valle Viridi was a Spanish Dominican friar who was involved in the Conquest of the Americas, later becoming the Bishop of Cuzco. He became the first resident bishop in South America. He was born in Oropesa, Spain, about 1495 and most sources claim he died on Puná Island, now part of Ecuador, in 1541, at the hands of the indigenous peoples.

Biography He was born in Oropesa, near Toledo, at the end of the 15th century. He was the son of Francisco de Valverde and Ana Alvarez de Toledo, and was related to many noble families of the region, in particular to that of Francisco Pizarro, the conquistador of Peru, and that of Hernán Cortés, the conqueror of Mexico. Atahuallpa simply replied that he could not change his beliefs in the all powerful and ever living Sun and other divinities.

Following the death of Atahuallpa, Pizarro saw no further obstacles to his conquest and decided to march into Cuzco on 15 November 1533, bringing Valverde along with him and his followers. On 23 March 1534, a church was erected in Cuzco and became Valverde's parish church. Pizarro also gave him a large native commandery, whom Valverde allegedly mistreated by simply using them as slaves.

Valverde headed back to Spain later that year In 1539 Valverde had work begun for the first cathedral of the diocese, now the Church of the Triumph, built on the site of a temple attached to the palace of Viracocha Inca, the last native ruler of the region. On 11 March 1540 he officiated at its consecration.

After the assassination of Francisco Pizarro by forces of Diego de Almagro II in June 1541, Valverde fled to Panama, where his brother had been appointed as governor by Pizarro. He halted for a brief stay on Puná Island, near Guayaquil, in Ecuador, where he was captured and eaten by the local indigenous people on 31 October 1541.

Criticisms The First Interview Between the Spaniards and the Peruvians by Henry Perronet Briggs. The painting depicts the moments before the Battle of Cajamarca with Vincente de Valverde in the centre By far Valverde's negative and contradictory side was his alleged mistreatment of the natives of Peru whom, instead of teaching the Catholic faith, he oppressed, enslaved and forced to work for the Church. These charges came about when Valverde was later appointed by Pizarro on a commission to apportion lands and natives to the royal officers, along with the lawyer, Antonio de Game, whom Pizarro had appointed Supreme Judge of Cuzco. The latter charged Valverde in a letter to the emperor, dated 10 March 1539, with arbitrary acts and insisted that instead of protecting the natives, he only mistreated them and sought to confiscate their lands, and always gave the greater part to himself and his assistant. (This was the complete opposite to what Bartolomé de Las Casas, another Spanish Dominican friar and bishop, did years later by defending the natives' rights in works he published and in visits to Spain to inform King Philip II of the abuses committed against the local natives by the Conquistadors.)

The validity of these charges is in dispute, however, as they are not universally mentioned by chroniclers of the period, and the main accusers might have had political reasons for these charges, as opponents of the Pizarro regime.