Bígamos errantes del gran Michoacán en la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII

Abstract

During the second half of the 18th century, in the middle of the ideological and political conflict between the Spanish Crown and the local Church, a dispute over the jurisdictional control of the crime of duplicitous marriage developed throughout New Spain, especially after the publication of the Royal Decree of August 10, 1788. This article shows some of the dispute's vicissitudes within the Holy Office justice system. Furthermore, it analyzes the recurrent problems the Inquisition faced when sentencing. Other elements addressed include the punishments applied to the twice married, which symbolically represented the prescriptive morals of the time, varying according to the gender and social origin of the accused. Finally and newly, illustrations are included, thanks to the spoken portrait specialist Agustín Cerezo Leiva, who recreated the faces of some of the bigamous from the Comisaría Inquisitorial of Valladolid (Obispado of Michoacán) archives.