Puebla de los Angeles, between China and Europe: Palafox on the Chinese Rites Controversy

Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the Catholic Church sent missionaries to China, which led to what historians refer to as the Chinese Rites controversy, though, due to its complexity, it would be better to refer to this process as the Chinese Rites controversies, plural. These debates on how to best evangelize the Middle Kingdom took place in Europe, Asia and the Americas. One of the figures who participated in these controversies was Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, bishop of Puebla de los Angeles in New Spain (1640-1648), someone who never traveled to China. Why did he intervene? What representations of the Chinese Mission was he working from? Was this an early example of a global public sphere or a prototype of the global movement of ideas? This article aims to answer these questions.