Bernardo Buil

Bernat Boïl monument to Columbus, Barcelona

Bernat Boïl (also spelled Boil, Boyl or Boyal) was an Aragonese monk or friar, known as Fray Buil, who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage across the Atlantic. On January 6, 1494 Buil conducted the first mass held in the New World, in a temporary church on La Isabela. There is unclear evidence about his affiliation to a religious order. He left the Indies after disagreements with Columbus, and his mission work came to little.

Identification

According to Stephen M. Donovan writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia, the accounts given of Buil are confused by a misidentification. He asserts that Bernardo Boil, a Franciscan, was a different person from a Bernardo Boyl, who was a Benedictine. It was to Boil, according to Donovan, that Pope Alexander VI addressed his Bull dated 25 June 1493, appointing him first vicar Apostolic of the New World, while other accounts recite that Boyl was the first person to hold the office. Ferdinand II had employed Boyl, the Benedictine, in diplomatic negotiations and had sought his appointment as vicar Apostolic in America. Citing researches of the historian Roselly, Donovan concludes that Ferdinand deliberately misidentified the intended recipient of the bull, and that Bernardo Boil, the Franciscan, did not leave Spain.

On the other hand, Livarus Oliger, also writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia, states that Buil was a Minim, citing research of Fita for the view that the bull of Alexander had a clerical error in the phrase ordinis Minorum which would indicate that Buil was a Franciscan.

Voyage

The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica states that twelve missionaries accompanied the second Columbus expedition of 1493, under the orders of Bernardo Buil, a Benedictine. On January 6, 1494 Buil conducted the first mass held in the New World, in a temporary church on La Isabela. James Reston, who calls him a Benedictine monk, says that Buil took a hard line against the Taíno leader Guacanagaríx, arguing for his execution. Later Buil returned from the Indies, and was one of those accusing Columbus of harshness and inconsistency. He resumed work as a diplomat.

An account of Buil and the Benedictine mission was later written by a Benedictine abbot, Caspar Plautius (Kaspar Plautz) of Seitenstetten Abbey in Austria. A fanciful work with fictional parts and fantastic illustrations, it was published as Nova typis transacta navigatio novi orbis Indiæ occidentalis at Linz in 1621. Plautius used the pseudonym Honorius Philoponus, dedicating the work to himself.

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Bernardo Buil — (Also Boil or Boyl.)

A Friar Minor. The fact that there were two religious of the name of Bernardo Boil living in Spain at the same time has given rise to much confusion and even to the opinion that they were not two distinct persons, but that the same individual was at one time a member of the Franciscan order, and later became a Benedictine. It seems however, more probable to assert that Bernardo Boil, the Franciscan, was a different person from Bernardo Boyl, the Benedictine. It was to the former that Alexander Vl addressed his Bull dated 25 June, 1493, appointing him first vicar Apostolic of the New World. This appears to be certain, first of all from the opening words "Dilecto filio Bernardo Boil, fratri Ordinis Minorum", etc. of the Bull itself, a part of which is reproduced in the first volume of THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA. In the second place, the concluding words of the Bull, where reference is made to the prohibition of Boniface VIII concerning members of mendicant orders taking new domiciles without permission from the Holy See, seem clearly to indicate that the papal rescript was intended for Boil, the Franciscan, and not for his namesake the Benedictine. It is a matter of fact, however, that Bernardo Boyl, O.S.B., became first vicar Apostolic of the New World. This was due to the intrigues of King Ferdinand of Spain who employed Boyl, the Benedictine, to great advantage in several important diplomatic negotiations and had sought his appointment as vicar Apostolic in America. When the papal Bull arrived in Spain, ignoring the king's choice, and nominating a Franciscan of the same name with the trifling difference of the i and y, which letters were pronounced alike, the only exception being in the order to which the respective priests belonged, it became convenient to conclude that a mistake had been made in Rome--which interpretation Ferdinand found expedient to favour his own ends and views. A false copy of the Bull was therefore made with the necessary changes and delivered to Boyl, the Benedictine, while appointing Boil, the Franciscan. In time this latter document disappeared so completely that no trace of it could be found in the Spanish archives. A copy, however, was carefully preserved in the Vatican library and was brought to light by the researches of the historian Roselly. Bernardo Boil, O.F.M., never knew of the high dignity which Alexander VI had conferred upon him. It is certain he did not leave Spain; yet he was de jure the true, legitimate, and first vicar Apostolic of the New World. As regards Bernardo Boyl, O.S.B., it is a matter of history that his labours were without fruit, and the only record of his official action in America is the fulmination of censures.

ROSELLY DE LORGUES, Christophe Coloumb; Histoire de sa vie et de ses voyages (Paris, 1856); I, 506-513, tr., BARRY (Boston, 1870); TARDUCCI, Vita di Cristoforo Colombo (Milan, 1885), I, xxxi, 613-615; GAMS, Kirchen, Spaniens, III, 96-100; HEUSER in Records of American Catholic Historical Society (Philadelphia, 1896), VII, 141-154; see also WADDING, Annales Minorum, XV, 28-31, where reference is made to a curious work of fiction describing the imaginary labours of the Benedictine Boyl in West Indies.

Bibliography

Attribution

• F. Fita, Fray Bernal Buyl o el primer apóstol del Nuevo mundo (Madrid 1884)

Further reading

• B. T. F. Poole, Case Reopened: An Enquiry into the 'Defection' of Fray Bernal Boyl and Mosen Pedro Margarit, Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Nov., 1974), pp. 193–210