Moctezuma had to deal with a god

By Miguel Encinias
For the Journal
Moctezuma remained passive, bowing to his religion.
He believed Cortes was a god, but he also wanted the stranger to go away. Perhaps sorcery would work.
Cortes, thinking he could accomplish a takeover peacefully, refused Tlascalan help and took only porters into Tenochtitlan.
When Moctezuma's enchanters did not succeed in driving the Spaniards away, the emperor turned to bribery, offering 200 pounds of gold to Cortes and 50 for each captain, but Cortes would not be deterred.
Moctezuma provided a high ranking escort into Tenochtitlan, the Venice of the New World. Thus the small Spanish contingent entered on the 8th of November to huge crowds lining their path.
When Moctezuma appeared, Cortes at first was kept from him. Then the Spanish leader graciously took a necklace he was wearing and put it around the emperor's neck.
The potentate in his welcoming speech acknowledged Cortes as a god whose city, mat and stool he had been keeping for him. He even escorted the Spaniards personally to their assigned palace of Face-of-Water-Lord, which had been his father's residence.
The palace was grandiose by any standards. It had scented wood panels and was more spacious and dazzling a place than the Spaniards had ever seen.
Cortes and his men were now in the center of a major city in a large lake, completely at the mercy of their bewildered hosts. What saved them was the belief that Cortes was a god -- something he could not comprehend, but willingly accepted.
In a tour of the city, besides the dreamlike wonder of its canals, palaces and pyramids, he saw altars drenched with human blood and racks holding innumerable human skulls, yet there was not the slightest sign of hostility.
Moctezuma had acknowledged Cortes' right to rule, but had not turned over any ruling functions to him. His task was to find a way to take practical power from a gracious, submissive emperor without violence or offense.
The idea came to him to invite his host to go live with him in the palace assigned to the Spaniards. At first Moctezuma was reluctant for many reasons, but how could he turn down a god?
Once there, Moctezuma appeared to enjoy giving presents of gold on the slightest occasion.
Little by little Cortes made his authority felt, eventually convincing the gentle monarch to swear fealty to Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, who was also Charles I of Spain.
Moctezuma did it despite questioning how a god could be subordinate to a mortal.
Sooner or later the issue of Christian values vs. "pagan gods" would lead to trouble.
It started when Cortes had an Aztec shrine cleaned of human blood and an image of the Virgin Mary installed.
This angered the priests, who insisted, through the god Smoking Mirror, that the Spaniards be killed for such a desecration.
Moctezuma, fearing Smoking Mirror more than Quetzalcoatl, told Cortes his gods had ordered him to make war on the strangers and advised Cortes to withdraw from the city. Cortes countered that he would go, but that he would have to take the emperor with him to meet the Spanish monarch.
The emotionally besieged sovereign felt obliged to acquiesce, and even offered carpenters to help build ships.