«Quiso Dios» o «acordé y me determiné»: voluntad divina o libre albedrío de Cortés en la Segunda relación

At different times in the Christian world, such as the world that Cortes lived in, a tension has been registered between the predetermination of God, who works through His Divine Providence, and the will of man: if they touch or they are distanced; if the renunciation of one implies the action of another; if they coexist or if they are committed. Furthermore, Christian historiography makes distinctions around providentialism, at least among three notable authors: Augustine and Paulus Orosius in one hand, and Thomas Aquinas, in the other. This paper analyzes the mixture of providentialisms employed by Cortés in his Second letter (1520), where he himself sees divine signs of witnessed events, as well as he anticipates future triumphs, or he decides on his own. Moreover, in the face to his own bewilderment of what he cannot explain, he uses his own rhetoric to persuade the king of Spain of the importance of having his legitimacy and funding to conquer Mexico, according to the letter’s sign’s date