of the orders, with returning to Spain, rich in silver and gold, to buy preferment.
The treatment of the natives, the questions of tribute and tithes, and the administering of the sacraments alike afforded ground for angry dispute,[1] but of these the bitterest was the question of tithes. The church demanded the payment of tithes to the bishop of each diocese, by all residents within its limits, Indians inclusive. The archbishop of Mexico in a letter of May 15, 1556, to the royal council, had asked that Indians should pay tithes, or rather a tax, for the time being, to be levied at the rate of one out of every fifteen. But the crown would allow no such taxation of natives.[2] The regular orders, while not opposed to such a source of revenue, objected to the bishops receiving income thus derived, and claimed it for themselves as Levites serving with the pope's license — a doctrine which the ecclesiastical prelates abhorred.[3] They endeavored, however, to explain the origin of their differences with the church in this respect,[4] and proposed to leave the question of tithes to the judgment of the king, and their right to protect Indians from abuses, as well as their privileges generally, to arbitrators, but these proposals were not regarded.[5]
- ↑ In 1556 the complaints of the archbishop of Mexico were loud and bitter against the religious orders, for their assumption of power in the treatment of Indians, and for their disregard of his authority. He asserted that the three orders had banded to effect their purposes of laying before the court false charges against him, the bishops, and the oidores. The demands of the orders, he said, were both unreasonable and unjust. The same year the king reprimanded the three religious orders for their disputes. Arzobispado, Rel., in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., iv. 491-530.
- ↑ Philip II., on promulgating the order of the council of Trent upon payment of tithes by the faithful, expressly exempted the Indians. Puga, Cedulario, 194-5; Torquemada, iii. 263.
- ↑ Mich. Prov. S. Nicolas, 38.
- ↑ Feb. 25, 1561. Peña et al., Carta al Rey, in Cartas de Indias, 147-51.
- ↑ Martin Cortés, the marquis, recommended in 1563 that tithes should be abolished, and that the king should support the friars in general, excepting those living in towns given in encomienda, who should be supported by the respective encomenderos, on condition that none of them should receive other
specially requested not to give the bishops elect any of the emoluments collected till they had actually entered upon the discharge of their episcopal duties. This same thing had been decreed in 1561. No archbishop or bishop was to go to Spain without the king's permission. Zamora, Bib. Leg. Ult., iv. 484-6, 491; Recop. de Ind., i. 54-5.
