Nor did the pertinacious and meddlesome friars confine themselves to throwing down the gauntlet to the church. In political matters also they became aggressive, and consequent hostility arose between them and the local authorities. In Indian towns they attempted to control elections and thereby the municipal governments; but above all they devoted their anxious care and attention to the question of tributes, and the distribution of the surplus proceeds, of which they were eager to have a share. It is true that they had often winked at the rascalities of alcaldes mayores and corregidores; but then they hoped to have their reward, and when this did not correspond with their expectations, wrath and enmity were displayed on both sides.[1] Nevertheless, the foothold they had gained was strong, and they struggled to maintain it. In 1564 the visitador Valderrama represented to Philip that the orders were striving to keep the control they had hitherto possessed, not only in spiritual but in temporal affairs, which would be no difficult matter, since their influence with the viceroy was so great he expressed fears that whatever he might arrange about Indians and tributes would, after he left Mexico, be undone by the artful friars concealing tribute payers or reporting them as dead.[2] The friars, he added, decidedly opposed the counting of the Indians, and went so far as to proclaim from the pulpit that the epidemic then raging[3] was a punishment for
- ↑ Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., iv. 455-6.
- ↑ 'Ora sea diciendo que son muertos los tributarios, ora escondiéndolos, ó por otros muchos caminos que ellos saben.' Valderrama, Cartas (Feb. 24, 1564), in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., iv. 365, 372.
- ↑ It was not a dangerous one. Mendieta attributed it to the anger of God, when the visitador had the Indians counted, and their tribute augmented, Valderrama, Cartas, Id., iv. 360; Mendieta, Carta, in Icazbalceta, 11. 515.
emolument for services. Many of the less scrupulous secured a maintenance for their relatives out of what they obtained from the Indians. The visitador, Valderrama, confirmed the statement with these words, 'y tambien algo en parientes y otras cosillas.' Cortés quaintly remarks, 'esta invencion, de cobrar de tributos, la inventó algun fraile.' According to his computation the whole expense the king would incur could not much exceed 70,000 pesos, allowing each friar 100 pesos a year — 70 pesos really sufficed — and also a small additional sum to cover the cost of wine, oil, and church effects. Cortés, Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., iv. 454-7; Valderrama, Cartas, Id., iv. 360.
