that there were no righteous men among the friars. The records of the chroniclers show that many excellent and worthy members, of high principle and noble intent, labored in New Spain during this period of backsliding. But their numbers were comparatively few, and they were unable, by the exemplary lives which they led, to leaven the heavy mass of ungodliness into which they had been cast.[1]
So rapidly did the number of the regulars increase,[2] and so tempting were the inducements to the idle and vicious to join societies which offered to them opportunities of indulgence in indolence, lust, and pleasure, that the king in 1754 decreed, in accord with the holy see, that for the ten succeeding years no person should be admitted into any of the religious orders in New Spain under any pretext.[3] Of the actual number of friars resident in the country previous to the close of the eighteenth century, little information can be obtained. According to Alzate,[4] in 1787, there were in the city of Mexico alone 1,033 regulars, and Humboldt states that in 1803 in the twenty-three convents of friars then existing in the capital, there were about 1,200 members, 580 of whom were priests and choristers. The same author estimates the number of friars throughout the country, including lay brothers and servants, at between 7,000 and 8,000.[5]
While convents and friars thus multiplied, religious
- ↑ A modern author thus describes the moral condition of friars during the seventeenth century: 'Generalmente vivian entregados á los vicios, hallándose sin embargo muchos sacerdotes dignos en las congregaciones de S. Pedro, S. Francisco Javier y S. Felipe Neri; pero la mayor parte del clero era ignorante, relajado en sus costumbres y se cuidaba poeo de la conveniencia en el trage y los alimentos, notándose desde entonces propensiones en esa clase á las rebeliones y motines.' Rivera, Gob. de Mex., i. 239.
- ↑ According to Calle, Mem. y Not., 45, in the middle of the seventeenth century there were more than 400 convents of all orders in New Spain. The bull of 1611 ordering that each convent should have at least eight inmates, was constantly disregarded. The pope issued briefs to the same effect in 1693 and 1698, and in 1703 the king commanded viceroys to enforce the order. Ordenes de la Corona, vii. 8-10.
- ↑ Castro, Diario, 53-5.
- ↑ Gazetas, i. 34.
- ↑ Essai Pol., i. 127, 129.
