of aggrandizement, and whenever a mission was deemed of sufficient importance thither was sent a secular priest, and the friars were relieved of their charge and sent about their business. Their successors, however, were not men of like spirit with themselves. Their devotion was generally lukewarm, and they showed little real solicitude in watching over the moral and material well-being of the Indians. Thus many missions, which under the conduct of the friars had thrived, were soon abandoned, the buildings fell to ruins, and the natives relapsed into idolatry.[1]
Yet the stipends allowed by the crown to even successful friars was a mere pittance, and paid grudgingly or not at all.[2] Nevertheless the routine of duties was punctually performed at the permanently established missions. Daily at sunrise the bells summoned the Indians both male and female to church, where the padre, after prayer, explained the chief mysteries of the faith. Then the little children from five years old and upwards were instructed in the first rudiments, while the catechumens and those more advanced listened morning and afternoon to explanations of the grace whereby they should be saved.[3]
- ↑ Viceroy Revilla Gigedo, in a full report to the court of Spain in 1793 on the subject of missions, disapproved of the secularization of missions. 'No estoy muy conforme con las misiones que se han secularizado ni tomaré esta proudencia sin que precedan seguridades visibles de su buen éxito, porque los curas elérigos no pueden hacer mas que los religiosos.' He thus describes the condition of certain missions that had been secularized: 'Es muy lastimoso el estado de las que se pusieron d cargo de sacerdotes clérigos, pues las mas se hallan sin ministros, y los existentes eu calidad de interinos, sirven contra toda su voluntad, haciendo repetidas renuncias.' Carta dirigida á la corte, in Dic. Univ., V. 439, 469.
- ↑ The stipend allowed each misionero was 300 pesos a year. Venegets, 232-3. In 1705 the allowance for the missions of the Jesuits not having been paid for three years, a council was held by them at which it was determined to abandon their missions and surrender them to the secular clergy. Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, iii. 141-2. Revilla Gigedo urged the necessity of not regarding too closely the expense of stipends for missions, not merely for the sake of justice but also of safety. Carta, in Dicc. Univ., v. 470; Mayer MSS., no. xi.
- ↑ On feast days care was taken that all should attend mass, the Indians being called up one by one to kiss the padre's hand so that the absent ones could be noted. The more intelligent were exhorted to frequent communion. Palou, Vida, 25-6. These regulations were observed in the missions of Cerro Gordo, Querétaro, and Zacatecas.
