The Church in Colonial Latin America

Abstract

The Catholic Church was undoubtedly the single most important institution in colonial Latin America. Everyone who lived in the region was nominally a member of the Church. The Church controlled all aspects of life from birth, through marriage, until death. The Church became the single largest landowner within the colony, developing commercial agriculture to support many of its activities. Religious orders within the Church created vertically integrated commercial activities such as sheep production and weaving, grape production and brandy. The missionaries of the Church had the principal responsibility of converting the millions of natives of the New World to the faith, which was a daunting task because of significant linguistic and cultural differences. Through the local bishop and the powers of the Inquisition, the Church also monitored the homogeneity of the philosophical underpinnings of the society, assuring conformity of thought. In short, the colonial Church touched nearly every aspect of life. At the same time, the Church was not a monolithic institution. On the most basic level the clergy fall into two large camps: the secular or diocesan clergy and the regular clergy. The former include the common parish priests who served under the supervision of the local bishop or archbishop, as well as high-ranking clerics such as those who served in the cathedrals. The latter include members of religious orders, both male and female. In this way the regular clergy can also be seen as highly fragmented since each religious order had its own internal governance and hierarchy reaching ultimately to the Pope. The Franciscans and Dominicans, while similar in many ways, had very different approaches to evangelization. The Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order, was a relative newcomer, being founded in the 1540s, and having very little in common with the older orders. At the same time, the diocesan clergy and the bishops who governed the dioceses fell administratively under the supervision of the King of Spain, thanks to a series of papal grants and privileges. This control over the Church in the New World was known as the Royal Patronage. The Church also evolved significantly over the 300 years of colonial rule. From humble beginnings with the early missionaries, the Church became wealthy and powerful. Jurisdictions shifted as local bishops came to regulate idolatry and heresy among the native population while the Inquisition focused more on larger political and social issues. In the end, the Spanish Crown recognized that the Church was a very powerful institution and sought to control many of its activities.