CHAPTER XXXII.
RELIGIOUS ORDERS.
1550-1600.
The Society of Jesus in New Spain — Distinguished Patrons of the Order and their Services — Importation of Holy Relics — Spread of the Jesuits through the Country — Brothers of Charity and St Hyppolytus — Purposes of the Association — The Carmelites — Their Labors and Advancement — Benedictines and their Priory in Mexico — The Franciscans and their Several Provinces — Their Work and Influence — Troubles with the Viceroys — Noted Franciscans in the Several Provinces — Order of Barefooted Franciscans — Their Custodial and Provincial Organization — The Dominicans and their Successes — Their Distinguished Men — The Order of St Augustine — Strict Rules — The Mercenarios, or Order of Mercy — Their Settlement in Mexico — Religious Brotherhoods and the Objects of their Devotion — Nunneries in Mexico, Oajaca, and Michoacan, and their Uses.
Having placed before the reader the condition of the Mexican church at the close of the sixteenth century, and having shown the relations between its two branches, the secular and the regular, and between the church as a whole and the crown, I now proceed to give the private history of each religious order during the same epoch. The missionary army of New Spain was greatly strengthened in 1572 by the accession of the society of Jesus. The Jesuits had already missions planted in Habana and Florida; but becoming convinced that no good results could be expected among the natives of Florida, so fickle, hostile, and cruel, the expediency was urged upon the general, Francisco de Borja,[1] of discontinuing the establishments
- ↑ The same that was canonized In 1671 by Clement X. and appears in the Roman calendar as Saint Francis Borgia on the 10th of October. Moreri and
