sisterhoods increased in a corresponding degree. The several orders established during the sixteenth century founded additional nunneries in various parts, and the number of such institutions was further swelled by the arrival at intervals of sisters of other orders. In 1615 a convent of the barefooted Carmelite nuns was founded in the city of Mexico, and in 1666 that of the Capuchinas.[1] During the period between 1588 and the middle of the eighteenth century the number of such religious houses increased from seven to twenty, of different denominations.[2]
Nunneries were also founded in Puebla, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Michoacan, and Jalisco, the most notable of which were those of La Merced arid the Capuchinas in Michoacan, the first being established at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and the second in 1737.[3]
It would be supposed that these religious establishments, designed as peaceful retreats for females, would be free from strife; but truth compels me to say that the nuns were as contentious as the friars. All the orders, in fact, incessantly endeavored to shake off' the control exercised over them by the provincial prelates, and free themselves from their supervision.[4] Conspicuous among these restive female communities was the nunnery of Santa Clara. The governing members of that organization claimed exemption from
- ↑ Sigüenza y Góngora, Parayso Occid., 39-47. In 1678 a daughter of the alcalde de corte, Saenz Moreno, only five years of age, entered the order of the Capuchin nuns. Robles, Diario, ii. 272. Felipe IV. gave permission for the founding of this nunnery in 1664. Montemayor, Sumarios, 10.
- ↑ San Vicente, Exacta Descrip., 27; Hist. Mex., ii. 737, this series. In 1787 there were 1,055 nuns in the city of Mexico. Alzate, Gazetas, i. 34. Humboldt gives 923 as the number in 1790, while in 1803 there were in the 15 nunneries then existing in the capital about 2,100, of whom 900 were professed nuns. Essai Pol., i. 195.
- ↑ Iglesias, Rel, 239, 241-2; Romero, Not. Mich., 27, 45. In 1754 the convent of la Purisima Concepcion was founded in Guanajuato. Gomara, Exemp. Relig., 11-18.
- ↑ Viceroy Mancera informs the king that the nuns caused constant trouble to the government in such attempts. His Majesty instructed him not to allow himself or the civil authorities to intervene in cases of the kind. This relieved the government of much annoyance. Instruc., in Doc. Inéd., xxi. 479-85.
