Abstract

AGUIRRE SALVADOR, Rodolfo. The Establishment of Ecclesiastic Judges in the Doctrinas de Indios: the Archbishoprics of Mexico in the frst half of the Eighteenth Century. hist.crit. [online]. 2008, n.36, pp.14-35. ISSN 0121-1617.

The central aim of this article is to determine the origin and the history of the local ecclesiastic judges in the archbishoprics of Mexico. The rise of this institution should be understood as part of the process of consolidation of episcopal authority, which reached its apex during the frst half of the eighteenth century and preceded the secularization of doctrinas that began in 1749. The institution of the local ecclesiastic judge was a relatively late one in the parish world. While local political offices (mayors, priests, Indian chiefs and councils) began to arise in the sixteenth century, space did not start to open for another local office until the second half of the seventeenth century, and it was not until the frst half of the eighteenth century that it was fully consolidated. Judges played a central role in the subordination of Church teachings to the authority of the archbishop. When Ferdinand VI ordered the secularization of the doctrinas in Mexico in 1749, viceroyal authorities and the archbishops found the lay clergy greatly diminished and already accustomed to regulating its actions based on diocesan norms and subject to the vigilance of ecclesiastic judges.

Keywords : Archbishoprics of Mexico; Eighteenth Century; Ecclesiastic Judges; Doctrinas de Indios.

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