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Spain backpedaled on secular church regulation when the Franciscans threatened a mass walk-out
Source: Situado and Sabana #82
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The Franciscans had no intention of either submitting or conforming [to the secular governance mandated in 1637]. When pressed too hard, their Commissary General for the Indies would disarmingly volunteer to order them all to surrender their posts and devote themselves to contemplation. This threat of a mass walk-out would lead to soothing words and backtracking cedulas. One such cedula sent in 1668 to the bishops in the northeast of New Spain reminded them that the regular clergy require neither appointment nor institution by the Bishop to administer the holy sacraments in the missions nor to do anything else which will contribute to the conversion of the unhappy Indians, nor for the instruction of converts. Deep and unresolved internal divisions lay beneath the surface unity of the Church in Spanish society, fissures that in the colony of Florida would be exposed to view by acrimonious disputes over precedent or privilege. These disputes would pit the Franciscans against governors, against parish priests, against one another, and finally, against a royally appointed auxiliary bishop from their own order. (Bushnell SS)
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