^
Update this timeline entry
Montiano refused to settle a clergy dispute
Source: The Governorship of Spanish Florida #122
Project ID
Chapter
No chapter
Timeline title
Start date
End date
Filename received
Filename assigned
Content
Enable editor
Use plain text
Code entry
In 1745 the outgoing auxiliary bishop revived the issue for the last time. In this case it appears that the bishop was attempting to save the prestige of the secular clergy and prevent its domination by the regulars. Especially after the decline in their mission program, the conventual church had become a busy center of religious activity for the residents of Saint Augustine. Most of the more prestigious citizens heard Mass there and requested burial in the conventual plot. Apparently, too, Buenaventura hoped to strengthen the secular clergy by getting a reversal of the king’s decisions of 1702 and 1707. When the matter first came before Governor Montiano, he followed Zuniga’s course by referring the question to the king. Montiano knew he would alienate either the curate or the guardian and lose the support of one or the other. He reasoned that any decision he made would be appealed to the king, and he could save time by submitting the question to the crown immediately. In any event, in this case the king reversed his decisions of 1702 and 1707 and awarded the curate sacramental jurisdiction over all residents of Saint Augustine. [Note 81: Auxiliary bishop of Cuba to king 3/28/1745] Although the decision of 1746 closed the matter, the pattern of the controversy was surprising. In the first decade of the century the king twice sided with the regular clergy in a reversal of the pattern developing throughout the Indies. In most cases in America the crown was secularizing towns controlled by the regular clergy, taking power out of the hands of the friars and awarding it to the priests, who could more rigidly be brought under royal control through the royal patronage. In Florida the trend toward secularization did not occur until 1746. Evidently, it made little difference whether the secular clergy dominated the out-of-the-way province. (Tepaske GSF)
Replace existing data with this data
