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Friars reminded the Crown that Floridians were too poor to fund churches
Source: Situado and Sabana #82
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In 1604, shortly after the restoration of the missions in Guale, Father Pedro Bermejo reminded the Crown that Florida was dependent on the royal treasury for the support of religion. The espanoles were too poor to give alms to the church, and the Indians were so poor that instead of giving alms, he said, they ought to receive them (Bermejo, 1604). Hundreds of letters like Bermejo' s can be found in the archives of the Indies. They were the grant application forms of the Spanish Empire, for, recognizing the expense of establishing decent worship on the frontier, the Crown made two kinds of grants to doctrinas. The first were the extraordinary grants for building and furnishing, funded by the royal share of Indies tithes. The second were the ordinary grants for supplies, funded in most places by the income of encomiendas that had reverted to the Crown. In Florida, which had skipped the phase of private encomiendas, the Crown left it up to local officials to find an alternate source of funds for supply grants. (Bushnell SS)
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