Ferdinand of Aragon had negotiated control of church moneys in 1502 when pope Alexander VI "conferred the tithes of all the Indies on the king on condition that he should endow the churches and provide an adequate maintenance for their ministers." This bull coincided with the onset of Columbus’s fourth voyage, and ensured the church’s standing in the New World.
He already had been granted the power to nominate high ecclesiastical leaders during the conquest of Granada in 1486. Julian II extended patronato to the New World in 1508. The two agreed any proposal for a new mission would be reviewed by the audiencia, the viceroy, and the bishop before being presented to the Consejo de Indias. In return, the Vatican gained control of the Papal States on the Italian peninsula.
Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV of France, used patronato real to nominate religious leaders in the New World who appreciated the need for centralized secular power. He appointed Juan de Vizarrón arzobispo de México in 1730. The Andalusian had studied in Rome at the College of San Clemente before serving in Seville where he was Philip’s chaplain.
In 1734, Vizarrón renewed the church’s efforts to collect diezmo from Jesuit haciendas. The order proposed a "temporary arrangement" to the audiencia, who rejected it. The members felt both they and the archbishop/viceroy had been "insulted." They ordered full payment of tithes from 1734, and forwarded the paperwork to Madrid. According to Hubert Howe Bancroft, the "king’s council" ordered payment and demanded "sworn statements" declaring the value of the order’s estates.
In Nuevo México, subordination of religious orders to secular clergy was more important than tithes. The mere fact the obispo de Durango visited Santa Fé in 1730 was seen as an affront. Benito Crespo’s ensconcement of Santiago de Roybal as Vicario y Juez Esclesiástico was taken as provocation. The Franciscan’s local custodio, Andrés Varo, considered himself to be the legitimate local vicar.
Philip had appointed Crespo in 1722. Born in a small village in Castile near the border with Estremadura, he had trained at San Marcos de León in Salamanca and was a knight of Santiago. That military order had been under crown control since Ferdinand asserted his authority in 1499.
Roybal had been ordained in México by Crespo. He, no doubt, was selected because he was the son of Francesca de Gómez Robledo and Ignacio de Roybal. They had sent the boy to Mexico City for his education.
On his way back to Durango Crespo wrote the viceroy that the Franciscans were collecting fees for 40 friars, but only had deployed 33. The Santa Cruz parish was included in the endowment for Santa Clara, "where he has never resided." He recommended transferring Santa Cruz, along with the other Spanish-speaking parishes, to his jurisdiction, and consolidating Santa Clara and San Juan de Caballeros into the mission at San Ildefonso.
The Franciscan’s immediate response was to send Juan Miguel Menchero north in 1731 to develop a counterstrategy. Soon after, Santa Cruz began keeping better baptismal records that would prove they were serving the villa and would document the numbers of souls brought into the church. They had kept reasonably complete records from 1710 to 1714. After that only chance notes survived.
In a separate letter to the viceroy, Crespo criticized the fees charged by friars for baptisms, burials and other sacraments because they were "so high and exorbitant that there were no fixed schedule except the will of the father missionaries." To encourage more participation by parishioners and natives, he fixed price schedules. He cited a royal order from 1725 as his justification.
Menchero countered with an order that "no friar was to charge an Indian any fee whatsoever for administering the sacraments."
| Year | Baptisms | DM's | Marriages |
| 1710 | 2 | 1 | |
| 1711 | 8 | 1 | |
| 1712 | 8 | 1 | |
| 1713 | 43 | ||
| 1714 | 12 | 5 | |
| 1715 | 3 | 3 | |
| 1716 | 4 | ||
| 1717 | 4 | ||
| 1718 | 8 | ||
| 1719 | 5 | ||
| 1720 | 2 | 5 | |
| 1721 | 27 | 1 | |
| 1722 | 2 | ||
| 1723 | 6 | ||
| 1724 | |||
| 1725 | 4 | ||
| 1726 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 1727 | 6 | 6 | |
| 1728 | 3 | 7 | |
| 1729 | 1 | ||
| 1730 | 1 | 12 | |
| 1731 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1732 | 50 | 1 | |
| 1733 | 35 | 16 | |
| 1734 | 62 | 7 | |
| 1735 | 38 | 6 | |
| 1736 | 26 | 9 | |
| 1737 | 2 | 15 | |
| 1738 | 48 | 8 | |
| 1739 | 19 | 10 | |
| Santa Cruz de la Cañada | |||
Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, and San Juan de los Caballeros were given bound books in 1726 for recording baptisms, marriages, and deaths. They’re our only detailed record of the population between then and 1760. The diligencias matrimoniales are missing. Angélico Chávez believed Roybal, "kept or removed only the DMs pertaining to his term," but suggested no motive. It also may be the Franciscans refused to forward them to him, and they subsequently were lost.
With a forgivable bias towards the Franciscans, Chávez believed Roybal, "with the brashness of youth, had continued enraging some of his adversaries," and was moved to El Paso in 1733.
That didn’t relieve Menchero of secular oversight. Crespo sent Juan Bustamante in his place.
He was another second generation migrant from northern Spain who had ties with the local elite. Chávez believed he was the son, nephew or brother of the earlier governor from El Paso, Juan Domingo de Bustamante.
Notes: The New Mexico Genealogical Society began transcribing and translating the sacramental books in 1976. They’ve published their extracts for Santa Cruz baptisms and marriages, and for Santa Clara and Juan de los Caballeros marriages. Microfilms of the originals are available.
Adams, Eleanor B. Bishop Tamarón’s Visitation of New Mexico, 1760, 1954.
Archdiocese of Puebla. "Excmo. Sr. Don Benito Crespo (1734-1737)," their website.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Mexico, Volume III, 1600-1803, 1883.
Chávez, Angélico. "El Vicario Don Santiago Roybal," El Palacio 65:231-252:1948.
_____. New Mexico Roots, Ltd, 1982; on missing diligencias matrimoniales.
_____. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition; on Bustamante.
Crespo y Monroy, Benito. Letter to the viceroy, Juan Vásquez de Acuña, 8 September 1730; translation in Adams; recommended consolidating missions.
_____. Letter to the viceroy, Juan Vásquez de Acuña, 25 September 1730; translation in Adams; on fees for services.
Crivelli, Camillus. "Mexico," The Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10, 1911; quotation summarizing bull of Alexander VI.
Kessell, John L. Kiva, Cross and Crown, 1995; Menchero quotation.
Traboulay, David M. Columbus and Las Casas: The Conquest and Christianization of America, 1492-1566, 1994.
Wikipedia. Entry for Juan Antonio de Vizarrón y Eguiarreta."
Table: Data from New Mexico Genealogical Society.
New Mexico Baptisms, Santa Cruz de la Cañada Church, Volume I, 1710 to 1794, transcribed by Virginia Langham Olmstead and compiled by Margaret Leonard Windham and Evelyn Luján Baca, 1994.
100 Years of Marriages, 1726-1826, Santa Cruz de la Cañada, New Mexico, extracted and compiled by Henrietta Martinez Christmas and Patricia Sánchez Rau.
A number of Apaches were baptized in 1713.
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