Secularization and the laity in colonial Mexico: Queretaro, 1598-1821
Description
Franciscan friars undertook the initial evangelization efforts in the city of Queretaro and were entrusted with the administration of parishes in conjunction with their monastery. Voluntary associations of laity, or cofradias, were established by the friars beginning in the late sixteenth century. The documentary evidence left by cofradias and lay Third Orders is used to examine the social and religious constructs of the Spanish, black, and native Mexican and Otomi populations Beginning in the last decades of the seventeenth century, these cofradias became a convenient means through which the secular clergy and other religious orders gained control over the administration of the laity, previously the exclusive domain of the Franciscans. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the strength of the secular clergy throughout New Spain was such that numerous parishes were 'secularized', or removed from the control of the friars and turned over to the secular clergy One of the most prominent features of the new secular parishes was the creation of the 'modern' cofradia, one which would standardize saint cults and eliminate what was perceived by church hierarchy as mere superstition. As a result of secularization in Queretaro in 1758, the laity was expected to shift cult devotion and financial support to the secular priests. In reality, however, cofradias at these new secular parishes were devoid of zeal and enthusiasm. Loyalties very clearly remained with the friars. New cofradias affiliated with Franciscans were formed to provide generous funds for works of mercy and for primary education In addition, a cult to the Virgin Mary, that of Nuestra Senora de Pueblito, became the single most important focus of religious devotion for all ethnic groups at the close of the colonial era. This cult embodied many aspects of Franciscan spirituality absent from the secular parishes and thus confirmed the survival of a Franciscan social and religious ethos at the close of the colonial period. Cofradia and Third Order documents, then, record the dynamic between the secular and the regular clergy and its effect on the history of the laity