Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/55

 the two Lopez, the spiritual was made subordinate to the temporal power. Ferdinand the Catholic obtained from Pope Alexander VI. the right of levying church tithes, upon the express condition of Christianizing his own hemisphere. Shortly afterwards (1508) Julius II. made over to him the entire patronage of ecclesiastical interests. Such concessions created the Spanish kings heads of the South American Church, and proprietors of her property; the Chief Pontiff confirmed all their appointments, and Papal Bulls had no power in their colonies unless sanctioned by the Consejo de Indias. The first oath of the Bishop elect was to recognise the spiritual superiority, and to swear that he would never oppose the prerogative (patronato real), of his sovereign. In other points the ecclesiastical hierarchy was placed on the same footing as in Spain: the prelates received a portion of the tithes, whilst the rest was devoted to propagandism, and to the building of churches.

The government of the Adelantazgo of private adventurers—the era of conquest and confusion—was succeeded by the norm of order, and by the despotism laical and clerical of the parent country. A royal decree in 1620 divided Paraguay into two governments, completely independent of each other. The first was Paraguay Proper: the other was the Rio de la Plata, which thus obtained her own capital, Buenos Aires, and the seat of her bishopric. To both colonies a king irresponsible by law gave laws and functionaries. Both Paraguay and the Argentine Provinces were governed for more than two centuries by the Vice-royalty of Peru, and the "Audience of Charcas," whose only peer was then that of Nueva España.

It was at this period that the Society of Jesus obtained permission to catechize the indolent, passive, receptive child-men called Guaranis. They were rather barbarians than savages like the nomads of the Pampas; they culti-