Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/409

Rh An equally difficult question to decide is the site of the first church, but there is good reason to suppose that the parochial church stood on ground previously occupied by the great Aztec temple, and where the old cathedral was afterward erected. By a bull of Pope Clement VII. this church was elevated in 1530 to the rank of cathedral, so that the first cathedral and the parochial church were identical. But this edifice was only regarded as a provisional one, and during the presidency of Fuenleal the construction of a more appropriate building was begun and completed by the viceroy Mendoza. As time advanced this structure also was too humble in which to celebrate the worship of God with becoming grandeur. A few decades later was laid the first stone of the magnificent edifice which exists to-day.