Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/685

Rh of the orders, with returning to Spain, rich in silver and gold, to buy preferment.

The treatment of the natives, the questions of tribute and tithes, and the administering of the sacraments alike afforded ground for angry dispute, but of these the bitterest was the question of tithes. The church demanded the payment of tithes to the bishop of each diocese, by all residents within its limits, Indians inclusive. The archbishop of Mexico in a letter of May 15, 1556, to the royal council, had asked that Indians should pay tithes, or rather a tax, for the time being, to be levied at the rate of one out of every fifteen. But the crown would allow no such taxation of natives. The regular orders, while not opposed to such a source of revenue, objected to the bishops receiving income thus derived, and claimed it for themselves as Levites serving with the pope's license — a doctrine which the ecclesiastical prelates abhorred. They endeavored, however, to explain the origin of their differences with the church in this respect, and proposed to leave the question of tithes to the judgment of the king, and their right to protect Indians from abuses, as well as their privileges generally, to arbitrators, but these proposals were not regarded.