Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/687

Rh after the payment of expenses for public worship and for the support of the prelates, it was ordered to be paid into the royal treasury, since according to papal concession such tithes belonged to the crown. The collection of these ecclesiastical rents was not seldom a cause of dispute between the church and the state, as well as between prelates. Yet it cannot be denied that the king frequently devoted to religious purposes that portion of the tithes which accrued to himself.

In June 1539 a royal cédula was passed, assigning to the bishops of Tlascala, Oajaca, and Michoacan one fourth of the tithes collected in their respective dioceses, and ordering that if their stipends could not be paid from that source the deficiency should be made good from other funds of the royal treasury; but in October of the same year a more permanent division was made. The crown ordered that one half of the tithes accruing to each cathedral should be devoted to the use of the prelate; and the other half divided into nine equal parts, called novenos, two of which were set apart for the crown, three for the building of the cathedral and hospital, and the remaining four ninths appropriated to the payment of the salaries of the curas. Various modifications were made from time to time according to the requirements of circumstances, but the kings of Spain ever maintained their right to the two ninths. These novenos were not