Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/704

684 The prestige of the church was jealously upheld by law and the Indians continued to pay the regular clergy the reverence which the early missionaries had won from them, a reverence bordering on veneration. This wrought no mischief so long as it was shown to men worthy of it, for the old friars were firm supporters of the government, but when bestowed on a corrupt and presumptuous clergy it became a source of great danger, especially as the lower offices of the church were in the hands of discontented natives, who, being in contact with the masses, must have influenced them in political affairs. This element became a powerful agent, and the time came when it worked upon the hearts of a large majority of the inhabitants against the Spanish domination.

The church of Mexico, like that of the rest of Spanish America, was under the immediate control of the crown, through its representatives, the viceroy and governors, by virtue of the real patronato. This was a right held as the most valuable of the crown's attributes; it was claimed on the ground of prior