Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/719

Rh The gross amount of tithes collected in all the dioceses was in the decade ending in 1779, 13,357,157 pesos; in that ending in 1789, 18,353,821 pesos. The total revenue of the nine dioceses for 1803 was 539,000 pesos according to official records. These figures have been disputed, however, and it has even been positively asserted that the actual revenue of these bishoprics and that of Chiapas amounted in 1805 to twelve or thirteen million pesos, out of which sum four millions fell to the share of the archbishop.

Property left by bishops and archbishops at their death, resulting from the revenue of their sees, reverted to the crown, under royal cédula of March 28, 1620, and was known under the name of espolios. All the chief offices of the church were filled by royal appointment, and the incumbents were required to pay the crown the media anata, or one half of the first year's income. The offices of minor importance yielding less than $413 paid the crown only one month's income, known as the mesada.

Toward the end of the seventeenth century the