The Legacy of Mesoamerica History and Culture of a Native American Civilization, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 5 THE COLONIAL PERIOD IN MESOAMERICA 185

Figure 5.1 The main Spanish colonial jurisdictions established in Mesoamerica during the
sixteenth century. After Howard F. Cline, “Introductory Notes on Territorial Divisions of Middle
America,” The Handbook of Middle American Indians, Volume 12: Guide to Ethnohistorical
Sources, Pt. 1,volume editor Howard F. Cline, general editor Robert Wauchope. Austin, TX:
University of Texas Press, 1972, p. 25.

The ecclesiastical administration of Spain’s colonies was carried out by two groups
within the Roman Catholic Church: the secular clergy (so-named because they live
in the world at large), made up of clerics in the ecclesiastical hierarchy that extends
from the Pope to parish priests; and the regular clergy (so-called because they live
according to a rule or regla), which comprises the mendicant orders (those who live
from donations and alms, such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, Mer-
cedarians, etc.) and the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits.
For most of the Colonial period, the entire region of the pre-Hispanic Mesoamer-
ican world fell within the Archdiocese of Mexico, headed by the Archbishop of Mex-
ico, although after 1745, portions of southern Mesoamerica became part of the newly
created Archdiocese of Guatemala with its own archbishop. Diocesan divisions within
Mesoamerica included, at various times, Guadalajara, Michoacán, Mexico, Tlaxcala,
Antequera (Oaxaca), Chiapa, Yucatán, Verapaz, Trujillo, and León, each adminis-
tered by a bishop. Within the dioceses were smaller divisions, the parishes, adminis-
tered by parish priests.
The regular clergy came to the Spanish colonies with the specific mission of
bringing Christianity to the Indian communities. In the New World, members of the

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