CHAPTER 5 THE COLONIAL PERIOD IN MESOAMERICA 213Figure 5.11 Two Nahua cantores,or choir members, rehearse their music in this native
painting from the Florentine Codex.Native choirs sang Latin chants during Church services
and also prepared music for religious festivals, when native-language songs were sung to the
accompaniment of drums and other traditional instruments. Florentine Codex,Book 10, folio
19r. Florence, The Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Sahagun, 1979. Reproduced with permis-
public celebration associated with its designated devotion. A town might have one or
more confraternities devoted to the Virgin Mary in her various forms (such as the As-
sumption, the Rosary, or the Immaculate Conception); one devoted to the Souls in
Purgatory; another devoted to the Passion of Christ; another devoted to the Eu-
charist; and another devoted to Saint Francis or some other saint. A small village
might have just two or three of these organizations, but a larger town might have a
dozen, and a city would have several attached to each of its neighborhood churches.
Members of a confraternity contributed yearly dues to a communal coffer. The
funds were used to pay for the funerals of any members who passed away (not a triv-
ial matter in times of epidemic disease); to finance Masses for the souls of the dead;
and to purchase the candles, flowers, costumes, and other paraphernalia needed for
religious festivals that the group sponsored. The members also took care of the holy
images housed in the local church. They manufactured ornate vestments and pro-
cessional platforms to be used when the images were brought out of the church
sion of MiBACT. Further reproduction by any means is prohibited.