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Mexican Nunneries from 1835 to 1860: Their Administrative Policies and Relations with the State*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Asunción Lavrin
Asunción Lavrin*
Affiliation:
Washington, D. C.
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Extract

As it has been suggested in a previous article, by the middle of the 1830's, the Mexican government had started to put into effect a policy of stricter control over the sources of income of the Church and, at the same time, it had started to tap clerical resources with demands for loans, both forced and voluntary. In addition, Liberal politicians had put forward plans to restrict the political and economic power of the Church, not to mention its more subtle influence on areas such as education. These restrictive policies were embodied in the laws decreed by Vicente Gómez Farías during his ephemeral administration. Although the majority of these laws were later revoked, the ideological challenge of the Liberals remained alive, awaiting more propitious times. In the interim, the Conservative régimes which ruled the country from 1835 to 1855 had to face some of the most difficult political and economic crises experienced by Mexico up to that time. In trying to solve them, the Conservatives, although friendly to the Church, continued attempting to exert some form of control over clerical property, and continued to regard the Church as a source of possible funds.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , January 1972 , pp. 288 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1972

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Footnotes

*

Research for this study was made possible by a grant from the American Philosophical Society.

References

1 Lavrin, Asunción, “Problems and Policies in the Administration of Nunneries in Mexico, 1800–1835,” The Americas, 28 (1971), 57–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 For the legislation of this period consult, Dublán, Manuel y Lozano, J.M., Legislación Mexicana (Mexico, 1876), Vols. I–4.Google Scholar For the ideas of Mora, Gómez Farías and other Liberals, see, Mora, J.M.L., Disertación sobre la Naturaleza y Aplicación de las Rentas y Bienes Eclesiásticos (Mexico, 1833)Google Scholar; Heroles, J. Reyes, El Liberalismo Mexicano (3 Vols., Mexico, 1957–1961)Google Scholar; Hale, Charles, Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora, 1827–1853 (New Haven, 1968)Google Scholar; Quirarte, Martín, El Problema Religioso en Mexico (Mexico, 1967)Google Scholar; Costeloe, Michael, Church Wealth in Mexico (Cambridge, 1967).CrossRefGoogle Scholar Quirarte and Costeloe challenge Mora’s ideas on ecclesiastical wealth. The figures presented by J. M. L. Mora about the financial state of the nunneries in his Mexico y sus Revoluciones (3 Vols., 2nd ed.; Mexico: Editorial Porrúa, 1965), I, 439–440 are in such consistent disagreement with official archival records that I have decided to use only manuscript clerical sources found at the Archivo General de la Nación.

3 Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 127, fol. 155. The allocation was as follows: Archbishopric of Mexico: 50,000 pesos; Bishoprics of Puebla, 25,000 pesos; Guadalajara, 10,000 pesos; Morelia, 10,000 pesos; Oaxaca, 10,000 pesos; Durango, 6,000 pesos. The Archivo will be cited as AGN hereon.

4 AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 127, fol. 165–187. The Bishop of Puebla estimated that the total debt of the Nation to the diocese of Puebla between 1811 and 1833 amounted to 536,567 pesos, in capital and unpaid interests. This sum was incomplete since other contributions had not been accounted for. For example, the Cathedral of Puebla had contributed 49,682 pesos to the governments of the states of Veracruz, Puebla and Oaxaca from 1831 to 1834. The Bishop’s statement included contributions made for the upkeep of several armies which had passed through that area since 1811. Generals Facio, Bustamante, Arista, Durán, Canalizo and Santa Anna, among others, had requisitioned money and food on several occasions since 1823. In a list of the funds contributed by the clerical corporations of Puebla to a special war levy decreed on November 22, 1835, the convents of La Concepción and San Agustín appear as the largest contributors, with the sums of 1,543 and 1,279 pesos respectively. The total collected as of December 1835 was 16,977 pesos.

5 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 239, Cuaderno de Contestaciones … de las Religiosas, fol. 6v.

6 Ibid., fol. 7v.

7 Dublán y Lozano, op. cit., III, 166.

8 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Lag. 239, Cuaderno de Contestaciones, fol. 9v–10.

9 Ibid., fol. 22; Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 81, exp. 1; Leg. 200, numerous letters of Prioresses of nunneries to the Vicar, Juan Manuel Irisarri.

10 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 81, exp. 1; Leg. 200, Letters of Mayordomos and Prioresses throughout 1837.

11 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 200.

12 Dublán y Lozano, op. cit., III, 260; IV, 24, 58–59, 62, 117. In 1841 both Bustamante and Santa Anna proposed the issuance of new copper coinage. In November 1841 the government urged clerical institutions and lay citizens to turn over to the national treasury the old copper coins, which would be exchanged for the newly minted coins within 6 months. See also Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 239, Cuaderno de Contestaciones, fol. 17.

13 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 81, exp. 1. In 1838 the Minister of Finance proposed to the Church the creation of a clerical Bank, but the project was rejected by all the Prelates consulted. See, AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 127, fol. 296–330.

14 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 239, Cuaderno de Contestaciones, fol. 6v–7, 17–18; Leg. 200, Correspondance between Majordomos and Prioresses, 1837. Copper coinage was to be replaced by bonds, to be repaid by the government. Several payments of these bonds were made between 1841 and 1851. San Bernardo and Jesús María, for example, reported several payments of dividente. See, Bienes Nacionals, Leg. 74, Papeles Sueltos, 1840–1850, No. 37, 43.

15 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 81, exp. 1; Leg. 1071, exp. 7; Leg. 1102, Carta de la Priora del Convento de San José, Febrero 13, 1840.

16 Ibid., Leg. 81, exp. 1. These loans were probably arranged to pay claims of U. S. citizens. Both Bustamante and Santa Anna carried out these negotiations. By a decree of April 20, 1843, the government tried to raise a forced loan of 2 million pesos. The regular and secular clergy were expected to contribute with 270,000 pesos, prorated according to their means. See, Dublán y Lozano, op. cit., IV, 413.

17 Costeloe, Michael, “Church-State Financial Negotiations in Mexico during the American War, 1846–1847,” Revista de Historia de America, 60, Julio-Diciembre 1965, 91–123 Google Scholar; AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 81, exp. 1; Leg. 1017, Cuentas … de La Enseñanza, 1850; Templos y Conventos, Vol. 34, Data General del Convento de San José, 1848; Callcott, Wilfrid H., Church and State in Mexico, 1822–1857 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1926), 182 ff.Google Scholar

18 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 81, exp. 1, Memoria Secreta que la Junta de Préstamo Ecco. … acordó se elevase al Sr. Vicario Capitular … y el … Illmo Sr. Arzobispo, etc. Costeloe, in his “Church-State Financial Negotiations …” studies in greater detail the activities of this ecclesiastic junta.

19 Ibid., Leg. 81, exp. 1. All the information contained in this report remained secret and accessible only to high clerical authorities.

20 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 81, exp. 1, Cuaderno Segundo.

21 Ibid., Leg. 81; Leg. 141, Cuaderno de Administración de Religiosas, fol. 11; Leg. 74, No. 37, Entrega del Mayordomo de Jesús María, 1850.

22 Ibid., Leg. 141, Segundo Cuaderno de administración de religiosas, fol. 3.

23 Ibid., Leg. 141. Cuaderno de Administración de religiosas, fol. 3, 8. Since 1840 convents seemed to have been obliged, at times, to borrow money to meet governmental demands, especially the lesser corporations. For example, the Prioress of the Carmelites of San José, in Mexico City, requested license to borrow 1,500 pesos from a lay party in 1840. The money was lent at only ½ percent, payable in silver in 5 years. This money was needed to fulfill the convent’s quota in the loan for the National Bank. The convent had already used the money of a nun’s dowry to meet part of its quota. See, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 1102, Carta de la Priora al Vicario, Febrero 13, 1840.

24 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 1708, exp. 7. In this example, the convent of San Bernardo was able to reach a favorable arrangement with an influential general who owed the convent 31,000 pesos in capital and up to 70,000 pesos in accumulated interest. Other examples of suits can be found in Leg. 1269, exp. 14, 16; Leg 1102, Ocurso de José María Díaz; Ocurso de Mateo Velazco; Templos y Conventos, Vol. 53, exp. 55.

25 AGN, Bienes Nacionalies, Leg. 81, exp. 1. Other sales are reported in Leg. 74, No. 3. The convent of San Gerónimo sold, between April 1848 and December 1849, 4 horses, one corral and one property called ‘a ruin.’ See also, exp. No. 75 in the same Leg.; Leg. 141, Cuaderno de Administración, fol. lv; Leg. 1269, exp. 18.

26 Ibid., Leg. 74, No. 3.

27 Ibid., Leg. 1708, exp. 8, 30. This sum is smaller than that reported by the clerical Junta in 1851. However, it might be less accurate since it is an approximate estimate. Such discrepancies are, unfortunately, not infrequent in the documents of nunneries.

28 AGN, Templos y Conventos, Vol. 35, Cuentas del Convento de San José, 1854–55; Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 1269, exp. 4. In 1850, an attempt was made by the government to reorganize the internal public debt of the Nation. A Junta de Crédito Público was organized and nunneries were requested to exhibit the legal deeds of governmental loans prior and after independence. Many of the convents of the capital complied with this request and part of their debts were converted into bonds. However, it is doubtful that this ephemeral Junta went far into straightening all the pending debts. See, AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 74, No. 43, 50; de Paula Arrangoiz, Francisco, Mexico desde 1808 hasta 1867 (Mexico: Editorial Porrúa, 1968), 410.Google Scholar

29 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 1708, exp. 30; Leg. 74, Cuentas Glosadas de La Concepción, 1856–1857. An addendum to this account, made by the majordomo in August 1859, stated that over 14,000 pesos had been handed over to the government as part of a loan. The convent had been forced to turn over to the government the legal deed for a mortage of 64,000 pesos which remained from the sale of three houses. See also, Payno, Manuel, Mexico y sus Cuestiones Financieras (Mexico, 1862), 117, 121, 123 ff.Google Scholar

30 AGN, Templos y Conventos, Vol. 45, exp. 12; Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 74, No. 51, for the sale of several houses belonging to San Bernardo; No. 55, for the sale of a house of La Enseñanza Antigua; No. 68, for a case involving Santa Teresa la Nueva; Leg. 1708, exp. 4, 13, 30. Number 13 records the sale of a house by La Encarnación to L. Lauthner and Co., which took over the existing 10,000 pesos mortgage over the house. Payno, in his already cited work, lists, on page 134, the houses lost by nunneries of the capital in the payment of 320,000 pesos owed by the government to Barron, Forbes and Co. Twenty-one houses, valued for tax purposes at 309,873 pesos were adjudicated for 229,124 pesos. Davidson is quoted as having acquired 45 houses from the Church, valued at 359,873 pesos for the sum of 298,696 pesos. The subject of the loss of real estate by the Church in the 1860’s can be further pursued in the study of Berry, Charles, “The Fiction and Fact of the Reform: The Case of the Central District of Oaxaca, 1856–1867,” The Americas, 26, No. 3, January 1970, 277–290 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bazant, Jan, Alienation of Church Wealth in Mexico: Social and Economic Aspects of the Liberal Revolution, 1856–1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970).Google Scholar

31 Costeloe, , Church Wealth in Mexico. 125 Google Scholar; Dublán y Lozano, op. cit., IV, 254.

32 Dublán y Lozano, op. cit., III, 169, 176, 197, 444, 516; IV, 94; AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 74, No. 53; Leg. 81, exp. 1; Leg. 824, exp. 23 (loose receipt for payment of contribution of 3 al millar by Regina Celi, 1855); Leg. 1017, Cuenta … del Mayordomo de La Enseñanza, 1850; Templos y Conventos, Vols. 34 and 35, Cuentas del Convento de Carmelitas de San José, 1848, 1853. Convents were also obliged to pay a tax levy on the number of water pipes used in some of their properties. See, for example, Templos y Conventos, Vols. 34, 35; Leg. 1017, Cuenta … del Mayordomo de La Enseñanza.

33 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 1229, Recibos del … convento de Jesús María, 1841–42.

34 Ibid., Leg. 1269, exp. 4, Papeles de La Concepción 1855. The contribution of 3 al millar for 1855 included an additional extraordinary quarter.

35 Ibid., Leg. 1017, Cuenta … del Mayordomo de La Enseñanza, 1850; Templos y Conventos, Vols. 34, 35.

36 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 92, Papeles Varios, 1860–1869.

37 Ibid., Leg. 1934, Recibos del Convento de Jesús María.

38 Dublán y Lozano, op. cit., III, 538–39; AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 127, fol. 347.

39 Reyes Heroles, op. cit., III, 153–154.

40 Costeloe, , Church Wealth in Mexico, 91–92, 122–123.Google Scholar

41 Ibid., 116–118.

42 AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 127, fol. 333, 354, 360, 361, 366, 374, 414; Dublán y Lozano, op. cit., IV, 224; Costeloe, , Church Wealth in Mexico, 91–92.Google Scholar

43 AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 144, fol. 450–457.

44 Ibid., fol. 372; Dublán y Lozano, op. cit., IV, 559.

45 Costeloe, , Church Wealth in Mexico, 118.Google Scholar

46 AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 144, fol. 450–-457. The attorney stated that the nunnery of Santa Catalina de Sena, in Oaxaca, had been obliged to sell its hacienda of San Miguel for the capital of one chantry and its unpaid interest.

47 Dublán y Lozno, op. cit., IV, 473.

48 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 534, exp. 21.

49 AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 165, fol. 38, 43, 47.

50 Ibid., fol. 278, 288.

51 AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 127, fol. 414.

52 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 648, exp. 16.

53 Ibid., Leg. 74, No. 37, Entrega al nuevo mayordomo de Jesús María, 1850; Archivo del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Libro de Carga y Data … del Sagrado Convento de Jesús María, 1841-1842. This archive will be cited as AINAH hereon.

54 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 141, Segundo Cuaderno de Administración de Religiosas, fol. 2.

55 Ibid., Leg. 1708, exp. 23.

56 Ibid., Leg. 74, No. 52, 66.

57 Ibid., Leg. 200, Mandatos a las religiosas capuchinas, Julio 16, 1836.

58 Ibid., Leg. 180, No. 2, Carta de José M. Zurita al Vicario de Religiosas, Febrero 17, 1838.

59 Ibid., Leg. 74, No. 75. Some convents, regardless of their restricted or diminished incomes, had to spend significant sums of money in refurbishing the building of their churches. Allocations had also to be made for the repair of their property, although the sums spent in the latter purpose were much smaller than those spent on conventual churches. See Nos. 56, 58, 59 in the same legajo.

60 AGN, Templos y Conventos, Vol. 44, exp. 12. See also Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 658, exp. 16 for a description of the ruinous condition of Santa Teresa la Nueva, in Mexico City, in 1837.

61 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 137, unnumbered, September 1836.

62 Ibid., Leg. 239, Cuaderno de Contestaciones, fol. 8v.

63 Ibid., fol. 5, 10, 15. San Gerónimo reponed to have two chaplains, endowed with the “miserable” sum of 100 pesos each, and suggested a raise to 300 pesos, and 150 pesos for the sacristán. These salaries should be considered the bare minimum for such services at that time.

64 Ibid., Leg. 74, No. 55.

65 Ibid., Leg. 1269, exp. 18; Leg. 141, Cuaderno de administración de religiosas, fol. lv; Leg. 74, No. 8, 75.

66 There were 934 professed nuns in Mexico City in 1826. In a report of 1828, the number had decreased to 932. In 1844, 1309 nuns were reported in 57 convents in all of Mexico. Of these, 586, nearly 50 percent, belonged to the Archbishopric. The decline in number since 1826 was already significant. According to a source, there were 405 nuns at the time of secularization in 16 convents in Mexico City. See, “Noticia de los Conventos del Arzobispado de Mexico, 1826,” Boletín del Archivo General de la Nación, XXIV, No. 3, 1953, 475–500; AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 1102, exp. 1, for 1828 figures; Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 144, fol. 375, for figures in 1844; Muriel, Josefina, Conventos de Monjas en la Nueva España (Mexico, 1946), 514–517,Google Scholar for figures at time of secularization. For endowments of nuns, see, Leg. 1313, exp. 22; Leg. 200, Carta de Sor Ma. Loreto del convento de Sta. Teresa la Antigua.

67 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 1708, exp. 4, 8, 12, 13, 30.

68 For example, the Count of Regla rented a house owned by Santa Brígida. He paid 1,500 pesos yearly for it. Of these, 2/3 were to be paid in silver and the rest in copper. See, AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 1102, Documentos del Convento de Santa Brígida. Some convents were, at times, reluctant to accept repayment of debts in copper coinage and demanded pesos fuertes. See, in the same legajo, El Coronel José M. Manero vs. Convento de San Gerónimo, 1841.

69 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 74, No. 2, 3, 30, 31, 75; Leg. 648, exp. 16.

70 Ibid., Leg. 74, No. 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12; Leg. 239, Cuaderno de Contestaciones, fol. 10v.; Leg. 668, exp. 4.

71 AGN, Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 144, fol. 375. For 1826 figures, see, “Noticias de los Conventos, etc,” as in note 66.

72 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 81, exp. 1.

78 The yield of capital in 1826 was 89,502 pesos; in 1844, 80,396 pesos. For sources, see note 66.

74 The chart of 1844 comprises 57 nunneries. In the chart of 1826 information about the property, capital and income of the Franciscan and Dominican nunneries of the capital is not provided. The chart of 1844 includes these, in addition to a nunnery in Chiapas, but not the Conceptionists of Yucatán.

75 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 137, exp. 205; AINAH, Fondo Franciscano, Vol. 76.

76 See, for example, AGN, Templos y Conventos, Vol. 55, Libro de Obras Pías de San Bernardo, 1839; Leg. 230, Noticia de las Fincas, Capellanías, etc. de Santa Teresa la Nueva, 1842; Leg. 376, Cuentas de La Concepción, 1851, 1853–54; Leg. 230, Estado de las … Casas y Capitales … de La Concepción, 1842; Leg. 73, No. 37, Entrega del Mayordomo de Jesús María, 1850; AINAH, Libro de Cargo y Data … de Jesús María, 1841–42.

77 AGN, Templosy Conventos, Vol. 53, exp. 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 26, 32, 43, etc. This volume contains a large number of records for the renewal of loans in the 1850's. See also, Bienes Nacionales. Leg. 1708, exp. 4, 8, 10, 12, 13.

78 AGN, Templos y Conventos, Vol. 53, exp. 6, 37, 43,44, 55, 74, 86.

79 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 74, Cuentas Glosadas del … Convento de La Concepción, 1856–57; Leg. 376, Cuentas de La Concepción, 1851–54; Leg. 649, Cuentas de la Abadesa de La Concepción, 1854; Glosa General de las Cuentas de La Concepción, 1851–1853; Glosa de las Cuentas, 1854–55.

80 Ibid., Leg. 1029, exp. 12. In making a comparison over such a long period of time, a possible devaluation in the worth of money must be acknowledged. However, even assuming that money was worth less in 1850 than in 1800, the fact remains that this convent, although having experienced less affluent times, had recovered well by the 1850’s. Sample accounts throughout this period support this statement. See, for example, Leg. 361, exp. 11; Leg. 230, Estado … de La Concepción, 1842; Leg. 462, Cuentas de La Concepción, 1813; Leg. 735, Aprobación de Cuentas, 1820. Other historians have reached similar conclusions about the general recovery of clerical corporations as a whole. See, Costeloe, , Church Wealth in Mexico, 25 Google Scholar; Bazant, Jan, Historia de la Deuda Exterior de Mexico (Mexico: El Colegio de Mexico, 1968), 78.Google Scholar

81 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 462, Cuentas de … Ntra. Sra. de la Encarnación; Justicia Eclesiástica, Vol. 144, fol. 375. Unfortunately, data about expenses was not available.

82 Knowlton, Robert J., “Some Practical Effects of Clerical Opposition to the Mexican Reform, 1856–1860,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 44, No. 2, May 1965, 246–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Also by him, “La Iglesia Mexicana y la Reforma: Respuesta y Resultados,” Historia Mexicana, XVIII, No. 4, Abril-Junio, 1969, 516–534.

83 AGN, Templos y Conventos, Vol. 59, Consultas Eclesiásticas.

84 Knowlton, , “Some Practical Effects …”, 250 Google Scholar; AGN, Templos y Conventos, Vol. 53, exp. 12, 13, 14; Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 74, Cuentas … del Convento de La Concepción, 1856–57; Leg. 74, No. 55. In expediente 51 of this legajo, the majordomo of San Bernardo reports, in January 1857, a reduction of two thirds in the income of rents. Tenants refused to pay because the convents had also refused to turn over to them the legal deeds of ownership of the properties they occupied and wished to adjudicate.

85 AGN, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 125, exp. 5. Nunneries were accustomed to making such accomodations with their tenants in case of improvements to the property. See, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 1269, exp. 18; Leg. 141, Cuaderno de Administración, fol. Iv.

86 AGN, Templos y Conventos, Vol. 53, exp. 4, 5, 9, 10, 12-14, 34, 36, 37, 46, 47, 49, etc. Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 1708, exp. 4, 12, 14.

87 Costeloe, Michael, “Guadalupe Victoria and a Personal Loan from the Church in Independent Mexico,” The Americas, 25, No. 3, January 1969, 223–246 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Reyes Heroles, op. cit., III, 186.