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Our Catleolic Heritage in Tezas
the other, contrary to the present arrangement, the party so favored would renounce any and all such advantages "for the sake of union, peace. and concord" between the two parties. 62 This fair and just solution of their difficulties gave the struggling settlement a brief respite. The pa,mient of titl1es. Although the incident is only distantly related to the missions of Texas, the attempt to make the missions administered by the College of Queretaro in Coahuila pay tithes, gives an interesting insight into the financial administration of the missions and has a bearing on those in Texas. The missions being a frontier institution, designed primarily to Christianize and civilize the Indians, were not only exempted from the payment of tithes, but were maintained in part at the expense of the royal treasury. But when a mission or group of missions had progressed sufficiently to be turned into secular parishes, the neophytes, who were not free parishioners, were expected to pay tithes to the bishop of the diocese. In 1737, a certain Alejandro de Uro y Campa, secured an order from the Ecclesiastical Cabildo of Guadalajara and the judges of the treasury, dated May 31, for the payment of tithes by the missions at San Juan Bautista del Rio Grande. It appears that Uro y Campa was the arrendatario of tithes for the province of Coahuila. which indicates that this type of revenue was farmed out to private individuals who paid a lump sum and then undertook to collect the tithes. 63 Fray Miguel Sevillano de Paredes, who was in charge of the mission at San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande, immediately protested against the order, declaring that it had been obtai~ed on false information, since the petitioner Uro y Campa had alleged that the missions on the Rio Grande had large herds of cattle and sheep, raised abundant crops, and had numerous horses and mules; that they sold large numbers of cattle; that the missions had been in operation for almost forty years; that they had previously paid tithes and had discontinued the practice with no reason; and that the neophytes were in fact capable of governing them- selves. These assertions, Father Sevillano de Paredes said, were unfounded. 62Tanto Y testimonio de Vna escritura de Concordia Entre Los Sefiores Yslefios y Las Misiones 1745. August 14, 1745. ArcMvo del Colegio de la Santa Cruz. (Dunn Transcripts). 1716-1749. 63Autos bechos a representazon. del R. pe. fr. Mariano de los Dolores, Misionero Appco. Sohre q. se manutenga (sic) y ampare a las Misiones de Quaguila y Texas, en Ia poseson. q han tenido de no pagar Diezmo. A. G. M., Provi11cias !,1ternas, vol. 32. This document is the chief source for the incident and will be referred to here- after as Autos hechos a representazon.
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