Our Catliolic Heritage in Te:ras
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expense to New Spain, went and resided in the place to which he was sent. It was likewise the duty of their immediate superior and of the bishop in whose diocese they were to work to report their arrival and assignment, "in order," says the law, "that the religious who have gone for the purpose of teaching and instructing the natives may exercise their ministry." 50 The appointment or assignment of missionaries to new missions or conversions was a complicated matter. Since they were paid out of the royal treasury, each mission was classed as a benefice and the right of royal patronage was rigorously observed. In the case of the colleges of Propaganda Fide, the Guardian presented the names of the missionaries, through the provincial or commissary general, to the viceroy, who, if he approved them, submitted the names in turn to the archbishop or bishop for their confirmation.s• The prelates of religious orders were instructed to inform the viceroy whenever they desired to send missionaries to newly discovered or established pueblos and conversions, stating the number of religious they wished to send, their names, qualifications, and the places to which they would go, in order that he might determine if the number and the character of the candidates were satisfactory. "This procedure," says the law, "is to be observed likewise in the case of new entradas and explorations." 52 Each missionary sent to work among the natives was specifically required to know the language of the tribe or nation among which he was to labor in order that he might be better able to instruct the natives and to hear their confessions. The law even provided that each candidate be examined before he was approved. 53 But this provision was obviously impractical, as it was not possible to expect the good Franciscans to know the languages of nations that were unknown. But the spirit of this wise law was carried out from the very beginning of missionary work in Texas. One has only to read the account of the difficulties of the early laborers. as described by the industrious and painstaking Espinosa in his Cleronica, to realize that the faithful missionaries spent agonizing hours, trying to twist their· tongues to produce the unnatural sounds of the languages of their unruly flocks. 54 That their mastery of the most common dialect 50/bid., Libro I, Tit., XIV, Ley xix. SI/bid., Lib. I, Tit., XV, Leyes i, ii, iii. S2/bid., Lib. I, Tit., XIV, Ley xxxvi. 53/bid., Lib. I, Tit., XV, Ley vi. MFor a description of the difficulties of the missionaries in learning the various
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