011,r Catliotic Heritage in Texas
had forced the missionaries to perform duties foreign to their sacred ministry, which in the course of time had brought upon them unmerited criticism and abuse. Obliged to defend the Indians, their lands, their stock, and the products of their labor against the sordid ambitions of unscrupulous Spaniards, the missionaries had been accused of being more interested in the accumulation of temporal goods than in the salvation of souls, of forgetting their vows of poverty for the ease and comfort of worldly luxuries. Fray Mariano went on to state that what the missionaries desired was peace and union. Theirs was a mission of love and not of hatred. Realizing that the root of all their troubles was in the temporal administration of the missions, they now wished to resign formally this onerous task and live henceforth on the alms provided by the charity of the king, free from all worldly cares, devoting all their time to the instruction of the natives in the holy faith of the Redeemer. They were ready to turn over to the civil and military authorities all the property of the four missions in San Antonio and the two in San Juan Bautista now under the care of the College of the Holy Cross of Queretaro by inventory, showing the number of families, persons, herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and goats, droves of horses and mules, farms under cultivation, stores in the warehouses, equip- ment, and implements. But the good Pad,·e warned the officials of the responsibility that the temporal administration implied, and solemnly declared it would be their duty to preserve and increase the worldly possessions of the helpless neophytes. Under the new order of things, the officials would be expected to cooperate willingly and actively in the transformation of the uncivilized natives into useful and Christian subjects of the king. 1 Governor Jacinto de! Barrios and Angel Martos y Navarrete and Colonel Ortiz Parrilla were thus given an opportunity to take over the temporal administration at this time. What may have bee; the result of their acceptance will remain a matter for speculation. They replied on the very same day that as far as they knew there was no reason for so serious an innovation. They unstintedly praised the missionaries for their efficient administration of the missions, both spiritual and temporal, but firmly declared that in their opinion the change proposed was so sweeping that it could not be considered without first consulting the viceroy. 2 1 Representacion de Fray Mariano de los Dolores, February 6, I 769. A. G. M., Historia, Vol. 28, ff. 183-188. 2 Reply to the missionaries, February 6, 1759. A. G. M., Historia, Vol. 28, ff. 188· 189.
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