First Mexican Provincial Council Explained

The First Mexican Provincial Council was a 1555 provincial council of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Mexico.

Attendees

Alonso de Montúfar, the archbishop of Mexico, convoked the council on June 29, 1555. The other bishops in attendance were:^[1]

• Martín Sarmiento de Osacastro, the bishop of Tlaxcala
• Vasco de Quiroga, the bishop of Michoacán
• Tomás Casillas, the bishop of Chiapas
• Juan López de Zárate, the bishop of Oaxaca

Zárate died during the council.

Publications

The council published a 93-chapter document with its decrees. These rulings touched on a wide variety of topics. The council ordered missionaries to evangelize to Indians in the local language.^[2] Seminarians were instructed to own books such as the Latin: [[Summa Sylvestrina]], the Latin: [[Summa Caietana]], the Latin: [[Summa Angelica]], the Latin: [[Manipulus curatorum]], and the Latin: [[Summa confessionalis]].^[3] Natives were banned from becoming priests,^[4] and indigenous songs and dances were restricted.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Book: Dussel . Enrique . A History of the Church in Latin America: Colonialism to Liberation (1492-1979) . 1981 . Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing . 978-0-8028-2131-7 . 56 . en.
2. Book: Storch . Tanya . Religions and Missionaries around the Pacific, 1500–1900 . 15 May 2017 . Routledge . 978-1-351-90478-0 . en.
3. Book: Galindo . Rex . Bragagnolo . Manuela . The Production of Knowledge of Normativity in the Age of the Printing Press: Martín de Azpilcueta’s Manual de Confessores from a Global Perspective . 22 January 2024 . Brill . 978-90-04-68704-2 . 330 . en.
4. Book: Patte . Daniel . The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity, Volume Two . 6 October 2021 . Wipf and Stock Publishers . 978-1-6667-3484-3 . 800 . en.
5. Book: Claassen . Cheryl . Ammon . Laura . Religion in Sixteenth-Century Mexico: A Guide to Aztec and Catholic Beliefs and Practices . 10 February 2022 . Cambridge University Press . 978-1-009-00631-6 . 54 . en.