HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



289 



judged worthy of approaching to the facred table, unlefs 

 two millions appear very few to him, or he thinks thofe 

 bifliops and priefts rafli, who not only admit but even ob- 

 lige thofe Indians to communicate. But when we add 

 to thofe the Indians of many provinces of South America 

 who are equally obliged to receive the facred Eucharift, 

 the number will be greatly increafed. 



His fourth error, in which he affirms that no Indian is 

 ever ordained pried is not lefs grofs. It is fubjecl: of 

 wonder, that a writer who collected fo great a library of 

 writers on America, and for whom fo many accounts of 

 the things of the New World were obtained from Ma- 

 drid, fliould have been fo ill informed on this as well as on 

 other points. Dr. Robert fon will pleafe to know, there- 

 fore, that although the firft provincial council held in 

 Mexico in the year 1555 forbid that the Indians fliould 

 be ordained, not on account of their incapacity, but be- 

 caufe it was thought the lownefs of their condition might 

 draw fome difcredit on the ecclefiaftical ftate, neverthelefs 

 the third provincial council, held in 1585, which was the 

 raoft celebrated of all, and whofe decilions are ftill in 

 force, permitted them to be ordained priefts, provided 

 there was great care taken in admitting them into facred 

 orders. But it is necelfary to obferve, that the decrees 

 of each council comprehend equally, and under the fame 

 conditions, both the Indians and Mulattoes that are 

 there, who are born or defcended of a European father 

 and an African mother, or on the contrary ; and nobody, 

 we believe, doubts of the talents and capacity of the 

 Mulattoes to learn all the fciences. Torquemada, who 

 wrote his hiftory in the firft years of the laft century, fays, 

 that they did not ufe to admit the Indians into religious 

 orders, nor to ordain them priefts, on account of their 



Vol. III. Pp violent 



