(MEXICAN MANUSCRIPTS) Ordinances for the chaplains at the Ro

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(MEXICAN MANUSCRIPTS.) Ordinances for the chaplains at the Royal Hospital for Indians in Mexico City. 19 manuscript pages, including title page reading "Testimonio de las ordenanzas formadas para el más floreciente régimen y gobierno de los capellanes del hospital." Folio, 12 x 8 1/4 inches, disbound, modern front wrapper attached; moderate dampstaining, vermin damage on lower edge causing text loss to first 3 leaves. Mexico, 2 December 1776

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A compilation of 28 rules expected to be followed by the chaplains at the Hospital Real y General de los Indios de Mexico (Royal and General Hospital for the Indians of Mexico City). Established in 1553 in response to the horrifying epidemics that regularly consumed thousands of lives in colonial Mexico, the Royal Indian Hospital was still tending to indigenous patients in the late 18th century. The hospital's four chaplains were intended to rotate in shifts, so at any given time two would be on duty to administer sacraments and religious services to the sick and dying. The two chaplains not on active duty were nonetheless expected to be on call, and were not permitted to take long vacations or engage substitutes. They could not venture out of their quarters in any clothes other than their priestly vestments, and could not allow any women into their rooms, with the exception of family or servants. Two chaplains were required to be fluent in "Mexicano" (Nahuatl), and another two in Otomí. Owing to the poverty of most of their patients, the fees that the chaplains could charge were strictly limited. This manuscript was one of four prepared for the chaplains, a revision of rules put in place in the 1760s. The rules were also required to be read aloud each year, to remind the chaplains of their duties.