Access to the High Clergy in the Archbishopric of Mexico, 1680-1757

Abstract

This text analyze one of the groups of organized clergy in the archbishopric of Mexico along two generations, from 1680 to 1757. The text centers on the trajectory of two clergy members in order to demonstrate that the relationship to or membership in groups or collectives could determine entry to the cathedral council or access to important ecclesiatical posts. José Torres Vergara and Francisco Rodríguez Navarijo were not born into into powerful families, and yet they reached powerful positions. Their strategy combined personal merit and good relationships with groups, ecclesiastical corporations, and archbishops, that is to say, with the elite of the archbishopric. Protection by patrons or powerful groups was not circumstantial. Rather, it was the result of kinship ties, friendships, or realtionships formed in schools, colleges or the participation of clergy members in public life. This sort of realtionships can be found amongst the clergy members that aspired to enter the cathedral council of Mexico, and that commonly formed a subgroup or sector of the clergy.