Of the Royal Audience of the Confines, promulgated in 1552. Coming from the Royal Audiencia in Guatemala, at the request of the Friars in Yucatan, and decreed for the conduct and treatment of the Indians. In exercise of the power of our Emperor, vested in me, I command you, the caciques, chief men and people, as follows: No cacique shall be absent from his town, save for the temporal or spiritual good, or as called by the padres, for over 50 days, on pain of loss of office. The Indians must not live off in the forests, but come into the towns together, in good strong houses, under pain of whipping or prison. To avoid difficulties in doctrination, no Indian shall change from one town to another without permission of the local Spanish authorities. Since many of the chiefs and older men, in the respect they hold by their ancient descent, call the people into secret meetings to teach their old rites and draw them from the Christian doctrine, in their weakness of understanding, all such actions and meetings are prohibited. The caciques shall not hold gatherings, nor go about at night, after the bells are sounded for the souls in purgatory. Every cacique or chief of a town shall carry in mind the list of all the people. Every man of the common people absenting himself from his town for over 30 or 40 days, save in public service or with the padres, even with permission from his cacique, shall be punished by 100 blows and 100 days in prison. Every town, within two years, must have a good church, and one only, to which all may come. Nor may any cacique build any other church than the one, under pain of 100 blows. Every town shall have schools where the Indians shall be taught the necessity of baptism, without which no one can enjoy God. The schools shall be built by the town, and the caciques shall compel them thereto, in the form and manner required by the padres, and at places designated by them. On the days for doctrination, one shall go through the towns, bearing a cross and cloth, to call all people together, where all shall gather in order, those of each town by themselves. If any one, after having heard the holy word and left his false doctrines, shall return to these, he shall be imprisoned to await the due punishment to be ordered by the Royal Audiencia. No Indian shall undertake by himself to preach the holy word save by express license of the religious fathers. No baptised person shall possess idols, sacrifice any animals, draw blood by piercing their ears or noses, nor perform any rite, nor burn incense thereto, or fast in worship of their false idols. No Indian baptised, shall return to be baptised a second time. Many Indians having been told that their children will die if baptised, I command that all children be brought for baptism.
157:* The full Spanish text of these Ordinances will be found as an appendix to volume II of Ancona's Historia de Yucatan, Barcelona, 1889; and later reprint in Mérida.