Note 23 — The Camacho Ecclesiastical Controversy, 1697–1700

Burials: For burials of children, with prayers read, when the cura goes to the house for this purpose he shall ask one peso and four tomins; but if the corpse is carried to the door of the church he shall ask only one peso. For every burial of children with prayers chanted, when the cura goes to the house for this purpose he shall ask only three pesos; and if the corpse be received with prayers chanted at the door of the church23—whether it be an Indian chief, a timagua, a Sangley, a Japanese, or a free negro, whom his friends desire to be interred with pomp and escort—and the cura shall go for the corpse to the house, he shall ask ten pesos; but if he shall receive it at the door of the church, and prayers be chanted, he shall ask two pesos. For every burial accompanied with prayers, of an Indian chief, a timagua, a Sangley, a Japanese, or a free negro, if the cura goes for it to the house he shall ask one peso and four tomins; and if he receives it at the door of the church he shall ask one peso. If the deceased were a slave to Spaniards, the cura shall ask one peso for his fee, and exactly six reals as a voluntary offering [limosna] for a mass; but if he were a slave to an Indian, the cura shall ask six reals as a fee, and four reals for the said offering. We charge it upon the consciences of the curas to say these masses for the slaves, and thus acquit our own conscience. For the cope which the cura may wear at burials he may receive one peso as an offering; but he shall not wear the cope when the parties do not ask for it. And for the halts24 the cura, if he shall have chanted the prayers, shall ask a toston for each one, if the relatives of the deceased ask for them; but in no other way shall he obtain these fees. Item, for the mass sung on the day of the funeral, or funeral honors with responses, the cura may ask two and one-half pesos; and for chanting the office for the dead, two pesos and two reals. And for the novenary masses25 which are said, with a response in each one, on account of the burial of the deceased, the cura may receive for each one a peso as offering; and the wax candles which remain at the end of the novenary for the burial belong to the cura. For masses provided for by will [missas de testamento], the cura may receive six reals each, and for those which are ordered to be said outside of the testamentary provision four reals each, as offerings. The curas must not consent to accept the candles that are carried by the persons who accompany the funeral, unless these persons leave the candles of their own accord, and present them as an offering; and if they do not thus give them up, the curas shall not ask anything from them. To each one of those who may assist the cura at any burial shall be given, if he is in holy orders, six reals and a candle; if he is not yet ordained, four reals and a candle. For any peal of the bells [repique] at the burials of children, or the tolling of the passing bell [doble], the cura shall ask four reals for the eighths [de octava], for the sacristy or the church.