Note 34 — Letters from Father Mateo Gisbert to the Reverend Fathers and Brothers of Veruela

Throughout the friar chronicles and accounts the words “reduce” and “reduction” are frequently employed. As used the words have a rather wide application. The primary meaning is of course “conversion” to the Christian faith, but along with this idea must be understood the settlement of the converts in villages in a civilized manner, where they could be under the immediate eye of their spiritual directors. Hence the words bear in a sense a two-fold meaning—the one religious, and the other civil.