Basics Rules for the Formation and Promotion of the Secular Clergy Mexico 1540, 1555 and 1585 A Contribution to the History of the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis in Colonial Spanish-America

Abstract

The article focuses on the beginnings of the process of formation and promotion of
the Mexican clergy in the 16th century (before and after the Council of Trent). This
formation and promotion were a common itinerary to all the Spanish-American dioceses of the time, each with its own peculiarities. This article deals with four of the most significant moments in this development: the clergy seminary founded in Michoacán by Bishop Vasco de Quiroga (the “Tata Vasco”) in 1540, the first center for the formation of the clergy in Spanish-America; the norms promulgated by the First Provincial Council (1555); the creation of the conciliar seminaries established by Trent (1564); and the complete assimilation of the Tridentine reform in the Third Provincial Council (1585), which assumes the new system of priestly formation. One of the innovations that produced a substantial change in the Ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis during this period, was the change from classic scheme of individual assimilation of the formative contents through conventual and cathedral chairs or episcopal schools or attendance at universities, to the implementation of a formal, systematic and ecclesiastical education under the direct supervision of the bishop, including an organic plan of subjects in order to achieve an integral formation (humanities, theology, moral, canons, spirituality and pastoral), imparted through classes by a stable faculty in a building constructed or remodeled for this purpose.