This thesis presents the Spanish Empire as seeking to spread a Christian world system - Christendom on a universal scale. By focusing on Spanish America, this thesis seeks to give evidence that a new Christendom was being established in America, one which was sustained through the collection of ecclesiastical revenues. This approach is taken in order to analyze the identities which were forged by the individuals who participated and who were transformed by this empire. Specifically, I focus on the Indigenous and their mixed raced descendants, the castas. Rather than portraying them as passive figures, I seek to give them agency by presenting them as active figures who actively participated within this Christian world system. Through their active participation, a Christian identity was able to be forged. A Christian identity which was not a carbon copy of the Spaniards, but one which was uniquely theirs. Through this Christian identity the Indigenous and their mixed raced descendants were able to blur the lines between who were the conquerors and who were the conquered. This would result in the Indigenous and their mixed raced descendants transforming the Christian world system, from a system which was of European origins, to a system that became distinctly American.

This article explores the reasons behind the decision by the high clergy and the Crown to advocate a «self-support» policy for the parishes. For those powers, it was more convenient to allow parishes to raise their own revenues instead of finding new sources of income, which could erode tithe collections or put further pressure on the royal treasury, as suggested by some isolated voices during the fourth Mexican provincial council of 1771. However, the predominating trend was to induce the faithful to support their parishes. / El objetivo de este artículo es exponer los motivos del alto clero y de la Corona para reafirmar la política de lo que aquí llamo «auto-sustento» de los curatos. Para esos poderes era más conveniente que cada curato se autofinanciara a tener que buscar nuevas fuentes de ingreso, lo cual podía desembocar en un mayor reparto del diezmo o extraer recursos de la Real Hacienda, como plantearon algunas voces aisladas en el IV Concilio provincial mexicano de 1771. La tendencia fue, por el contrario, garantizar que los fieles sustentaran a cada parroquia.