Fray Alonso de Veracruz y el Compendio de todos los privilegios de los religiosos

Abstract

The theme of the privileges of the religious was a very important issue in the 16th century with Fray Alonso de Veracruz for the evangelization of the Indies as it is so now, as an administrative act and concession of special faculties in the Code of 1983, cc. 76-84 with a pastoral purpose under the control the competent ecclesiastical authority. It was neither a question of “arbitrary authority” nor a “nepotistic concession” but a recognition of the variety of concrete cases to which we must respond with charity and humanism, depending on the circumstances, as it was defended by Fray Alonso de Veracruz in his Manual, which served as a guide to the missionaries of the 16th century and onwards. The mendicant orders still have many valid privileges which had not been repealed.