ABSTRACT
Both investigations feature seemingly contradictory accusations against Catholic figures of authority in Oaxaca and Valencia: that they were hostile to Catholic priests and friars, performed Catholic rituals themselves, and gave license to the observance of non-Christian religious practices. This chapter begins by documenting these various claims, and then places them in the context of Catholic ideas about secular religious patronage, the legal structure of the cosmos, and the universal jurisdiction of the pope over both Christian and non-Christian practice. The second half of the chapter then considers how the universalizing claims of Catholicism were appropriated, to their own advantage, by Muslims and Native Americans alike
