Since the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church collected the diezmo—in Old English the tithe or one-tenth of parishioners’ incomes and profits earned from legitimate activities—in all the territories governed by the faith; it was used to maintain the “machinery” that drove the spread of Christianity.[28] At the end of 1501, Pope Alexander VI granted all the American tithes to the Spanish Crown, on the condition that it secured the incomes necessary for the functioning of the Church in the “New World.”[29] This way the Spanish State established clear rules for the collection and distribution of this important tax, being “the primordial source of income for the Church.”[30] It was to be executed and administered by the Church’s ministers, but under the due supervision of the royal authorities. The goods and products scheduled to be tithed were particularly the agricultural ones, including of course cattle, which was economically important in the case of Nueva Galicia and its capital, Guadalajara.

The steward’s responsibility was to ensure that the debts owed to the Cathedral in the form of tithes and rents be paid in time, while subjecting debtors to ecclesiastic justice. His appointment and re-election was made every three years. In effect, it was the executive arm within the administration of the church’s collection of decimal incomes.