Cortés manages the founding of new cities…
May 1524 CE
Cortés manages the founding of new cities and appoints men to extend Spanish rule to all of New Spain, imposing the encomienda system in 1524.
He reserves many encomiendas for himself and for his retinue, which they consider just rewards for their accomplishment in conquering central Mexico.
However, later arrivals and members of factions antipathetic to Cortés complain of the favoritism that excludes them.
The Franciscans arrive in May of 1524, a symbolically powerful group of twelve known as the Twelve Apostles of Mexico, led by Fray Martín de Valencia.
Franciscan Geronimo de Mendieta claims that Cortés's most important deed was the way he met this first group of Franciscans.
The conqueror himself is said to have met the friars as they approached the capital, kneeling at the feet of the friars who had walked from the coast.
This story will be used by Franciscans as a demonstration of Cortés's piety and humility as a powerful message to all, including the Indians, that Cortés's earthly power is subordinate to the spiritual power of the friars.
However, one of the first twelve Franciscans, Fray Toribio de Benavente Motolinia does not mention it in his history.
Cortés and the Franciscans will have a particularly strong alliance in Mexico, with Franciscans seeing him as "the new Moses" for conquering Mexico and opening it to Christian evangelization.
In Motolinia's 1555 response to Dominican Bartolomé de Las Casas, he will praise Cortés.