ontrol certain other Church benefices. The patrons also collected tithes, keeping a portion as payment for "protection" as defined in the Constitution of 1830. Patronato stirred a debate that would last more than a century. While many felt these payments were the price of freedom, others protested Spain's continuing influence, for by virtue of patronage, the state decided on the nominations for positions in the Church hierarchy and controlled the ecclesiastical budget. Thus, the state was very influential, using political criteria to delegate Church duties.3 The result of all this was a bonding of Church with colonial administration (the most archaic sector of society), the power and influence of each reinforcing the other.
By the early nineteenth century, the Church, the only institution in the Americas with the organization and cohesion necessary for stability and effective governance, had been reduced to a tool of the fading Spanish empire.4 Certainly, there was decisive Catholic support for independence, and it is likely the Church saw that the wan
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