buildings in every community, adorned with the masterpieces of
sculptors and painters. A village might boast of only a few
squalid huts, yet there in the "plaza," or central square, loomed
up a massively imposing edifice of worship, its towers pointing
heavenward, the sign and symbol of triumphant power.

The Church, in fact, was the greatest civilizing agency that
Spain and Portugal had at their disposal. It inculcated a
reverence for the monarch and his ministers and fostered a
deep-rooted sentiment of conservatism which made disloyalty and
innovation almost sacrilegious. In the Spanish colonies in
particular the Church not only protected the natives against the
rapacity of many a white master but taught them the rudiments of
the Christian faith, as well as useful arts and trades. In remote
places, secluded so far as possible from contact with Europeans,
missionary pioneers gathered together groups of neophytes whom
they rendered docile and industrious, it is true, but whom they
often deprived of initiative and selfreliance and kept illiterate
and superstitious.

Education was reserved commonly for members of the ruling class.
As imparted in the universities and schools, it savored strongly
of medievalism. Though some attention was devoted to the natural
sciences, experimental methods were not encouraged and found no
place in lectures and textbooks. Books, periodicals, and other
publications came under ecclesiastical inspection, and a vigilant
censorship determined what was fit for the public to read.

Supreme over all the colonial domains was the government of their
majesties, the monarchs of Spain and Portugal. A ministry and a