Twelve Apostles of Mexico

[10] In the Valley of Mexico, Texcoco, another ally of the Spaniards and formerly a member of the Aztec Triple Alliance was an initial site, as well as Churubusco.

[11] They accepted many of the ideas the Spaniards believed in, except the statement the Franciscan friars made that the Aztecs worshipped false gods.

[11] In a subtle political maneuver, the Aztecs leaders asserted that while they would never incite a rebellion or foster unrest, the same could not be said about the rest of the population.

Such barriers were later addressed through the creation of "pueblos de indios", also known as "reducciones indígenas": the conglomeration of natives into towns to ease evangelization.

[12] Following Cortés and his successful military conquests in the Valley of Mexico, Texcoco was the location of school established by three Franciscans, one of which was Pedro de Gante.

[8] This began after Pope Paul III's Sublimis Deus decree in 1537 that native persons were not "savages" and instead human beings with souls and possessing the intellectual capability of understanding – and thus adopting the beliefs of – Christianity; this ended the mass subjection of native populations to enslavement, though not eliminating this practice in entirety.

[16] The Franciscan Twelve arriving in New Spain was the beginning of a sweeping wave of evangelization that would come to encompass a large swath of indigenous city-states.

[20] Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, a 16th century historian, remarked of this phenomenon that "...these lands are flooded with friars; but none are greying, all being less than thirty years old.

"[21] Despite other religious orders being present and emphasizing conversion, the Franciscans were unique in that they believed their evangelization efforts, in addition to the creation of a "primitive apostolic church" in New Spain would result in the second coming of Christ.

[19] Accordingly, the system of patronato real (royal patronage) allowed for the unprecedented privilege of the Spanish Crown in Church affairs in exchange for Spain's funding of missionary ventures abroad.