"From the want of publicity which is generally observed in the management of the properties and rents [incomes] of the clergy, it is impossible to fix exactly the value of one or the other; but they can be calculated approximately by taking for the basis those data which are within the reach of the public, which are the total value of the production of the annual return (movimiento) of the population for births, marriages, deaths, and, finally, the devout practices which are still customary among the greater part of the population. Observing carefully these data, I assume, without the fear of committing a great error, that the total amount which the clergy to-day realize in the whole extent of the republic, for rents, proceeds of tithes, parochial rights, alms, religious ceremonies (funcions), and for the sale of divers objects of devotion, is between eight and ten millions of dollars.
"Some writers have estimated the properties belonging to the clergy at one half of the productive wealth of the nation; others at one third part; but I can not give much credit to such writers, as they are only calculations that rest on no certain data. I am sure that the total amount of the property of the clergy, for chaplaincies, foundations, and other pious uses, together with rustic and city properties, which belong to the divers religious corporations, amount to an enormous sum, notwithstanding the falling off that is said to have taken place from the amounts of former years.
"All property in the district of Mexico [federal district] is estimated at $50,000,000, the half of which pertains to the clergy. Uniting the product of this property to the tithes, parochial rights, etc., I am well assured that the total of the income of the clergy amounts to from eighteen to twenty millions of dollars."
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| The Archbishop of Mexico | $130,000 |
| The Bishop of Pueblo | 110,000 |
| The Bishop of Valladolid | 110,000 |
| The Bishop of Guadalajara | 90,000 |
| The Bishop of Durango | 35,000 |
| The Bishop of Monterey | 30,000 |
| The Bishop of Yucatan | 20,000 |
| The Bishop of Oajaca | 18,000 |
| Total individual income of twelve bishops | $539,000 |
—Essai Politique, vol. i. p. 173.
The reason why the Bishop of Sonora was limited to $6000 was that his diocese was so poor that he had that salary paid out of the king's revenue.
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Most of the Jews of our day are the descendants of the Babylonian Jews, who did not return to Jerusalem after the Captivity, but remained in the province of Babylon until they were driven out, some four hundred or more years after Christ; the Babylonian, not the Jerusalem Talmud, being most commonly in use among them.