"The Aztecs were Polytheists, practising human sacrifice and, in some areas, ritual cannibalism; but there were also points of comparison with Christianity - their chief god was born of a virgin, they ate pastry images of him twice a year, they had forms of baptism and confession, and a compass-point cross. Yet there was no attempt to build on these foundations, contrary to early Christian practice and, indeed, to the instructions of Gregory the Great. From the time of Juan de Zumarraga, first Bishop of Mexico, a great destroyer of religious antiquities, a systematic attempt was made to erase all trace of pre-Christian cults. Writing in 1531, he claimed that he personally had smashed over 500 temples and 20,000 idols."
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Original Language: English
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Sources
Paul Johnson (2014). History of Christianity. New York: Touchstone. page 402. (also quoted in Goel, S. R. (1986). Papacy: Its doctrine and history.)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Spanish_colonization_of_the_Americas
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Spanish colonization of the Americas
Spanish colonization of the Americas began with Christopher Columbus's landing on San Salvador in 1492 and continued until the independence wars of the early 19th century. During this period the indigenous population was decimated by a combination of war, exploitation and disease.
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