Only three codexes (books) written in the Aztec script Nahuatl survived destruction by the Spanish priests and they are stored today in the Vatican.
However, the Aztecs practiced ritual human sacrifice on an enormous scale. According to eyewitness reports, the temples were the site of this human sacrifice and smelled like slaughter houses in old Europe. The walls were caked with dried blood and the conquistadors were horrified at the revelation. At the coronation of Montezuma, 10,000 victims were sacrificed in one ritual and it took several days of assembly line like production to enact. The victims were marched up a pyramid. After the heart was cut out of the living person, the bodies were rolled out the back and down into the water of the lake.
Cultural relativism can be very difficult at times.
Most of the Spanish priests and bishops in the New Word were also acting independently "above and beyond the call of duty" in order to enhance their own prestige and the power of the Church. If a significant number of priests today are pedophiles or sex criminals (up to 5%?), then you can only imagine what a creative and ambitious young priest might orchestrate in a forbidden New World where nobody else was watching.
copyright (c) 2020
William Schaeffer
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