God and Gold� was the two-pronged mission of the conquistadores. Most of them concentrated on gold, while missionaries tried to shift the emphasis to God. They were famously successful; more than 90 percent of Mexicans profess to be Catholics.
Catholicism, spreading its doctrine of equality of all persons before God and incorporating native gods into the church rituals, eventually brought the ind�genas into the fold. Within 100 years, nearly all native Mexicans had accepted the new religion, which raised the universal God of humankind over local tribal deities
