Confession "to escape worldly punishment" was an Aztec practice of which the nature was puzzling to the Catholic friar [Sahagun], just as it is puzzling to us that after a Zuñi witch has confessed punishment does not always follow. Confession is sometimes all that the war chiefs wish. . . . Here is a suggestion of why Catholic confession did not "take" among the Pueblo. (Only at Isleta is there any suggestion of acculturation between Catholic and Indian confessional practices.) Formally, there may have been an opening, but psychologically there was nothing in common.1

1Parsons, E.C.n/an/an/an/a, "Some Aztec and Pueblo Parallels," Amer. Anth. N.S., 35: 619.

[The confession "to escape worldly punishment" mentioned by Sahagun refers to the fact that the temporal courts were not permitted to prosecute a man who had confessed to a priest, but the priests assessed punishments in the way of penance and sacrifice. Cf. Sahagun, B. de, History of Ancient Mexico (tr. Bandelier) 1: 32–33.]