The Bethlemite hospital rule (1672): a nursing order written in Guatemala and confirmed at Rome

A hospital rule that began in Santiago de Guatemala and was confirmed by Clement X on 2 May 1672, printed with the rest of the order's papal documentation at Rome in 1773. Its statutes admit convalescents, incurables and poor travellers, forbid excluding any kind of person - free, enslaved, Moors, Gentiles - require the brothers to carry the sick to the hospital themselves, and bar women from the building. Indians and Blacks were admitted to a separate infirmary.