In addition to being used as a tool for colonial power, Mixtec writings were admissible legal documents. Mixtec writings during the Colonial period were used to document and legitimate land claims of the hereditary nobility and to preserve and maintain the Mixtec culture. Origin myths continued to be recorded as part of genealogical records. The Church, knowing of the religious motifs and creation myths recorded in these codices, confiscated and destroyed them; it is believed many more codices were in existence before the Colonial period.