Soon after the closing of the council the successor of Moya y Contreras in the viceroyalty and annexed offices arrived. His release from those duties did not, however, relieve him from those of visitador of the courts till he completed his task in 1586. During all this time he never lost sight of the grave responsibilities of the archiepiscopal office. He made pastoral visits over a large part of his district, which had been till then deprived of that benefit, and confirmed great numbers of his flock. He would likewise perform humbler duties, which devolved upon others. Once on his return he found the priests whose place he had taken awaiting him; they began to make excuses, to which he answered: "Fathers, it does not surprise me; for the city is large; for which reason I must also be a curate, and your comrade to assist you." As soon as he finished his work as visitador he made preparations for his departure, and after placing the archdiocese in charge of the notable Dominican friar Pedro de Právia, in the month of June he celebrated mass and bid farewell to the people of Mexico whom he had called together for that purpose.[1] On arrival
- ↑ His house was crowded with people who went to manifest their love
two subsequent councils, were printed in Mexico by Juan Pablo Lombardo in February 1556. This issue appears to have been withdrawn by order; and to avert recurrence of such publications without the royal exequatur having been first obtained, the king directed in cédula of Sept. 1, 1560, reiterating a previous order of Sept. 1, 1556, that prelates before printing and publishing their synods should lay them before the council of the Indies for the royal sanction. Concillos Prov., MS., No. 1, 265-6; Puga, Cedulario, 201.
The acts of the second council were not published till Archbishop Lorenzana in 1769 issued it in connection with that of the first. It forms a 4to of 396 pages, containing on the first 208 pages the chapters of the respective meetings, and on the remainder the lives of all the bishops in New Spain, together with an account of the founding of the different sees and other material. The acts of the third council did not see print till 1622, when they were issued in Latin at Mexico, in two parts, of 102 and 39 folios respectively, the first containing the acts or chapters; the second, the ordinances of the council as confirmed by the papal court on October 27, 1589. Another Latin edition appeared at Paris in 1725, 599 pages 12mo, with biographical sketches of the prelates attending the council. A third bears the imprint Mexico 1770, in two parts, of 328 and 141 pages, with biographical additions, issued probably by Lorenzana as a complement to his edition of the first councils. All of these manuscript and rare printed sets form part of my collection, together with a number of catechisms, ordinances, and other matter, issued by order of the councils, or in connection with their labors. A modern edition of the third council acts, in Latin and Spanish, appeared at Mexico in 1859, containing a number of documents, and notes by the Jesuit Arrillaga.