Nueva Galicia was on July 31, 1548,[1] segregated from Michoacan and made a distinct bishopric, possessing at the time nearly fifty benefices.[2] Compostela was designated as the seat, and Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo, one of the twelve Franciscan apostles, received the appointment, which he humbly declined, whereupon it was conferred upon Juan Barrios, a knight of Santiago[3], but he died before consecration and was buried at Mexico.
The position was next tendered to Pedro Gomez Maraver, late dean of Oajaca and counsellor to Viceroy Mendoza, who entered with great zeal upon his duties, but lived only till 1552. The Franciscan Pedro de Ayala assumed the office in July 1555, and assisted at the removal of the seat to Guadalajara, where he laid the foundation of a cathedral.[4] He died in 1569, and was succeeded by the Franciscan Gomez de Mendiola, who ruled from 1571 to 1579, and left so high a reputation for benevolence and sanctity that efforts were made to obtain his beatification.[5] The Jeronimite Juan de Trujillo was appointed successor, but failed to take possession,[6] and the see passed to Domingo de Arzola, a Dominican, lately.
- ↑ Concilios Prov., 1555-65, 336; Gonzalez Dávila, Teatro Ecles., i. 179. Morelli writes July 13, Fasti Novi Orbis, 160; and others place the seat wrongly at Guadalajara.
- ↑ In 1596 the number had not materially changed. Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 547-8. The distinguished Diego Ramirez was appointed in 1551 to mark the boundary lines between the dioceses of Michoacan and Guadalajara, and between those of Mexico and Michoacan. The bishops of the first two named dioceses objected to the lines he established, but they were approved by the crown August 28, 1552. The question remained an open one, nevertheless, and was but partially settled in 1564. Reopened in 1596, the final settlement took place only in 1664. Beaumont, Crón. Mich., v. 155-222.
- ↑ Successor of Bishop Zumárraga in the office of protector of Indians; a native of Seville. Mota Padilia, Cong. N. Gal., 198; Alcedo, Dicc., ii. 242.
- ↑ This removal may have drawn upon him the dislike of the chapter, which in 1570 declared that his appointment had been a mistake, for he knew nothing of letters or law. Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 486.
- ↑ When exhumed in 1599 his body was found undecayed, and so it continued for nearly 200 years.
- ↑ Alcedo, Dicc., ii. 243, places him after Arzola.
238, and passim, 372-94, 783; Cogolludo, Hist. Yucathan, 206-10, 290-1, 322-4, 352-71, 376, 394-6, 409; Concilios Prov., MS., No. 3, 1-3, and print, vii.; Gonzalez Dávila, Teatro Ecles., i. 211-15, 220; Vetancvrt, Menolog., 42, 80, 135, 187, 140; Ponce, Rel., in Col. Doc. Inéd., lvii. 182, lviii. 394, 401, 423, 451-2.
