given to transfer all documents bearing on the subject to the council of the Indies for final decision.[1] Palafox did not escape censure, and was enjoined to pursue a more conciliatory policy; but the reproof was unheeded by the bishop, who displayed anything but a forgiving spirit, especially in the prosecutions instituted against those prebendaries of his church who had been rather eager to recognize the jueces conservadores and declare his see vacant. His vicar-general, Juan de Merlo, conducted the trial and sentenced the accused to removal from office and heavy fines. They, however, escaped the execution of the sentence by taking refuge in the Jesuit college of Mexico, where, although excommunicated, they said mass and otherwise officiated as priests, appealing to the audiencia and later to the archbishop.
Under the new viceroy there was a decided tendency to side with the bishop; and availing himself of this circumstance he instituted proceedings against the alcalde mayor of Puebla, who during the disturbance had sequestrated his property. He also connived at petty annoyances of the Jesuits, who in September 1648 presented several complaints to the bishop-governor.[2] Fortune again seemed to favor them, for at this juncture a royal cédula arrived, directing Palafox to return immediately to Spain, the order being made more stringent by an autograph postscript of the king.[3] Great but short-lived were the rejoicings of the order at the supposed downfall of the bishop, for they were soon to hear of the decision given against them by
- ↑ The text of several of the cédulas is given in Ordenes de la Coróna, MS., i. 7, ii. 200; Palafox, Obras, xii. 286-8; Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, ii. .331-.3; Satisfacion al Memorial 38-9, 49; see also Guijo, Diario, 6, 16. In 1654 the appointment of jueces conservadores against bishops and archbishops was strictly forbidden. Montemayor, Svmarios, 39.
- ↑ The grounds of complaint are minutely given in Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, ii. 335-8, and relate chiefly to supposed calumnies and petty vexatious to which they claim to have been exposed.
- ↑ The order is given in brief and peremptory terms, but faintly covered by the polite phrases interwoven with the text, and these are more than neutralized by the addition in the king's own handwriting. Still the biographer of Palafox extols the latter as a rare and noteworthy mark of esteem. The full text is given in Palafox, Obras, xii. 463-4; Satisfacion al Memorial, 30-1.
