TLOS
748
TLOS
by saying: "We choose the town of Tlaxcala as the
seat of our cathedral church." Bishop Garees reached
New Spain in 1527 and took possession of his see.
Subsequently finding that it was impossible to hold
the choir office at Tlaxcala because there was no
cathedral, but only an altar covered with thatch work,
and as a sumptuous church with throe naves had been
erected in the new city of Puebla de los Angeles, the
bishop declared that the chapter should pass to the
latter city, and transferred thither the episcopal see
on 3 October, 1539. This change was approved by
The Cathedral, Puebla
royal warrant of 6 June, 1543, and since then the
bishops of the diocese have resided in Puebla.
Although the official title of the diocese was "of Tlaxcala" or de Puebla de los Angeles, it was not until 11 August, 1903, that the ancient See of Tlaxcala {Angela polilana) was made an archbishopric under the name of Puebla de los Angeles, and the name of Tlaxcala wa-s suppressed. The original limits of the Diocese of Puebla (Tlaxcala) comprised the present states of Puebla, Tlaxcala, Vera Cruz, Tabasco, Hidalgo, and Guerrero. As new dioceses were erected (see Mexico) its territory was gradually reduced to its present limits, the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala, with the exception of a few parishes which belong to the jurisdiction of the dioceses of Huajuapam and Oaxaca. In the first years of its foundation almost all the churches and parishes were under the care of the regulars, the Franciscans having important convents at Tlaxcala, Huexotzingo, and Cholula. In the time of the sixth Bi.shop of Puebla, Diego Romano (1578-1607), the churches began to pass into the hands of the seculars, and by 1640-49, under Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, the change was finally accomplished.
The ancient Tlaxcala was a powerful republic which the Aztecs vainly tried to conquer and which waged continuous and ferocious wars against them. The
Indian hieroglyphic of its name represents two hands
beating ^tortilla, or corn cake, which is the meaning of
the word "tlaxcallan". In former times this repubUc
was thickly populated, but epidemics, emigrations,
and the work of constructing the canal of Nochis-
tongo to drain the valley of Mexico brought about the
almost entire extinction of the natives, reducing them
to an insignificant number. In the archives of Tlax-
cala is a royal document, bearing the date of 1539,
which orders that the Indians of Tlaxcala be exempted
from all works of servitude. This prerogative was
conceded in return for their services to Herndn Cortez
during the conquest. It is doubtful whether this
order was ever carried out, for a document dated
1625 states that the city of Tlaxcala contained 300,-
000 inhabitants in the sixteenth centurj', while only
7000 remained when this docimient was WTitten.
The city of Puebla, which is the residence of the
bishop and of the governor of the state, was founded
in 1531 by the auditor Juan de Salmeron and Fray
Toribio de Motolinia (see Motolixi.\). The cathe-
dral of Puebla, one of the most beautiful in the whole
republic of Mexico, was finished b3' Bishop Palafox
in 1649. There are, counting colleges and parochial
schools, about three hundred Catholic schools in the
archdiocese. The Protestants have ten colleges.
The conciliar seminary was raised to the rank of a
Catholic university on 5 August, 1907. It has an
attendance of 275 students. Among the notable
churches should be mentioned that of Nuestra Seiiora
de los Remedios situated on the top of the PjTamid
of Chohda. This pyramid was built by the Indians
before the advent of the Spaniards; it measures 177
feet in height and 1444 feet on each side of its base,
and is, therefore, larger than, although not as high
as, the great pyramid of Egypt. The level space on
the top, upon which the church is built, measures
46,444 sq. feet.
Besides the two bishops aheady mentioned, other notable ones were the successor of Bishop Palafox, Diego Osorio de Escobar y Llamas, who was viceroy of Alexico in 1664, and D. Pelagio Antonio Labastida y Davalos, who was driven from his see during the reform era and did not return until 1863 as Arch- bishop of Mexico. The present archbishop, Ram6n Ibarra y Gonzalez, translated from the Diocese of Chilapa, Guerrero, on 6 July, 1902, was preconized first .\rchbishop of Puebla in 1903, and the Diocese of Huajuapam de Le6n, erected at the same time, was made suffragan to Puebla. Tlaxcala had in 1910 a population of 2812. The town is now silent and desolate. The ancient buildings, preserved for the traditions which cling to them, and the resident Indians transport the visitor to the time of the conquest. The State of Tlaxcala has an area of 1594 sq. m., and a population (1910) of 183,805.
GiLLOw, Apiintes hisldricos (Mexico, 1889); Recasens, El primer obispo de Tlaxcala (Mexico, 1SS4); Vera, Catecismo geogrdfico histdrico estadistico de la Iglesia Mexicana (Amecameca, 1881); DoMENECH, Geografia Gen. Descrip. de la R. M. Mexico. C.\MILLUS CrIVELLI.
Tlos, titular see in Lycia, suffragan of MjTa. Tlos was one of the six cities forming the Lycian con- federacy and is said to have been founded by the hero Tlos, son of Tremilus. It is mentioned by Strabo (XIV, 665); Pliny (V, 28); Ptolemy (V, 3, 5); Ste- phanus Byzant. (s. v.; Hierocles (684, 16). It had its own coinage. It is to-day the village of Douvar in the caza of Macri, vilayet of Smyrna; this village is beautifully situated in the midst of the ancient acrop- olis, 984 feet above the Xanthus valley, surrounded by precipices, whose sides form inaccessible walls. On the northern side these rocks are broken by hun- dreds of tombs, some of which bear inscriptions men- tioning the people and the "gerousia" or municipal coimcil. Among its monuments the principal is the theatre. Until the thirteenth century this see is
