end that they should not, either wholly or in part, reach the hands of the ordinary. As both these pretensions were set up at the same time, so as to lead to a suspicion that it was at once the wish of the ecclesiastics to persevere in carrying on a traffic, and that of the visitors to continue to receive bribes for concealing the proceedings, their aim was readily defeated, and the excommunications of the council of Lima maintained without any abatement. It does not behove us to examine whether this salutary discipline is strictly observed at the present time.
The second council celebrated by Santo Toribio, and the fourth in order of the councils of Lima, assembled in 1591, and confirmed all the decrees of the preceding one, at the same time that a new decree was enacted, enjoining all the ecclesiastics entrusted with the cure of souls, to have in their possession the acts of the council of 1583, the catechism in dialogues, and the two smaller catechisms. The visitors were ordered to attend zealously to the str16t enforcement of this provision. It appears by the deliberations of this council, that disputes subsisted at that time between the priesthood and the state, more particularly on the subje6t of the immunities and competence of the jurisdictions;—a question which has at all times occupied a great portion of the time of the tribunals. A publication was also made of the ceremonial, or Regla consueta, for the good order and decorum to be observed in the worship of the cathedral church of Lima. The arch-bishop Santo Toribio, and the bishop of Cusco, alone were present at this council, the other bishops of the province having sent their procurators.
Santo Toribio, who continued to promote the discipline of
