After selecting twelve companions, he received from the general written instructions, based on the papai decree, whereby Valencia, with the title of custodio,[1] was to proceed to New Spain and there establish the Custodia del Santo Evangelio,[2] extending conversion in accordance with the rules of the order.[3] By a special patent, dated October 23d, he was invested, for himself and successors, with all the power possessed by the general in external jurisdiction, including ecclesiastic censures, as well as in points of conscience, save with two exceptions,[4] and in a royal cédula the friars were commended to the governors in the Indies.[5]
- ↑ The superiors in the order, aside from the agents and inspectors, occupied four grades: presidente, the chief of a group of two or more friars, collected at any place, to which place the term of convent was usually given, while the president was often entitled guardian by courtesy. The next higher grade was that of guardian proper, in charge of a full convent of 12 voters, by whom he was elected; then the custodio, controlling a certain number of convents; and provincial, the chief of a provincia, to which rank a custodia was raised when the number of convents, the resources, and population warranted its formation. Seven convents have been deemed sufficient in some instances to claim the advancement, although a dozen were esteemed a more appropriate number. Above the provincials ruled the general of the order, with his commissaries, visitadores, and other officers.
- ↑ 'En la Nueva España y tierra de Yucatan.'
- ↑ The instructions issued at the convent of Santa María de los Ángeles, 1523, on October 4th, it seems, accord to Valencia full control over the Franciscan friars in New Spain, any one who objects having to depart for Española. The right acquired by the friars in Spain would continue m force. At the death of the custodio, or at the expiration of his three-years term, the eldest priest must convoke a chapter, composed of those confrères who could gather within 30 days, and by their votes elect the new custodio. The latter must attend in person, or by delegate, the chapter held every sixth year for the election of a general, there to vote, if permitted, and to receive instructions. The friars should, if possible, live together in one place, in order to promote conversion by their life and example; in any case they must live in groups of at least two or four, one of them as superior, to maintain the law of obedience, and within a distance of about 15 days' journey, so as to readily join their prelate once a year for deliberation. Further rules were left to their discretion, and to the general chapter, when the wants of the new district would be better known. Franciscanos, Instruc., 139-43, in Prov. Sto Evang., MS.; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 200-2; Torguemada, iii. 10-12.
- ↑ The admission of nuns to any of the three grades of Santa Clara, and absolving those excommunicated viva voce et in scriptis by the general.
- ↑ This was dated December 12, 1523, and recorded in Libro de Cabildo, MS., March 9, July 28, 1525.
Torquemada, iii. 392-9, devote many pages to his earlier life, yet they reveal little save his character. Remesal assumes that Friar Garcia de Loaisa, the Dominican successor of Fonseca as president of the India Council, appointed Valencia. Hist. Chyapa, 9. This can be true only in so far that he assented to the choice made by Ángeles. He would no doubt have chosen men of his own order. According to Gomara, Hist. Mex., 240, Cortés' own appeal to Ángeles gave impulse to the mission.
