as rector of San Pablo college, as definidor, and prior. His Cronica de la Orden de N. P. S. Augustin enlas provincias de Nueva España, Mexico, 1624, 218 pp. folio, in four tratados, covers the labors of the order from 1533 to 1592, and contains a number of biographies, together with an account of the strife between the orders and the secular clergy for the possession of parishes. Both order and style are above the average productions of contemporaries, and less rambling is apparent, as Pinelo observes: 'Es Historia bien escrita i que no sale de lo que en el Titulo promete." Epitome, ii. 761, 839. According to Vetancurt, he also wrote the book on which Cisneros founds his Hist. de NV. Sra. de los Remedios. A special history of the Augustinian sub-provincia of San Nicholás appeared at a later date, under the title of Historia de San Nicholas de Tolentino del órden de San Augustin of 215 folio pages in three libros, wherein is recorded the mission work of the order in Michoacan and adjoining regions from 1537 to 1646, at first under the provinciales of Mexico, later as independent provincia. Half the space is devoted to the lives and particularly the virtues of the missionaries, the remainder to the founding and progress of the different convents and stations, with few allusions to political and civil affairs.
The history of the Bethlehemite order has been written by friar Joseph Garcia de la Concepcion, who had acquired some fame as a preacher and professor, and it exists under the title of Historia Bethlehemitica. Vida exemplar y admirable del venerable Betancvr. Seville, 1723, folio, 203, 173, 39 pp. respectively. The first of the four tratados is devoted to a biography of Vetancurt, who founded the order in the middle of the 17th century; the second relates to the life of Rodrigo de la Cruz, and the missions in Mexico and Centra] Awerica; the third and fourth to minor biographies and progress of the order.
More attractive, if less valuable to the present historic field, is the rare and curious Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio. Novi Orbis Indie Occidentalis, Admodvm Rev. Bvellii, Avthore Fr. Honario Philopono (Monacho), 1621, folio, which relates to the labors of Benedictine missionaries in America chiefly under Buil, the vicar of the pope, and the first patriarch of the New World, who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage with instructions to take charge of the education of Indians, and who afterwards became so bitter against the admiral. It opens with a treatise on ancient knowledge of a western world, and of St Brendan's discoveries in this direction, and treats of the aboriginal beliefs in Mexico and other regions. On the finely engraved title-page are given full-length portraits of St Brendan and P. Buil, engraved by Kilian, who furnishes several other plates illustrating sea-monsters and Indian barbarities. The book is dedicated to Casparus Plautius, the abbé of the Seittenstötten convent, to which the author belongs. By some the two are regarded as identical. Philoponus takes a decided standpoint in several places, particularly where the prerogative of his cloth is conccrned. Ina reference to the journey of Cabeza de Vaca, for instance, he attacks him severely for daring to perform miracles among Indians.
Notwithstanding the extent and importance of the church in the New World, it was not till 1649 that the first church history of America appeared in Teatro Eclesiástico de la Primitiva Iglesia de las Indias Occidentales. By Maestro Gil Gonzalez Davila, Madrid, 1649-55, 2 vols. folio — giving an account
