Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/311

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

EXCOMMUNICATION.

291

for spoliation of his estates, and this in so fearless a manner as to bring upon them the wrath of this most just audiencia. Altamirano was exiled, after losing his property, and Llerena was forced to seek refuge inasanctuary. Their successful defiance of the church so far had made the audiencia wholly regardless of its protests, and Delgadillo proceeded to forcibly take forth Llerena for exemplary dealing, driving back at lance-point the body of friars led by the bishop elect in defence of the victim and of the sacred rights of the temple. After this extreme outrage nothing remained but to launch the ban of excommunication against the desecrators. As this ban affected only the two oidores, no popular demonstration occurred, as with Salazar in 1525 to compel submission, and the hardened oidores took no notice of it, but proceeded severely against their prisoner, whereupon the ban was reissued.^[1] When Cortés returned from Spain, fresh replies were made to the indictment against him, and it remained pending for several years before the Council of the Indies, receiving little more attention than it deserved. A few fines were about all the penalty inflicted.^[2]

The proceedings in the residencias of the royal officials went on according to the feelings of the members of the audiencia in each particular case. Estrada wisely reminded the emperor of the old quarrel with Guzman, and requested that the president should not sit in judgment upon him. The

↑ It was proclaimed in March 1530, and remained in force even in the following year. Guzman had already left for Jalisco, so that he escaped. The document relating to the ban is given in the appendix to Alaman, Disert., 1. 215-17. Ángulo, the companion of Llerena, was executed, the latter managing to escape with a lighter sentence. The new audiencia caused the ban to be removed. Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série 1. tom. v. 140.
↑ By cédula of February 8, 1537, Cortés was ordered to appear in Spain, in person or by proxy, to hear sentence. The death of Ponce de Leon and other points were revived in later years. All the documents relating to the residencia and its results have not been preserved or published. A portion, relating to the inimical testimony and a few other poimts, was published at Mexico in 1852, in two volumes, under the supervision of Ignacio L. Rayon, with careful adherence to the original. This, together with a mass of documents bearing on the residencia of the other officials, and on the later suits of Cortés, has been reproduced in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xxvi. — xxix.

[1] It was proclaimed in March 1530, and remained in force even in the following year. Guzman had already left for Jalisco, so that he escaped. The document relating to the ban is given in the appendix to Alaman, Disert., 1. 215-17. Ángulo, the companion of Llerena, was executed, the latter managing to escape with a lighter sentence. The new audiencia caused the ban to be removed. Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série 1. tom. v. 140.

[D311-2] By cédula of February 8, 1537, Cortés was ordered to appear in Spain, in person or by proxy, to hear sentence. The death of Ponce de Leon and other points were revived in later years. All the documents relating to the residencia and its results have not been preserved or published. A portion, relating to the inimical testimony and a few other poimts, was published at Mexico in 1852, in two volumes, under the supervision of Ignacio L. Rayon, with careful adherence to the original. This, together with a mass of documents bearing on the residencia of the other officials, and on the later suits of Cortés, has been reproduced in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xxvi. — xxix.

[1]

[2]