CHAPTER XV.
ERECTION OF BISHOPRICS — CORTÉS IN SPAIN.
1527-1529.
Vicissitudes of the First See — Bishop Julian Garces — The Iconoclast Zumárraga — Lamentable Vandalism — Character of the Clergy — Arrival of Dominicans — Rivalry of the Orders — Introduction of Nuns — Meeting of Cortes and Pizarro — Death of an Ideal Soldier — Excitement Over Cortés' Arrival in Spain — Playing the Gallant — His Reception by the Emperor — Marks of Favor — He is Made a Marquis with Large Grants — Politic Soothings of Discontent — . Why He Lost the Governorship — His Contract for South Sea Dis coveries — His Bride and Jewels — Papal Concessions — Return To New Spain — Ovation to The Hero — Hostility of the Oidores.
New Spain had assumed the position of Castile's leading colony in the Indies, and the cross had ex tended its sway from ocean to ocean before the church proper stepped forward to assume control. Nevertheless a see and a bishop had been granted prior to a single conversion. On the strength of the glowing reports brought by the expeditions of Córdoba and Grijalva, Bishop Fonseca had hastened to confer upon his confessor, Julian Garcés, a Dominican, the title of bishop of Cozumel, and this proving an in significant island, his jurisdiction was extended over Yucatan.[1] The peninsula remained unsettled, how ever, and the see was in 1526 extended over the Tabasco and Vera Cruz districts to Chiapas, including
- ↑ 'Obispado llamado Carolense, y Santa María de los Remedies, en la Peninsula de Yucatan.' By bull of January 24, 1518, corresponding to the civil year 1519. Concilios Prov., 1555-65, 241-2, 227-40, with copies of bull, etc. He was bishop on September 6, 1519, says Gonzalez Dávila, Teatro Ecles., i. 80; while the date in Nueva España, Breve Res., MS., 225, is January 9, 1518; and in Iglesias y Conventos de Mex., 324, October 13, 1519. See also Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 16, 17.
