cano, celebrado en 1771. It contains five books, the first with thirteen titles; the second with sixteen; the third with twenty-four; the fourth with two; and the fifth, with twelve; each title having a large number of decrees and ordinances on ecclesiastic reform and discipline.[1]
The council also prepared fourteen works, all on matters more or less connected with the church, and tending to the improvement of its branches and service, and to the advancement of religion and popular education; one of them concerned the management of hospitals, and another the beatification of Juan de Palafox.
Doctor Francisco Antonio Lorenzana y Butron, of whom mention has been so often made in connection with the above described fourth council, was of illustrious lineage, born in Leon, Spain, on the 22d of September 1722; he studied literature in the college of San Salvador de Oviedo, of the renowned university of Salamanca.[2] His first prominent position was that of canónigo doctoral in the cathedral of Sigüenza. He afterward became successively canon and vicar-general of Toledo, abbot of San Vicente, a dignitary of the cathedral of Toledo, and a member of the royal council. In 1765 he was made bishop of Plasencia, and on the 14th of April of the following year
- ↑ Concilio Prov. Mex. IV, MS., i. 9-360; ii. 13-323; Granados, Tardes, Am., 484-5. Bustamante irreverently calls this council a solemn farce, inspired by party spirit, and supported by the king or his councillors, to impress the Mexican people with awe and dread, and with the idea that the king was a divine being. Comparing it with the first presided over by Father Martin de Valencia, he derides the former as well as Lorenzana. Suplem., in Cavo, Tres Siglos, iii. 11-12. Bustamante's remarks are certainly ill-considered, for the instructions to parish priests, among other points, clearly show that they were intended to elevate, and not to depress the character of the Indians. Cathecismo por IV Concilio. This is an original manuscript, in my collection, dated September 5, 1771, bearing the signatures and rubrics of the archbishop of Mexico, bishops of Yucatan and Puebla, the proctors of Michoacan and Guadalajara, and the secretary. It is followed on pages 69 to 263 by an explanation of Christian doctrine made by the council, dated August 4, 1771, also bearing the same signatures.
- ↑ His earliest ecclesiastic instruction he received in a Benedictine monastery. Vir. de Mex., Instruc., MS., no. 22, 2.
