should have done. During this passage at arms neither of the antagonists had conducted himself with the dignity to be expected from persons of their exalted position. They vied one with another in selecting untimely hours and unusual places for the exchange of their peculiar courtesies.[1]
The appeal to the audiencia, however, was never decided; for while it was pending the judges and other persons excommunicated, seeing the obstinacy of the archbishop, on the 20th of December 1623 appeared before the papal delegate at Puebla.[2] The delegate peremptorily ordered the archbishop to remove the ban, which the prelate refused to do, on the ground that because of the appeal to the audiencia the tribunal at Puebla had no jurisdiction, alleging also that the time for appeal on the part of the excommunicated had gone by. Thereupon, on New Year's day, the delegate issued a compulsory mandate, ordering the archbishop to absolve the excommunicated. The execution of this decree he intrusted to a Dominican friar, as his sub-delegate, who personally removed from the church door the obnoxious notices.[3]
From many of the pulpits of the city the conduct
- ↑ On the feast of the Purísima Concepcion, Tobar, by order of Gelves, notified the archbishop of a decree while he stood in all the dignity of his sacred office at the high altar of the cathedral, with the host uncovered, and in the midst of the solemnity of the mass. The outraged prelate, declaring that he would not permit such profanation, nor that the people should be so scandalized, refused to receive the notice. Serna, Representacion, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii. tom. ii. 165. The cabildo, in its letter to the king, asserts that the viceroy ordered proclamation made that none should pass by the archiepiscopal palace nor assemble in numbers within one block of it. Mex., Cartas de la ciudad á S. M., in Id., iii. 134. On the other hand the archbishop was 'ciego por el deseo de la venganza que el llamaba celo divino.' Mora, Mex. y sus Rev., iii. 244. He also 'apresuróla por instantes con diligencia estraordinaria; mandaba hacer á media noche notificaciones esquisitas.' Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii. tom. iii. 64.
- ↑ This office was created by a special bull of Gregory XIII. for the decision of difficult cases of this very nature. The delegate generally resided at Puebla.
- ↑ The Dominican, by order of the viceroy, was accompanied by a guard for the purpose of preventing any opposition that might be offered by partisans of the archbishop. Father Cavo with his usual bias asserts that the sub-delegate was a 'pobre clérigo sacristan de monjas, por no haber querido ningun sugeto de carácter encargarse de semejante comision.' Cavo, Tres Siglos, i. 271.
