RULE OF THE REGENTE.

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operations of the mint the merchants lent him without interest or security $2,500,000.36

The deceased had ordained in his last will that his remains should be interred in the temple of the Insigne y Real Colegiata of Guadalupe, charging that the interment should be in the humblest and most trampled spot at the very entrance of the temple. The body remained in state at the palace till the 13th, when the funeral cortége started in the morning for the convent of San Francisco, where it was deposited till the evening, and then it was conveyed to the santuario of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, and there on the 29th of October inhumed in the threshold, as he had requested, with expressive epitaphs on the tomb. The executors, José Martin de Chavez and Joaquin Antonio Dongo, in view of the late viceroy's great regard for the Capuchin nuns, and of his great zeal in the erection and preservation of the casa de ejercicios in the oratory of San Felipe, resolved that his heart should be given to the Capuchin nuns, and his other vitals to the before mentioned casa.37

So soon as the supreme government heard of the death of Viceroy Bucareli, it ordered that his effects should be forwarded to Spain, and that no residencia of his official acts should be had, a course unprecedented in the history of royal representation.

38

Immediately after Bucareli's death was officially announced, was opened the pliego de providencia or mortaja, by which the president of Guatemala was to

36 He was not backward in reimbursing the loan. Alaman, Disert., iii. app. 68. As evidence of his piety and humility, when he felt death approaching he begged to be helped on his knees that he might die in that position, or at least allowed to lie on a bare floor. Uribe, Elogio, 16-20, 26, 38-41.

This is probably the correct version as to the disposal of the heart and other vitals; though it was asserted in Habana that the heart was deposited in Santa Brígida, and the entrails in the cathedral. A contemporary left it written that the heart went to the Capuchin nuns, a moiety of the other vitals to the casa de ejercicios, and the other to the cathedral. Gomez, Diario, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii. vii. 60, 74-5. Panes, Vir., in Monum. Dom. Esp., MS., 51, 124, merely says that the heart was deposited in the convent of the Capuchin nuns, and the body in the colegiata.

38 Gomez, Diario, in Doc. Hist. Méx., série ii. vii. 85-6.

succeed as viceroy ad interim. Until his arrival the government devolved on the audiencia. The baton of acting captain-general was delivered to the regente, Francisco Romá y Rosel." Circulars were despatched to the authorities throughout the country to notify them of these events.40

On the 23d of April was celebrated a thanksgiving mass, attended by the audiencia and the regente. At the head of the palace reception room were placed, three chairs; the middle one was occupied by the regente, and the other two by the decano, or senior oidor, and the subdecano. The regente and his two associates took the palace coach, the guard presenting arms, and with a squad of cavalry in advance, and the escort of halberdiers, repaired to the cathedral, at the principal door of which were four canons to receive them. For the regente was supplied not a prie-dieu, but a mere cushion." The audiencia during its rule of a little over four months made no change in the government policy.

One of the notable events of the second half of the eighteenth century was the assembling of the fourth Mexican provincial council, convened pursuant to two royal cédulas of August 21, 1769, one of which

39 He was the first regente; appointed June 20, 1776; entered upon his duties March 13, 1778, and resigned the office in 1782. Both he and his wife, Narcisa Paisagns, were from Catalonia. He died in Mexico, December 1, 1784, and was buried the next day in the chapel of Santo Domingo with the honors of the last rank he held in life. Reales Cédulas, MS., ii. 159; Gomez, Diario, 198-9. His colleagues in the government were the oidores Villaurrutia, Madrid, Gamboa, Algarin, Luyando, and Guevara. Cedulario, MS., i. 90.

40 Every official on seeing the circular wrote over his signature in continuation the date of its receipt, as well as the obligation he was under of forwarding it to other officials residing off the main routes taken by the couriers. There were six such circulars. Liévano, Luis Mendez de, Carta á Romá, MS.

41 Other ceremonies practised toward viceroys were omitted; for instance: the mace-bearers and doorkeepers of the city were not stationed in front of the audiencia; the holy book was not brought to the regente to kiss, sino la paz,' that is to say, an image to be kissed in sign of peace and fraternity, and this, not by a canon, but by the master of ceremonies wearing the surplice and stole. Gomez, Diario, in Doc. Hist. Mex., 2d ser., vii. 62-3.

42 Hist. Mex., ii., this series, gave full information on the preceding

councils.

43

FOURTH PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

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commanded the prelates of America and the Philippines to attend such a council. The other, called the. tomo regio, specified as many as twenty points to be considered. The partisans of the expelled Jesuits, among whom is the writer Cárlos M. Bustamante, would have the world believe that the ministers who had influenced the king to adopt that measure, now impressed upon his mind a conviction that the convocation of a provincial council, after the old fashion, was needed to eradicate the erroneous doctrines taught by the society of Jesus, which had taken deep root in America; that the king's flatterers represented morals in Mexico to be at a low ebb, owing to those teachings; and one of the orators at the council affirmed that the period was worthy of comparison with that of the conquest of America."

On the 13th of January, 1770, Archbishop Lorenzana laid the royal cédulas before his chapter, and on the 21st it was announced at high mass that the council would be inaugurated on the 13th of January proximo. Some differences between the archbishop and his chapter on matters of ceremonial occurred toward the end of 1770, and new discussions arose one week before the installation of the council. They were not, however, an obstacle to the swearing-in, on the 11th of January 1771, before the archbishop, of the theologians and canonists who had been chosen to act as advisers of the council.45

46

The preliminary ceremonies took place, part in the church, and part in the chapter's hall, which was the room selected for the sittings. The viceroy made a short address; and after the tomo regio and the archbishop's decree had been read, he retired.47

43 Cédula, in Concilio Prov. Mex., iv. MS., i. 1-8.

44 Suplem., in Cavo, Tres Siglos, iii. 7.

45 Five of the former taken from both the secular and regular clergy, and six of the latter. Sosa, Episcop. Mex., 194.

46 The religious rites were attended by the royal courts without the viceroy; but at their termination he was found sitting on the throne under the canopy in the council chamber. Id., 193.

47 The next day the archbishop delivered a long discourse on provincial

The council was presided over by the archbishop, and the following prelates and dignitaries of the church were in attendance. Bishops: Miguel Álvarez de Abreu, of Antequera; Friar Antonio Alcalá, of Yucatan, and elect of Guadalajara; Francisco Fabian y Fuero, of Puebla, and José Diaz Bravo, of Durango. The bishoprics of Michoacan and Guadalajara were represented by canons of their chapters. Prelates of the religious orders: generals of the San Hipólito and Bethlehemite orders, and the provincials of the Franciscans, and barefooted Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, barefooted Carmelites, and order of Mercy; and the comisario of the clérigos regulares of San Camilo. The colegiata of Guadalupe likewise had two seats in the council. Oidor Antonio de Rivadeneira, as asistente real, and José Areche, fiscal of the audiencia; and the two representatives of the city of Mexico. The officials of the council were the secretary, Doctor Andrés Martinez Campillo, promoter, master of ceremonies, notary, and two nuncios.

The labors of the council were completed on the 26th of October, and on the 10th of November a commissioner was despatched to Spain with the acts to be laid before the king in council for approval. This was never given them, owing to the many objections preferred by the fiscal for Peru, based chiefly on alleged grievances against Archbishop Lorenzana. The king on the 8th of October, 1772, ordered that the acts should not be made public till they were sanctioned by his council and the pope. They have consequently remained unpublished. An authenticated copy of them exists in the archives of the archbishopric of Mexico. The manuscript has a blue velvet cover, and is entitled Concilio IV provincial Mex

49

councils, and was followed by the asistente real, or viceroy's proxy, who spoke of what was to be done, and ended with vivas and acclamations to the viceroy, and Visitador Galvez. Bustamante, Suplem., in Cavo, Tres Siglos, iii. 9.

48 On the 10th of the same month the council was visited by De Croix's successor, Bucareli, amid much ceremonial, and with a large suite. Bustamante, Suplem., in Cavo, Tres Siglos, iii. 9-10.

19 Concilio Prov. Mex. IV, MS., i. 365; Beleña, Recop., ii. 334-5.

ARCHBISHOP LORENZANA.

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icano, 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.50

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. 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

50 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 Caro, 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.

51 His earliest ecclesiastic instruction he received in a Benedictine monastery. Vir. de Mex., Instruc., MS., no. 22, 2.