ordered
the soldiers to disperse the religious by force, even if they had
to take them into custody. The soldiers carried out the order with
the violence necessary for so unjust a sentence, being instigated by
the sword-blows and strokes of the adjutants. That having been seen
by the priests, they pitied them so keenly that they preferred to
have that punishment executed on them than on the poor soldiers. Some
religious were seated beside the archbishop to see whether they would
be allowed to aid him; but so many were the pushes and prods given
them by the soldiers, that not only did they tear them away, but
they fell down with the holy monstrance breaking the lunette in which
was the holy host. This ought to be written with tears of blood. The
father guardian of St. Francis and a secular priest hastened to put
a strap about the archbishop's neck and to fasten the lunette to him,
so that he could support it, for his powers were now failing him. At
that juncture, order was given to a soldier named Juan de Santa Ana
(whom I knew, and who told me that event many times), to draw away
the hand of the archbishop. He, assisted by a living faith, answered
boldly that he would kill himself before he would commit such an
act of sacrilege. Then drawing his sword, and placing the point in
his breast, he fell upon it. By the permission of divine Providence,
the sword doubled up in such a manner when the soldier fell upon it,
that he was not wounded at all. That incident caused great surprise
to all the bystanders; but the governor was so little moved by it that
he ordered the soldier to be arrested, when he ought to have rewarded
his heroic determination. At one o'clock at night, the archbishop was
so greatly weakened and tired out from thirst, that he begged to be
given a little water. They sent to consult with the governor as to
what they were to do. The governor ordered that they should not allow
it to be given him, explaining that the denial of the temporalities
was understood not to allow water to be given him for his thirst, and
that to do otherwise would be not to execute the royal law--as if so
sovereign dispositions extended to such impieties. Advice was given
to the convents, threatening the suspension of religious functions,
in order that they should not forestall by celebrating the offices of
the following day. The archiepiscopal hall was cleared of the religious
who were assisting the archbishop, the soldiers having alr