time-limit in which to read the bulls and to withdraw
the act, while in reality twenty-four hours were granted him; and when
the secretary, Alonso Baesa del Rio, went to notify the archbishop of
the act, to his offer that he could easily obtain more time from the
judge, answer was made by Diego Bernal, who was the secretary of the
archbishop, that they had time enough, and that no more was necessary,
as they had read the bulls often enough. The point was not in this, but
in the fact that the judge-conservator could not command the archbishop
to withdraw the act that he had made against the Society. By that
one may see the calumny in alleging that the time was insufficient
to withdraw the act. The relation states that it was a dispute over
jurisdiction, and that consequently, according to the ruling of
the Council of Trent, judge-arbitrators were to be appointed. That
is an error; for there was no contest over jurisdiction, but only
that the judge-conservator, as the delegate of the supreme pontiff,
ordered the archbishop to withdraw an act manifestly injurious to
the Society. The relation declares that the bulls were authorized
by the same judge-conservator and his secretary. That is true, but
how did that cause any nullification? For the judge did not feign
briefs, or say that the one that he presented was the original one,
but that it was a faithful copy of the original, which the Society
had showed him. Therein he obeyed the behests of the supreme pontiff,
in order that such copies might have legality and authority. When the
fathers of the Society had finished their statement, the president told
the father reader Fray Diego de Ochoa, and the father definitor Fray
Pedro Barreto, to make what further statements they had to make. But
they, changing color, and being uneasy, answered clearly and frankly
that they had nothing more to say, as they had not come prepared for
it. I confess to your Grace that we who were present were put to the
blush at seeing so shameful a thing; and we asked, since they had
not come prepared, why they had come and why they had received the
archbishop's authorization. They requested that audience be granted
them the next day, and, although that is contrary to common practice,
it was conceded to them, so that they could at no time say that they
had not presented their side of the matter, and that they were without
defense. That was so clear and manifest a victory for the fathers of
the Society,