etition which they presented
to the president, in which they challenged the auditor Zapata. But
he who regards this as nullification, proves that he is but little
accustomed to the manner of procedure of the Audiencia; for in the
first place the petition was not presented in time, and second, it was
not signed by a lawyer--an essential lack, as that is contrary to his
Majesty's orders for what is to be done in such cases of challenging
a judge, and especially so superior a judge as an auditor.

As the judge-conservator was declared by the Audiencia to be legal,
he proceeded, constraining the archbishop with censures so that he
should furnish an official statement of the acts issued against the
Society. He did so, sending the original act already mentioned, the
original [record of the] meeting that he held with the religious,
and the act that was issued ordering the fathers of the Society
not to minister to the Indians of Santa Cruz. Within a few days the
matter was well on the way to a conclusion and settlement, when it
was discovered that the archbishop and some of the said three orders
of St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Augustine, had held a meeting,
and under color of a protest had issued a defamatory libel, in which
they linked the same judge-conservator, the Society of Jesus, the
governor, and the royal Audiencia, because these had declared against
their will. This document was a matter of common talk and notoriety,
not only because it was declared by many of the townspeople, who
had heard it from those who had been present at the meeting (and as
there were so many of them it could not be kept secret); but also,
as soon as it was requested, the archbishop told the father rector,
Luis de Pedrasa, that he would not give up such a paper, even if
he were deprived of the archbishopric; and father Fray Pedro de
Herrera, his procurator, said that they would not give it even if
they were hanged. The father provincial of St. Francis asked Adjutant
Juan de Vega Mexia, why he demanded such a paper, for it was not
well for the Society, or their judge-conservator, or the governor,
or the royal Audiencia to see it. This tone increased the reports
of the townspeople, and the constant rumor that that protest was a
defamatory libel and contained grievous things about many persons. It
was authenticated by a royal clerk named Diego de Rueda, who is also
a familiar of the Holy Office. The judge-conservator arrested him,
and took hi