; and
notices to that effect were placed on the churches. Upon receiving
that notification of excommunication, the auditor Marcos Zapata de
Galves made a spirited reply; he alleged the invalid points in the
act (which were many), and finally, for greater advantage, appealed
to and threatened the royal aid against fuerza. The master Don Andres
Arias Xiron, inasmuch as he had hidden, was not found, in order to be
notified of another excommunication; but he was placed on the lists
as publicly excommunicated. On the following Wednesday, April 30,
the governor, the auditor Marcos Zapata, his Majesty's fiscal, and
three advocates of the royal Audiencia--namely, Doctor Luis Arias de
Mora, Licentiate Nicolas Antonio de Omana, and the auditor Manuel
Suarez--met in the royal Audiencia. The auditor Marcos Zapata set
forth the manifest violence shown him by the archbishop. The lawyers
were sworn so that they might serve as judges, and they so acted. The
auditor Marcos Zapata leaving the hall, they judged that fuerza was
employed against him. Without doubt it was so, for the auditor Marcos
Zapata had not sinned further than in admitting Don Andres Xiron into
the royal Audiencia on his appeal from fuerza. If that were a sin,
so also was it to admit the said archbishop, when, in his suit with
the judge-conservator, he appeared before the royal Audiencia with
a plea of fuerza. And if Don Andres Xiron incurred excommunication
for having thus presented himself, the archbishop likewise incurred
it when he appeared there. But no consideration was given to this,
and the point of fuerza is a stale one in Espana, and consequently it
was not discussed. The archbishop was notified of a royal provision
issued by Don Phelipe, by which he was ordered to absolve the auditor
Marcos Zapata. The archbishop obeyed it, and that afternoon he sent
Master Juan Velez to absolve him. That was done _ad cautelam_; for
in truth he did not consider himself as excommunicated, nor did the
learned jurists so consider him.

Not only was the master Don Andres Xiron not absolved, but new acts
were passed against him and new penalties imposed on him. All this was
to prevent his presentation, that the governor had made, for the post
of archdeacon of this metropolitan church, because of the resignation
of the said post by Don Francisco de Baldes. The archbishop refused to
accept the said master Don Andres Xiron, as he asserted that he was
his mortal enemy, and for that