do not meddle and interfere,
without being summoned or consulted. They assert that they must
pass their edict of approval or disapproval on everything; so that
there are but few or no matters whose execution they do not oppose
and obstruct--saying that such and such cannot be done or ordered,
under penalty of going to hell; and, in conjunction with the bishop,
they immediately excommunicate and terrorize, so that the secular arm
and hand of your Majesty has not here the strength and freedom that
it should have for the execution of affairs. One of the things most
needing reform is that, as the bishop, according to his caprice--and
often in cases outside of his jurisdiction--excommunicates and
proceeds unjustly, doing violence to the law; and as there is no
royal Audiencia here to remove the excommunications: justice and
the despatch of business may suffer greatly, unless your Majesty
entrusts the governor here with power to try such cases, and to lift
and remove the ban, since other recourse is so distant, and so many
wrongs might be perpetrated. For it is certain that, both in this and
in all other matters, the conduct of the bishop and of the religious
with so great power and license is one of the most severe trials of
this government; because the bishop has a title as a saint (so that
some persons imitate him), and a man of upright life. That I do not
take it upon myself either to praise or to censure. I have never
seen a man more peculiar or so inconsiderate and obstinate in his
opinions, who even does not hesitate to oppose the right of patronage,
the jurisdiction, and the royal exchequer of your Majesty. All this
he judges and discusses as injuriously as the most utter foreigner,
and even enemy, would do. I say this with truth, on account of what
I owe to your Majesty's service; and although I warn him of the harm
that he is doing, as it appears to me, and although I am restraining
myself in regard to him with the moderation suitable in a land so
slippery and uncertain, he is wont to answer with monkish liberty,
what the king must do for him; and that, inasmuch as neither pope nor
king can do him good or ill, he is not at all concerned. He says that
your Majesty has no authority here; that to him is due the conquest
and conservation of this land; and that he is not bishop for your
Majesty, but for the pope. What royal patronage he must observe,
the pope declares in his bulls, and not he who praying kept to his
bed