g to be excused from
attending meetings where nothing else was discussed save opposition to
the government. The archbishop and the members of the orders were so
angry because the fathers of the Society did not attend that meeting
(not taking into consideration at all that the bishop of Nueva Segovia
and the ecclesiastical cabildo did not attend, either), that they
turned against the said fathers of the Society. The first thing done
in the said meeting was to enact an act which I enclose herewith. [17]
In it they are separated from the other orders, and the latter were
prohibited from admitting the Jesuits into their convents for feasts
or other ceremonies. The other orders were not to go to the convent of
the Society for public ceremonies or for feasts; while those fathers
could not preach in the cathedral, or in any other churches outside of
their house, throughout this archbishopric--which was equal to exiling
them from its territories. To such a height did passion--not to say
the hate of the archbishop and orders--rise against the Society of
Jesus, that one must pass by what was determined against them in the
said meeting, in which all that was done was to discuss the government
and royal jurisdiction.

The archbishop and the religious seeing that the fathers of the
Society were not disturbed--for which object the former were
striving--because of the resolution made in the said meeting, the
archbishop, twenty days later, sent a notary with a notification to
the superiors of the Society, ordering that they should not preach
outside their house, not even in the plazas and the guardhouses,
under penalty of major excommunication, _late sentencie_, and a fine
of four thousand ducados for the Holy Crusade--a thing which greatly
scandalized all this community. The fathers of the Society answered
with moderation that they would obey whatever was not contrary to the
privileges and immunities given them by the Roman pontiffs; but that,
since the tenor of this act was hostile to those rights, and manifest
injuries were being caused to the Society--first, because all of them
had been deprived of the preaching, without other fault than having
defended the royal jurisdiction, and the truth; second, in ordering
this with [penalty of] excommunication and pecuniary fines; third,
by prohibiting them from giving instruction, even in the plazas
and guardhouses--they were obliged to appoint a judge-conservator;
for although they had tri