ed from
the kingdoms, and the temporalities had been taken away from him,
because of a riot that he caused. It happened on November 21 of the
past year, that he, clad as a Franciscan friar, together with another
of the same order as his companion, attempted to enter a gate at the
Ave Marias. The commandant, who recognized him, laid hold of him,
and ordered the soldiers to take their weapons in order to prevent
his entrance, and to obey their orders. But so many Dominican friars
(who were prepared for that emergency), charged down upon them and
defended the said cleric with their fists and with violence; and
forcing my guardhouse, they placed him within the city, in spite of the
soldiers, who had no opportunity to use their weapons. That appears
from a legal investigation which they made in their exoneration,
for I was intending to punish them for not having kept my order. I
was angry, as was natural, at that lawless act and the boldness of
the friars. I advised their superior of it; but he answered that
that friar had entered the city because he had been summoned by the
Inquisition and its commissary. For, even for such an outrage, which
would have been worthy of punishment in any other, those friars take
as a cloak such a holy institution as is the Inquisition--as if it
were not proper to advise me, and not to force my guardhouse, even
though it were a matter for the Inquisition. For it is certain that
in all that pertains to that holy tribunal, the father commissary
must find in me all protection and aid. But I was told nothing
except that the force and violence was practiced of which I have
given an account. It is to be presumed that it was not a matter that
pertained to so holy and righteous a tribunal; but to say that it
was a matter of the Inquisition was only a pretext and excuse for an
act of boldness like that. And in order that your Highness may see
more clearly what I state, the viceroy of Nueva Espana, the marquis
de Cerralbo, sent a surgeon named Don Garcia to this country for his
crimes. He came, condemned to serve for eight years at the will of the
governor, without pay. But as I had need of him to go in the fleet of
galleons that I was despatching to the forts of Terrenate, I tried to
have him prepare for that service. He took refuge in the convent of
St. Dominic, where the fathers aided and protected him. One of them,
named Fray Francisco de Paula, told me that among the multitude of
my affairs that wer