eized Herrera, [146]
and placed him in the fort--treating him with ignominy unusual for
[a member of] the cabildo, placing him under the guard of secular
officials, and treating him like a highwayman. Yet the said archbishop
had previously favored him, and regarded lightly other offenses of
his--for no other reason than because Herrera had, to please the
archbishop and his friars, drawn up documents expressing in positive
terms, detestation of appeals to the royal Audiencia.
21. With these scandals and harsh measures, the city experienced
profound affliction; the minds of the people were appalled, and
they were so shut in by fears and terrors that no one considered
himself safe even in his own house. No one opened his lips, seeing
the two powers of the commonwealth thus jumbled together, and that
in the greatest calamities there was no recourse except to God. The
inhabitants could not communicate with one another, without criticism;
nor was it even lawful to breathe, since rigorous scrutiny was made
of the most trifling acts.
22. Great were the calamities which at this time came unexpectedly
upon this commonwealth--epidemics, famines, vessels returning to
port, [attacks by] enemies, losses of vessels. The governor the more
pretended that his conduct was influenced by an imaginary conspiracy;
for on the night of Holy Thursday, when he went to visit the stations
[of the cross], a multitude of soldiers went with him as escort,
besides his usual guard, and he was accompanied by the personages
who were in league with him.
23. Royal decrees were despatched against the preachers who zealously
proclaimed from the pulpits the arbitrary and malicious character
of the recent acts, and the Dominicans alone had the privilege to
utter whatever absurdities they pleased in the pulpits. There is no
counterpart to the satire against the Society which a [father from]
Santo Tomas preached one day.
24. Recourse to the royal Audiencia was entirely barred, as was seen
in the case of Don Juan de Vargas, who thus far had been posted on
the list of excommunicates, and all persons who held intercourse
with him threatened with punishment. Tardiness and delay followed
him until the fourth decree [was issued] in regard to his absolution,
and it had no result--as little carried out as was the king's decree
which he issued in regard to the banishment of the archbishop.
25. In Cagayan Fray Raimundo de Rosa killed Fray Juan Zambrano, his
vic
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