father Fray Diego de Alvarez._
[123]

The year 1584 came, at which time father Fray Andres de Aguirre
had finished his term as provincial, as aforesaid; and the time had
come to give the province, according to the orders and rulings of our
regulations, a new head, who should take charge of the affairs of the
province, both in spiritual and temporal matters, with new strength,
and new energy and resolution. I do not deceive myself in comparing
the action of the chapter to that of retiling; for they act as one
who, when he perceives that his house is leaking, tries to remedy
that by putting on new tiles, which oppose the rain and wind with
new vigor and thoroughness, and keep the house free from leaks,
which at the last would utterly ruin it. In the same manner, the
superiors of the order, after the completion of their three years of
service in the office, would beyond any doubt be tired and liable to
yield more easily to any dispensation in the rigor of the observance,
so that gradually the edifice would be undermined--as the Holy Ghost
tells us, _qui spernit modica, paulatim decidet_. [124] Therefore in
order to avoid such troubles, which are so full of peril to the order,
our rules provide that new superiors be elected, who may carry out
the rigor of our laws with new resolution, new zeal, and new force,
and who should restore and suspend whatever time and opportunity
has relaxed somewhat, taking away the opportunity for evil custom
and abuses. Thus, desirous in this chapter of advance throughout the
province, the capitular fathers set their eves on father Fray Diego
de Alvarez, a man of learning and judgment, and of blameless life. Of
such a man did the province have need, so that with the quiet that it
had already negotiated at the cost of the anxiety, care, and diligence
of father Fray Andres de Aguirre, the new provincial might continue
what his predecessor had so happily commenced. Thus, then, the whole
chapter having turned their attention to the good of the province,
many things were settled in it; and the province began to spread,
and new priorates were assigned from the visitas of the order (which
were numerous and very widely scattered), so that by this means the
Indians could be better instructed and greater care taken of them. The
experience has shown us that they are a race with whom one cannot be
neglectful; and if it were possible to assign one religious to each
Indian, so that the latter might not l