Potenciana pending the dispute. Public excitement
was intense. The Archbishop ordered the girl to be liberated, but as
his subordinates were still contumacious to his bidding, the Bishop
of Cebu was invited to arbitrate on the question, but he declined
to interfere, therefore an appeal was remitted to the Archbishop of
Mexico. In the meantime the girl was married to her lover, and long
afterwards a citation arrived from Mexico for the woman to appear
at that ecclesiastical court. She went there with her husband, from
whom she was separated whilst the case was being tried, but in the
end her liberty and marriage were confirmed.

During the Government of Nino de Tabora (1626-32), the High Host
and sacred vessels were stolen from the Cathedral of Manila. The
Archbishop was in consequence sorely distressed, and walked barefooted
to the Jesuits' convent to weep with the priests, and therein find
a solace for his mental affliction. It was surmised that the wrath
of God at such a crime would assuredly be avenged by calamities on
the inhabitants, and confessions were made daily. The friars agreed
to appease the anger of the Almighty by making public penance and
by public prayer. The Archbishop subjected himself to a most rigid
abstinence. He perpetually fasted, ate herbs, drank only water,
slept on the floor with a stone for a pillow, and flagellated his own
body. On Corpus Christi day a religious procession passed through the
public thoroughfares solemnly exhorting the delinquents to restore
the body of Our Saviour, but all in vain. The melancholy prelate,
weak beyond recovery from his self-imposed privations, came to the
window of his retreat as the _cortege_ passed in front of it, and
there he breathed his last.

As in all other Spanish colonies, the Inquisition had its secret
agents or commissaries in the Philippines. Sometimes a priest would
hold powers for several years to inquire into the private lives and
acts of individuals, whilst no one knew who the informer was. The
Holy Office ordered that its _Letter of Anathema_, with the names in
full of all persons who had incurred pains and penalties for heresy,
should be read in public places every three years, but this order
was not fulfilled. The _Letter of Anathema_ was so read in 1669,
and the only time since then up to the present day was in 1718.

During the minority of the young Spanish King Charles II. the regency
was held by his mother, the Queen-Dowager, who