d for the common good, and its produce was wont to be divided into
three parts--one of which was devoted to the Church, the second to the
State, and the third to the private use of the Indian agriculturalists.
It is now generally conceded that, in consideration of the gross,
sensual, and totally unintelligent human clay with which the Missionary
Fathers had to deal, their efforts were astonishingly successful. At the
same time, the labours of these Jesuits were carried on largely in the
dark--that is to say, fearing the influence of the white man upon their
converts, they refused admission to their land to any Spaniards. This
method, as has since been proved, was fully justified by the colonizing
circumstances which prevailed at the time; nevertheless, it was only
natural that it should have provoked a deep anger on the part of the
Spanish settlers, in whose eyes these missions of the Jesuits had as
their chief end the enriching of the pockets of the Order at the expense
of those of the colonists.

Towards the middle of the seventeenth century matters reached a crisis
in Asuncion. The newly-appointed Bishop, Don Bernardino de Cardenas,
showed himself most actively opposed to the works of the Jesuits in
Paraguay. An open hostility soon manifested itself between the two
powers, and the strife grew more and more bitter until, not only the
entire body of the clergy, but the Governor, the officials, and the
laymen were involved as well. Whatever were the faults which the Jesuits
may have committed in Paraguay--and to what extent these have been
exaggerated is now patent--it is quite certain that Cardenas was a being
totally unfitted to be invested with the dignity and responsibility of a
Bishop's office.

It is true that his eloquence in preaching was superb; this, however,
undoubtedly arose rather from an acutely developed artistic sense than
from any profound religious convictions. Cardenas, in fact, showed
himself upon occasions hysterical and wayward to a point which was
absolutely childish. This peculiarity in a person holding so important a
position as his naturally produced utter confusion in Paraguay.
According to Mr. R.B. Cunninghame Graham, these were some of the methods
by which the Bishop in the end utterly scandalized the more sober of his
congregation:

"The Bishop, not being secure of his position, had recourse to
every art to catch the public eye: fasting and scourging, prayers
before the al