tiously, for, foreseeing the
tumults or disturbances that are wont to arise on such occasions, and
endeavoring to avoid whatever could serve as an incentive thereto, they
recognized that the ringing of the bells in making any demonstrations
might act as such incentive; and they asked the governor to command
that guards be posted in the bell-tower of the church, and in the house
of Master Juan Goncalez de Guzman, the provisor, so that the latter
could not order any demonstration to be made while the sentence of
banishment was being executed. On the same day when this was done, the
royal Audiencia sent a decree to the cabildo, ordering that they should
conduct themselves in all respects amicably with the royal Audiencia
and the other royal officials, not allowing any acts of violence to
be inflicted on the vassals of his Majesty, or hindering them from
appealing to the Audiencia in cases of fuerza. The cabildo were also
warned not to accept any documents of appointment from the ruler
of the archbishopric, or allow him to exercise jurisdiction, until
the person appointed should present himself before the royal court,
where he must take the customary oath. To this decree the cabildo
rendered obedience; and, the very illustrious master Don Fray Ximenez
Barrientos, bishop of Troya and assistant bishop of these islands,
having presented himself before the cabildo with the appointment
of ruler [of the archdiocese]--which the archbishop had conferred
upon him on the twenty-seventh of March, when the said archbishop
was already declared an exile--he was referred by the cabildo to the
Audiencia. Being present there, his appointment was, in consequence
of the demand made by the fiscal that license should not be granted
to him, suspended in that court, for weighty reasons there presented,
and it was referred to the Council, in order that his Majesty might
decide according to his pleasure; and [it was declared that] in the
interim the cabildo should govern the archdiocese. [82] And here it
occurs to me to remark, parenthetically, that, although the secrets
and the justifiable motives of the Audiencia are inscrutable, we may
regard it as probable that their principal reason for this action
was their knowledge of the fact that this bishop, a few days after
arriving in this city, had preached in the convent of Santo Domingo,
on the day of the naval battle, [83] and the entire tendency of his
sermon was to disparage the royal jurisdiction