clergy, but of the secular government. They were eager for some
fresh opportunity to arise for them to take extreme measures at once
against the archbishop, or at least against the religious of this
province. This soon occurred, in a sermon that was preached in the
cathedral by a certain religious, [150] in which he explained moral
principles that were pertinent to the disorders then prevailing. The
auditors, who were present, began to resent this; and one of them
urged the governor to send a message to his illustrious Lordship,
asking him to order the preacher to leave the pulpit. The governor
did so, in fact: but he himself assumed authority to do this, before
his illustrious Lordship's answer came, and ordered the preacher to
stop his sermon, and proceed with mass--an act extremely injurious
to the dignity of the archbishop, that in his own church, and before
his eyes, the governor (a secular official, too) should interfere
to give commands to the ministers of the church. But his illustrious
Lordship was obliged to overlook this, in order not to cause greater
disturbances or expose his episcopal dignity to the insults of those
who had already, it appears, pronounced judgments in defiance of the
courts of the church, and were only awaiting an opportunity to assail
his jurisdiction and dignity. His illustrious Lordship did not choose
to afford this to them, at that time, although zeal stimulated him to
defend the honor of the mitre; for affairs were now in such condition
that he would [by doing so] cause more injury than benefit.

Notwithstanding the tolerance and patience of the archbishop, on the
second day after the sermon sentence was passed in the royal Audiencia,
in accordance with the representations made by the ecclesiastical
cabildo, against the preacher, condemning him to imprisonment and to
banishment from these islands. This was carried out on the following
day; Villalba was arrested in his convent of Binondoc and conveyed
through the public streets, being finally placed on board a vessel,
in which he was sent to a remote island until the time should come
for embarking him for Nueva Espana. This was accomplished in due time,
with great injury and hardship to that religious, and not less grief
to the archbishop at seeing such dreadful disorders, and even his
zeal powerless to remedy them; for these disturbances had now reached
such a point, and his subordinates had now become so hard-hearted and
rebellious,