you should devise means to remedy it. It is manifest
that by so doing, your lordships will receive signal recompense, while by
refusing, you will, on the contrary, receive terrible torments, for you
bear on your shoulders the heaviest and most dangerous burden, if you well
consider it, of any men in the world to-day. We likewise beseech your
lordships, with all due humility and reverence, not to attribute our
coming to temerity, but to accept and judge it by the spirit that has
prompted it, which is the wish to act according to God's precepts as we
are obliged to do."

The Council--composed of such dignitaries as the Grand Commander of
Castile, Don Garcia de Padilla, the distinguished man of letters, Peter
Martyr, Francisco de los Cobos, and others--listened aghast to this speech,
which was followed by a moment of silence that none of them felt prepared
to break. The Bishop, whose wrath had waxed during the discourse, rose
with an air of great authority and majesty to reply.

"Great indeed," he said, "has been your presumption and daring to come to
correct the Council of the King. Casas must be at the bottom of this; who
puts you, the King's preachers, to meddle in government affairs which the
King entrusts to his Councils? The King does not maintain you for this,
but to preach the Gospel."

The rebuke fell flat, nor were the theologians one whit overawed by the
Bishop's high tone, for which they were not unprepared. Father Lafuente,
who answered, began with a pun: "There is no Casas here but the Casa
[house] of God, in which we officiate and for whose support and defence we
are bound and ready to stake our lives. Does it appear presumption to your
lordship that eight doctors of theology, who might properly address a
whole General Council on matters of faith and government of the universal
Church, should come to admonish a Council of the King? We may admonish
the King's Councils for what they do wrong, for by our office we belong to
the King's Council, and hence, gentlemen, we come here to admonish you and
to require you to correct those most misguided and unjust actions,
committed in the Indies to the perdition of souls and the offence of God.
And if you do not correct these things, gentlemen, we shall preach against
you as against those who do not keep the laws of God, nor act for the
advantage of the King's service. This, gentlemen, is to fulfil and to
preach the Gospel."

Such a threat was no despicable one, a