at his answer should be
given them in writing, as they wished to refer it to the Pope, to which
the Canon agreed on condition that he be allowed thirty days in which to
prepare a properly expressed statement. The period fixed elapsed without
the authorities again asking for the document, for they had devised a new
plan to overreach the Bishop. They offered the Canon the keys of the
church if he would accept them as curate, abandoning his character as
Vicar-General of the Bishop, promising him a generous salary and other
advantages if he would agree. The Canon did not agree but reported the
situation faithfully to Las Casas, who thus learned that his spiritual
subjects were in open rebellion against his authority.

The Audiencia had ended by agreeing to send an auditor to Ciudad Real to
see that the New Laws were executed, and a gentleman of Santiago de
Nicaragua wrote the news of this decision to the Council saying, "The
Bishop is returning to this country to complete the destruction of this
unhappy city, bringing with him an auditor to still further tax the
country. We don't know how it is that your lordships do not remedy such
great evils." An open council was held on December 15, 1545, which was
attended by all the householders of the town, and upon opening the
sitting, the secretary called attention to the fact that the Bishop had
been exercising his episcopal authority without having shown the required
papal bulls or royal cedulas to the Council; moreover he had introduced
novel doctrines, reserving certain cases for absolution, concerning which,
the Emperor's final decision had not yet been received in reply to the
petition addressed to His Majesty; as it was evident to them all that the
Bishop's ideas, if acceded to by the colonists would result in the total
ruin of them all and a general rebellion of the Indians, it was incumbent
upon them to notify the Bishop that he must follow the example of other
bishops in the colonies, abandoning his novelties until the return of the
procurator, who had been sent to Spain to present the colonists' appeal on
these matters, when the Emperor's decision would be made known; any
disturbances which might arise from the present unsettled state of feeling
must be laid to the Bishop's charge. These sentiments encountered general
approval, and it was unanimously decided that should Las Casas refuse to
acquiesce in them, they would refuse to receive him as their lawful bishop
an