168 ROMISH MIRACLES. [CHAP. CHAP. XI. was debased by superstitious and delusive practices, and we must not wonder if we find that the "pious frauds” which the Church of Rome enacted in Europe, found their way to the newly-erected altars of Yucatan. In proportion as the number of converts increased, and with them the foundation of fresh religious establishments, certain localities acquired a celebrity which raised them above the rest. And this was but a natural process in a country like Yucatan. The Indians, in the days of their idolatry, had been accustomed to go in pilgrimage to Cozumel to worship their blood-bestained idols, and yield implicit belief to the juggling of their priests. It cost them therefore little effort to fancy, as they were told, that particular shrines were endowed with peculiar efficacy. True to his vocation as a chronicler of the Romish Church, Cogolludo enters at considerable length into the question of "miracles," recording in two chapters, especially devoted to them, the miraculous cures which were wrought by images of the Virgin at various places. The chief of these were at Ytzamal, where he says were wrought "innumerabiles milagros, de que se pudiera escrivir un gran volúmen;" and to give greater weight to his assertions, he draws the portrait of the imaged Virgin as it was carved by the most cunning artificer of Guatemala1. The other principal images were in the convent of Calotmul, and at Bakál, where they were reverently worshiped under the titles of "La purísima Concepcion" and "La Natividad." As these 1 Es esta Santa Imágen de escultura de talla entesa con su ropage estofado, de altura de cinco questas, y seis dedos, el rostro muy Magestuoso, y grave, el color de él blanco, algo pálido, las manos juntas sobre el pecho, y levantadas, y causa respecto venerabile mirarla. Tiene muy ricos vestidos y joyas, que devotos le han dado,' etc.-Lib. vi. cap. iv. p. 317. miracles" however do not differ in any respect, save that of the local circumstances attending them, from the thousands which have been recorded elsewhere, it is scarcely worth while to disinter them from the pages of Cogolludo. After the meeting of the first Custodial Chapter at Merida in 1549, the system of Church government in Yucatan proceeded in regular order. The peninsula had been originally made a spiritual dependency upon the province of Santo Evangelio in Mexico, but the rapid progress of conversion, and the increasing extent of the newly christianized districts, made it desirable that Yucatan should no longer depend upon Mexico, and in 1561 the separation took place. But it was in the first instance rather a transfer of authority than complete independence, for the arrangement provided that the Provincial Chapters should alternately be held in Guatemala and Yucatan. It was found however that so much inconvenience arose from the great distance between Santiago de Guatemala and Merida, that six years later, in 1567, the province was made wholly independent, and from that time forth was governed by its own spiritual authority. In the interval Father Francisco Toral arrived to take possession of the bishopric. He was the third prelate in nomination, but the first who actually visited the country in that capacity. He was a native of Ubeda in Andalucia, and had previously been Provincial of Santo Evangelio in Mexico; but, in 1562, he was appointed to the see of St. Joseph of Yucatan. Untoward circumstances arose immediately upon his arrival in his diocese, reports having been made to him highly prejudicial to Father Landa; and although an interview took place between 170 LANDA MADE BISHOP OF YUCATAN. [CHAP. CHAP. XI. the bishop and the provincial, the latter was unable to remove from his superior's mind the prejudices instilled into it by those who envied the reputation of the excellent missionary. So strongly impressed was the bishop that Father Landa had exercised his functions imperfectly, that he wrote to the King to that effect; and when the Provincial received intelligence of this fact he at once resigned his office, and proceeded to Spain to justify himself before his sovereign, Philip the Second. The King, on the receipt of the bishop's letter, placed it in the hands of the General of the Jesuits, asking his opinion of the proceedings of Father Landa. The reply, considered apparently with much deliberation, was highly favourable to the Provincial; and, in 1566, Philip despatched a royal letter from Madrid, informing the bishop of the satisfaction he had derived from the course which Father Landa and his colleagues had pursued1. The bishop received this intimation in all humility, and demonstrated the sincerity of his regret by a public acknowledgment of the error he had committed in depriving the province of the services of so able an assistant as the Provincial. The difference was thus healed; but Father Landa felt unwilling to return to Yucatan, though urged to do so by the King in person, preferring to remain in the Convent of San Antonio de Cabrera, at Toledo, of which he had recently been elected the Superior; and in this retirement he remained till the death of Francisco Toral, in 1572, when, yielding to the renewed solicitations of the King and the Council of the Indies, he agreed to accept the bishopric, and return to the scene of his former labours. His career was too brief for the accomplishment of all the good he meditated, for Cogolludo, lib. vi. cap. vii. p. 527. 1 he died in 1579, when only in the fifty-fourth year of his age and the seventh of his episcopate, having devoted thirty years of his ecclesiastical life to the conversion of the Indians. Gregorio de Montalvo and Juan Izquierdo were the bishops who, until 1602, severally filled the see of Yucatan; but beyond the ordinary incidents of Church government and the gradual advance of Christian civilization, the narratives of the chroniclers supply little that calls for especial record. Of the same complexion was the civil administration; though it may be necessary briefly to glance at the order of succession of the respective Governors of the province, and the manner in which their appointments were made. In the year 1555 the Royal Tribunal of Mexico sent Gaspar Xuarez de Avila to Yucatan with the title of Alcalde Mayor, and in this capacity he governed the country for two years. He was succeeded by the Licentiate Alvaro de Caravajal, sent thither by the Tribunal of Guatemala, Yucatan having been subjected to that province by a royal decree. He remained till 1558, and was followed by Alonso Ortis de Argeta, Juan de Paredes, and Jofré de Loaysia, the last of whom held the government till 1562, when the appointments proceeded direct from Spain. The first Alcalde Mayor sent out by the King was Doctor Diego Quixada. His successor, in 1564, was Don Luis Cespedes de Oviedo, in whom greater authority was invested than in his predecessors, power being given to him to appoint a lieutenant-governor. His administration was not however a successful one, for he fell into disgrace on account of malversation, spending the public moneys ("ayudas de costa") partly on his relations and followers, and partly in the discharge of his personal 172 PIRATICAL DESCENT ON THE COAST. CHAP. XI. [CHAP. debts. A royal Cedula was consequently issued, prohibiting any private appropriation of the “ayudas de costa," and Oviedo was superseded by Don Diego de Santillan, whose appointment took place in 1569. Santillan's government was marked by one feature of interest, which relieves the annals of this period from the monotony thrown around them by Cogolludo. Soon after his arrival he received a letter from the King, informing him, on the authority of Don Francisco de Alaba, the Spanish Ambassador at Paris, that the French were fitting out an armada for the purpose of making a descent upon the coast of Yucatan. Santillan visited all the ports of the province, to provide against the threatened attack; but his arrangements were somewhat imperfect, for the northern coasts afforded a few piratical vessels the opportunity they sought, and, in the month of May, 1569, a small force landed, without resistance, at Zizal1. They advanced as far as a town called Hunucma, about four leagues inland on the road to Merida: they plundered the convent there, carried off the plate and other valuables, committed sacrilege by drinking wine from the sacred vessels and profaning the holy images, and crowned their exploit by making the cacique and several officials prisoners. Captain Juan Arevalo de Loyasia was sent against them with a company of soldiers, and forced the pirates to retire. They hovered however upon the coast till a reinforcement put out to sea, and then took the direction of Cozumel, which place, being without a garrison, they took possession of; but they were eventually dislodged by Gomez de Castrillo, one of the old Conquistadors, who made them all pri 1 Cogolludo calls them " unos Franceses hereges," all the ene mies of Spain being heretics in his eyes! |