The ecclesiastics had full revenge on Governor Corcuera when, in 1644, he was succeeded by Diego Fajardo. In fortifying Manila against an expected attack by the Dutch, his lines ran through an Augustinian convent. He offered the frailes another house, but they refused to move and he tore down the building about their ears. When out of office they prosecuted him and obtained a verdict of 25,000 pesos. He must have been a rarely honest governor, for he was unable to pay it and they kept him in harsh gaol for five years. On his liberation, Philip IV appointed him Governor of the Canaries.—Concepcion, VI, 185-93.
[573] Medina, op. cit., p. 46.—Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion, Lib. 21, fol. 154.
[574] Juan de la Concepcion, VI, 316.
[575] Medina, op. cit., pp. 84-6.
[576] Medina, op. cit., pp. 87-130.—MSS. of Royal Library of Munich, Cod. Hispan. 79.—Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion, Lib. 60, fol. 209, 249. It is perhaps worth remarking that Juan de la Concepcion makes no allusion to this episode, so prominent in the history of the Colony and so little creditable to his Augustinian Order.
[577] Medina, op. cit., pp. 156-7.
[578] MS., penes me.
[579] Medina, Inquisicion en las Provincias del Plata, pp. 43-7.
Thanks to the researches of native scholars there is ample material for the history of the South American Inquisition. The most prominent of these gentlemen is Don José Toribio Medina who has gathered a wealth of documents in the Spanish archives on which are based the works to which I am principally indebted. These are:
“Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisicion de Lima (1569-1820).” 2 vols., 8vo, Santiago de Chile, 1887.