By a royal cédula issued on the 18th of May 1680, the constitution of the audiencia was reformed. The position of president and captain-general was made similar to that of the viceroy of Mexico, his rule being independent of the oidores, while their department of justice could in no way be interfered with by him, his official signature only being required to authenticate their despatches and affirm their sentences.[XXXV‑35]
PRESIDENT BARRIOS.
On January 26, 1688, President Barrios y Leal took the office.[XXXV‑36] His arrival was unattended by the usual display. He had experienced on his way from Golfo Dulce such hardships that he requested the cabildo to omit the ceremony of welcome and devote the funds appropriated for the purpose to improving the defences at Golfo Dulce.[XXXV‑37] His rule was no less troublesome to him than his journey had been. Differences had again arisen between the regular and the secular clergy.[XXXV‑38] Bishop Navas, then in charge of the diocese, was greatly excited, and addressed a memorial to the cabildo, soon after the arrival of Barrios, upon what he considered flagrant abuses, stating that in view of the many disasters which the country had experienced during the last six years from various causes, taxation was taking the life-blood of an already impoverished people. The bishop was one quick to discern evils which he was powerless to remove; apt at the formation of plans he lacked the perseverance to execute; and assumed the attitude of a partisan, where it especially behooved a prelate to be unbiassed. Thus he was incessantly interfering in political matters, and personal relations between him and the president were soon exceedingly unpleasant,[XXXV‑39] finally becoming a matter of inquiry at the Spanish court. On the 13th of March 1690 a royal cédula was issued severely reprimanding the bishop[XXXV‑40] for his conduct toward the president.
On January 25, 1691, Fernando Ursino y Orbaneja, an oidor of Mexico, was appointed visitador to Guatemala, and he provisionally removed President Barrios. In 1694 Barrios was reinstated in office. The principal occupation in which he had previously been engaged was the conquest of the Lacandon country, into which he had personally led an expedition as will be narrated hereafter. He now began preparations for a second campaign. While thus employed his health failed, and he died on the 12th of November 1695.
POLITICAL FEUDS.
The death of Barrios was followed by dissension in the audiencia relative to his provisional successor. By law the right of succession fell on the senior oidor, Francisco Valenzuela Venegas, but the licentiate José de Scals was by some means installed in the presidency. Hence arose a violent party feud,[XXXV‑41] and when Gabriel Sanchez de Berrospe arrived in March 1696, as the appointed president, the government was in a state of confusion which no efforts of his could rectify. In fact a political storm closed the history of Guatemala for the century. The opposition, led by Scals and his ally, the oidor Amézqueta, baffled Berrospe's attempts at legislation, by every artifice that could cause delay.[XXXV‑42]
On the 17th of June, 1699, Diego Antonio de Oviedo y Baños, an oidor of Santo Domingo, Gregorio Carrillo y Escudero, and two others were appointed oidores of Guatemala pending an investigation concerning the audiencia, with right of succession at the close of the former oidor's term. Oviedo was named as senior oidor, but being detained in Santiago de Cuba, Carrillo usurped the position and refused to give place to the former on his arrival.[XXXV‑43] Controversies continued until the coming of the licentiate Madriz as visitador in 1699, when affairs became still more serious, and acts of violence were resorted to by the two bitter factions which were immediately formed under the denominations of Berropistas and Tequelies.
The first act of Madriz was to depose Berrospe and appoint Amézqueta as provisional president. The oidores Carrillo and Duardo were then deprived of office, but they promptly affirmed that their removal was illegal, and resuming their seats ordered the arrest of the visitador, which they endeavored to effect on Palm Sunday, 1700. Madriz took refuge in the college of the Jesuits, which on the following day was surrounded by the friends of Carrillo and Duardo. The bishop came to his relief, and he made good his retreat to Soconusco where he incited the people to rise in arms against the Berropistas. Berrospe sent the oidor Pedro de Ezguaras with an armed force to suppress the tumult, and if possible effect the capture of Madriz. Ezguaras was at first repulsed, but in a subsequent encounter Madriz and his followers were put to flight and peace was restored. Berrospe had no easy time. Madriz had a powerful ally in the bishop, who issued manifestoes exhorting all persons to obey the visitador and not the pseudo audiencia. Against those who attempted to lay violent hands on Madriz he threatened excommunication. In February 1701 the visitador returned with an armed force from Oajaca whither he had fled, and in an encounter between the rival parties lost sixty of his men, while the loss of the audiencia was only ten.[XXXV‑44]
Berrospe now retires from the scene, having either returned to Spain or died while the political struggle was still undecided.[XXXV‑45] The other chief actors continued the contest somewhat longer. In 1702 José Osorio, oidor of Mexico, was appointed to supersede Madriz as visitador, and in September of the same year the latter was arrested in Campeche, and sent prisoner to Mexico, as the originator of the disturbances in Guatemala. Bishop Navas had constantly identified himself with the Tequelies, and when ordered by his metropolitan, the archbishop of Mexico, to withdraw his ban of excommunication against certain Berrospeists he refused to do so. He died in the midst of these dissensions, not without grave suspicions of having been poisoned.
ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS.