[X‑33] Dávila, Teatro Ecles., i. 235. Valdivieso was a native of Villahermosa, and the son of Antonio de Valdivieso and Catalina Álvarez Calvento. He became a Dominican in the convent of San Pablo, Búrgos, of which he was an inmate when the emperor called him to the bishopric of Nicaragua. Datos Biog., in Cartas de Indias, 857, and Col. Doc. Inéd., i. 117; Herrera, dec. vii. lib. vi. cap. vi., states that he was made bishop 'por muerte del obispo Mendauia,' referring to dean Mendavia, but Rios would not have dared to send him a prisoner to Spain had he been a bishop. To whom Valdivieso refers when, while speaking of himself as being the second bishop concentrated in Nicaragua, he remarks: 'Fue el lo. antecesor que murió a 40 dias que llegó a la tierra,' Squier's MSS., xxii. 125, it is impossible to determine. The first bishop, Osorio, was appointed in 1531, and died in 1536. That another prelate was chosen before Valdivieso is nowhere recorded. It is probable, however, that he alludes to Fray Juan de Arteaga, bishop elect for Chiapas, who, when Las Casas first refused that appointment, left Spain on February 15, 1541, and died at Puebla the same year, soon after his arrival. Remesal, Hist. Chyapa, 202.
[X‑34] 'Inquisicion no se ha de mentar en esta tierra, i en entrando en ella me embiaron a decir que si entendia en cosa de Inquisicion o lo pensava, me darian de puñaladas.' Squier's MSS., xxii. 146. On another occasion, when President Maldonado and the oidor Ramirez were at Granada preparing an expedition to Peru, the bishop refused to officiate in church because a person was present whom he had excommunicated. Hereupon Ramirez used insulting language, causing him to retire from the church. Valdivieso's conduct caused such ill-feeling that a mob afterward assembled in the street and threatened to hang him.
[X‑35] The following quotation is from a report of the audiencia at Gracias á Dios, dated December 30, 1545. 'Los Dominicos de Nicaragua tenian un pueblo que se les mando quitar por las Ordenanzas. Representaronnos que sin el no podrian estar, i porque no se ausentasen se lo dejamos. Tendrá el pueblo 20 Indios.' Squier's MSS., xxii. 131.
[X‑36] 'Y el Fiscal auia puesto acusacion contra Rodrigo de Contreras, porque siendo gouernador de aquella provincia, salio diuersas vezes de su Gouernacion con gente de pie y de cauallo, y fue a la parte de Costa rica, y al desaguadero, y otras tierras comarcanas, adonde hizo grandes excessos, assi contra Castellanos, como contra Indios.' Herrera, dec. vii. lib. vi. cap. vi.
[X‑37] Dated at Gracias á Dios, December 24, 1545. Squier's MSS., xxii. 126.
[X‑38] Herrera was actuated merely by selfish motives. He desired for himself the office of ruler, and it was fortunate for the province that he did not obtain it; for when in 1548 his residencia was taken by the licentiate Cerrato he was proved to have been the most rapacious of all his colleagues.
[X‑39] Report, dated Granada, April 23, 1547. Squier's MSS., xxii. 46.
[X‑40] The laws were published in Nicaragua in 1545.
[X‑41] This report was dated Leon, February 10, 1548. The principal accusations contained therein are mere repetitions of those already mentioned. See Squier's MSS., xxii. 98-100.
[X‑42] He probably remained in Spain till 1554, as nothing further is recorded of him until that year, when we hear of him as serving in Peru. He finally appears in the act of swearing allegiance to Philip II. in Lima on the 25th of July 1557. Datos Biog., in Cartas de Indias, 742.