LAS CASAS.

At the beginning of the year 1536 Bartolomé de Las Casas was residing at Leon, there engaged in a controversy with Rodrigo de Contreras, the governor of Nicaragua, the story of which will hereafter be related. In 1531 he had passed through Santiago on his way to the South Sea, and Marroquin had then an opportunity of making the acquaintance of the great apostle of the Indies. In common with the more enlightened of the colonists he would fain have had him take up his abode in their midst. But Las Casas was bound on one of his many missions of mercy, though his efforts were destined to prove futile. He was journeying toward Peru, armed with a royal cédula forbidding the conquerors in that land, and all their followers, to deprive the natives of their liberty under any pretext whatever. No entreaties could induce him to abandon his undertaking, and embarking at Realejo he reached his destination at the end of the year. There, what man could do, he did; but such were the political disturbances then prevailing that his efforts were lost. Urged by members of his own order, he reluctantly abandoned the field and returned to Nicaragua.

To him the prelate now applied for aid, representing the sore need of a larger force of ecclesiastics, and begging him to come to Santiago and reopen the deserted convent. The invitation was accepted, and Las Casas with his fellow Dominicans established their order permanently in Guatemala.

But Marroquin was not yet satisfied. At this early period in his career he was an enthusiast in the missionary cause, and he now resolved to go to Spain and beg assistance of the emperor. But first he must proceed to consecration, and on the 12th of January 1537 he set forth for Mexico, where, about two months later, the ceremony, the first of the kind that occurred in the Indies, was conducted with due solemnity and splendor.[VIII‑6]

ORGANIZATION OF THE DIOCESE.

The bishop's labors were now directed to the elevation of the parish church of Santiago to cathedral rank. He therefore proceeded to frame the constitution and complete the establishment of his diocese in accordance with the commission granted to him by Paul III. He prescribed that the dignitaries of the church should include a dean, an archdeacon, a precentor, a chancellor, and a treasurer. He established ten canonries and six prebendaries. He defined the church revenues; ordained that preferment to minor benefices should be open to those born in the country, whether of Spanish or native race, and that the appointments to them should pertain to the bishop. Divine services were to be celebrated in the manner observed in the cathedral of Seville. Prebendaries were to have a vote in the chapters, and these were to be held on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays general church matters were to be discussed, and on Fridays internal discipline was to be considered.[VIII‑7]

When on the point of departing for Spain, the bishop was advised by his friends that the journey would be attended with great risk; for already the North Sea was infested with pirates, and a large number of Spanish vessels had been captured by French corsairs. Moreover the expenses he had incurred in Mexico had drawn heavily on his slender purse, and he did not wish to return to his native country wholly destitute of means. Resolving therefore to abandon his voyage, he forwarded his power of attorney to Juan Galvarro, the procurador of Santiago at the court of Spain, instructing him to send to Guatemala a number of ecclesiastics and to pay their passage and outfit. He also addressed a letter to the emperor,[VIII‑8] informing him of the great need of missionaries, and stating that he had asked aid both from Mexico and Santo Domingo, but had received none, although it had been promised.

During the early part of the year Charles had already appointed the cathedral prebendaries. Marroquin remarks that his Majesty was somewhat hasty in the matter, and not sufficiently considerate toward those who had so long shared with himself the labor of supporting the church at Santiago. These, he declares, it would be unreasonable for him to dismiss, though he is at a loss to conjecture whence the means to support his diocese would be derived. He well knew the perverse temper of the colonists and their antagonism to the cause of the church. Nevertheless he forwarded to the cabildo a provision handed to him by the viceroy Mendoza ordering the church tithes which were usually paid in kind to be delivered by the natives direct to the bishop at places where their value would be real and available.[VIII‑9] His mind was full of doubt as to the manner in which this regulation would be received by the encomenderos. The tone of his letter indicates misgiving, united with a rare spirit of self-negation, and he appears rather as a pleader than as a claimant for his rights.[VIII‑10] "You will pay," he says, "what is due in a proper manner; if not, I command that no scandal be raised about it."

Nor were his apprehensions unfounded. The settlers in Guatemala were a stiff-necked people. They would not go to church, and they did not intend that the delivery of the tithes should cost them anything if they could avoid it. They could not spare their Indians to carry the tithes a distance of many leagues to the places appointed. The bishop must send for them. They and not the ecclesiastics had conquered the province, and they did not see that either God or the emperor had any claim upon it. The cabildo immediately appealed to the viceroy, and meeting with no sympathy in that quarter addressed themselves directly to the emperor.[VIII‑11] Their representations gained for them some concessions, whereupon they pressed the matter further and protested against paying tithes at all. Though the bishop was now at a loss whither to turn to obtain the means for carrying out his various plans, he none the less labored with unceasing perseverance,[VIII‑12] and on his return to Guatemala, at the end of 1537, brought with him two friars of the order of Merced, Juan Zambrano and Marcos Perez Dardon.[VIII‑13]

THE FRIARS OF LA MERCED.