Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/205

Rh to compare notes, and suddenly discovered that corn was no where to be procured, save from the granaries of Mexia. "The poor began to murmur, the rich began to complain; and the tariff of fourteen reales was demanded from the viceroy. "But he, the secret accomplice of Mexia, decided, that as the crops had been plentiful during the year, it could not be regarded as one of scarcity according to the evident intention of the law, so that it would be unfair to reduce the price of grain to that of famine. And thus the people, balked in their effort to obtain justice from their ruler, though suffering from extreme imposition, resolved to bear the oppression, rather than resort to violence for redress.

After awhile, however, the intimacy between Gelves and Mexia became more apparent as the confederates supposed they had less cause for concealment; and the poor, again, besought the viceroy for justice and the legal tariff. But the temptation was too great for the avaricious representative of the king. He again denied their petition; and, then, as a last hope, they resorted to a higher power, which, in such conflicts with their rulers, had usually been successful.

In those days, Don Alonzo de la Serna, a man of lofty character and intrepid spirit, was archbishop of Mexico, and perceiving the avaricious trick of the viceroy and his pimp, threw himself on the popular side and promptly excommunicated Mexia. But the sturdy merchant, protected by viceroyal authority, was not to be conquered by so immaterial a thing as a prelate's curse placarded on the door of a cathedral. He remained quietly ensconced in his house, despatched orders to his agents, and even raised the price of his extravagant bread stuffs. For a moment, perhaps, De la Serna was confounded by this rebellious son of the church, yet the act convinced him, if indeed, he entertained any doubt on the subject, that Mexia was backed by the viceroy, and, consequently, that any further attempts would bring him in direct conflict with the government. Nevertheless, a man like him was not to be easily alarmed or forced to retreat so quickly. The church, supreme in spiritual power, would never yield, especially in a matter of popular and vital concern, and the archbishop, therefore, determined to adopt the severest method at once, and by an order of cessatio divinis, to stop, immediately, all religious worship throughout the colony. This was a direful interdict, the potency of which can only be imagined by those who have lived in Catholic countries whose piety is not periodically regulated upon the principle of a seven day clock, but where worship is celebrated