Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/208

192 way empowered to command in Mexico; "he, therefore, ordered the soldiers, as they valued the peace of their souls, to desist from infringing the privileges of the church by the exercise of secular power within its limits, and, he finally declared "that he would, on no account, depart from the altar unless torn from it with the sacrament. "Upon this Tirol arose, and read the order for his arrest, describing him as a "traitor to the king, a disturber of the peace, and a mover of sedition in the commonwealth."

De la Serna smiled contemptuously at the officer as he finished, and taunted him with the viceroy's miserable attempt to cast upon the church the odium of sedition, when his creature Mexia was, in fact, the shameless offender. He conjured Tirol "not to violate the sanctuary to which he had retreated, lest his hand should be withered like that of Jeroboam, who stretched forth an arm against the prophet of the Lord at the altar!"

Tirol seems to have been a man upon whose nerves such appeals had but little effect. He was a blunt soldier, who received the orders of his superiors and performed them to the letter. He had been ordered to arrest the archbishop wherever he found him, and he left the ecclesiastical scandal to be settled by those who sent him. Beckoning to a recreant priest who had been tampered with and brought along for the purpose, he commanded him in the king's name, to wrest the sacrament from the prelate's hand. The clergyman, immediately mounting the steps of the altar, obeyed the orders, and the desecrated bishop at once threw off his pontifical robes and yielded to civil power. The cowardly Mexicans made no attempt to protect their intrepid friend, who, as he left the sanctuary, paused for a moment and stretched his hands in benediction over the recreants. Then bidding an affectionate farewell to his clergy, whom he called to witness how zealously he had striven to preserve the church from outrage, as well as the poor from plunder, he departed as a prisoner for Vera Cruz, whence he was despatched for Spain in a vessel expressly equiped for his conveyance.

For a while the people were panic struck at this high-handed movement against the archbishop, but when the momentary effect had passed away and they began to reflect on the disgrace of the church as well as the loss of their protector, they vented their displeasure openly against Mexia and the viceroy. The temper of the masses was at once noticed by the clergy, who were still faithful to their persecuted bishop, nor did they hesitate to fan the