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162 the acts of which have been published, that of 1583 may be considered as the principal one, insomuch as it comprises whatever belongs to the good government of the metropolitan church and its suffragans. It is substantially the code of the ecclesiastical laws of Peru.

Santo Toribio died in 1606, at which time the provincial councils had been discontinued both in Europe and America, for reasons that are well known to the learned. This circumstance did not, however, abate the zeal of the prelates. Lobo-Guerrero, the immediate successor of Santo Toribio, published the synodical discourses which have since been augmented and improved by the other archbishops. The pastoral letters they have left behind them are replete with piety and learning.

A wish having been, however, posteriorly expressed, that the councils should be again convened, his Catholic Majesty, Charles III. dispatched a royal schedule, named Tomo Regio, diredled to the archbishops and bishops of South America, to the end that the former should convoke, and the latter be present at, a council which was to be holden in each respe6tive province. In consequence of this royal mandate, that of Lima was holden in 1772. The bishops of Santiago De Chile, of la Concepcion, of Guamanga, and of Cusco, were present; but those of Truxillo, Arequipa, and Panama, sent procurators. The proceedings of this august assembly were conducted with a concord which is known to all, since it happened in our times. The acts have not, however, been published; a circumstance which prevents us from entering into a detail of the particulars. We shall merely add, that immediately after the convocation, the archbishop Don Antonio De rada,