Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/684

664 among whom two were eminent. Notwithstanding his good-will toward this as well as other orders, the fact remains that he was a Dominican, of whom the Franciscans in particular were very jealous.

Further than this, the time had come when the interests of the secular clergy must clash with those of the regular orders. Owing to the scarcity of ecclesiastics during the earlier occupation of New Spain, the monastic orders acquired undue powers and privileges. When the number of bishoprics was increased, and a more thorough ecclesiastical government organized, the church viewed with jealousy this encroachment on her prerogatives, and was displeased that Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians should exercise jurisdiction independent of her authority. On the other hand, the orders tenaciously maintained what they claimed to be their rights, and by their assertion of judicial authority, especially in the prohibition or sanction of marriages, occasioned the church much annoyance. Thus arose dissension between the two parties, which in time developed into a bitter feud, during which acrimonious recriminations, scandals, and an unchristian spirit too frequently disgraced the action of both sides. Clergymen and friars each accused the other of neglect of duty; bishops were charged with abandoning their posts, and members