Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/705

Rh enacted by it were an ecclesiastic code of discipline, a newly arranged catechism, and many other rules and regulations to improve the civil and ecclesiastical government of New Spain. The proceedings embraced five hundred and seventy-six paragraphs, divided into five books under various titles. Neither those of the first council in 1555 nor those of the second in 1565, whose chief end had been to recognize and enforce the acts of the ecumenical council of Trent concluded in 1563, had been approved by the holy see. Owing to this, all the chapters of the two preceding councils were embodied in the third, so as to secure the pontifical sanction to all. It was also necessary to accommodate the exigencies of the church to the peculiar traits of Indian character and administration of the Indies; hence the expediency of this provincial synod. The bishops wished to carry out at once the acts passed, but the viceroy, in obedience to a royal order of May 13, 1585, suspended their execution till the king's approval. This was given on the 18th of September, 1591, when the viceroy, audiencia, and all officials, civil or ecclesiastic, in New Spain, were commanded to aid in every possible way the enforcement of the decrees passed by the council. That cédula was reiterated February 2, 1593, and again February 9, 1621.