Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/708

688 church had grown to large proportions. According to reliable contemporaneous authority there were in New Spain then 400 convents of the several orders, and 400 districts in charge of clergymen, making a total of 800 ecclesiastic ministries for the administration of the sacraments and for instruction in Christianity. Each convent and each parish had many churches in towns and hamlets, which were likewise visited at certain intervals, and where Christian doctrine was taught the natives. The whole was now under six prelates, the youngest of whom were those of Yucatan and Nueva Galicia, appointed in 1541 and 1544 respectively. The former district had been given a bishop in Julian Garcés, already in 1519, but the failure of settlers to occupy it caused the transfer of Garcés to Tlascala. After Montejo's conquest it was included in the adjoining diocese of Chiapas, and the celebrated Las Casas presented himself in 1545 to exact recognition, but his fiery zeal in behalf of the enslaved natives roused the colonists, and he was obliged to depart. The growing importance of the peninsula caused it to be erected into a special see, by bull of December 16, 1561, with the seat in Mérida.

The prelacy was first offered to the Franciscan Juan de la Puerta, who died as bishop elect, and Francisco de Toral, provincial of the same order at Mexico, was thereupon chosen. He declined, but was prevailed