Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/733

Rh constituted new provinces, and to which were given new names. Thus by the latter part of the sixteenth century New Spain consisted of three Franciscan provinces, namely, Mexico, or the original Santo Evangelio; Michoacan, or San Pedro y San Pablo; and Yucatan, or San José, the first embracing the whole archdiocese of Mexico and the diocese of Tlascala.

The Santo Evangelio used a seal that represented a Franciscan preaching from a pulpit, and Indians around it attentively listening. In 1580 it had more than 80 convents and monasteries at an average distance of six or eight leagues apart. In 1584-5, for causes that will be explained, it had only 69, with a little less than 379 professed friars; of which houses 38 were in the archbishopric, 30 in the diocese of Tlascala, and one in Cuba, which with Florida belonged to the province. San Francisco of Zacatecas and San Salvador of Tampico were custodias under it. In 1595-6, with an increase of laborers, the number of convents had risen to 90, including 14 in Zacatecas and 10 in Tampico. The province also had charge of some houses in New Mexico, of three nunneries in Mexico city, and one in Puebla, and of the college for Indians in Tlatelulco. The province of Peru belonged to it till 1553, and that of Guatemala had been under it 20 years. ''Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 545; Torquemada,'' iii. 303-4; Ponce, Rel., in ''Col. Doc. Inéd.,'' lvii. 85-7; ''Vetancvrt, Prov. S. Evang., 24-5; Prov. S. Evang.,'' MS., 1, 2. The following were the rulers that the Santo Evangelio had from its foundation to the end of the 16th century. At first it was a custodia, subject directly to the minister general of the 'minorites.' Custodios: Martin de Valencia, 1524-7; Luis de Fuensalida, 1527-30; Martin de Valencia, 1530-3; Jacobo de Testera, 1533-6- Provincials: García de Cisneros, 1536-7; Antonio de Ciudad Rodrigo, 1537-40; Marcos de Niza, 1540-3; Francisco de Soto, 1543-6; Alonso Rangel, 1546-8; Toribio Motolinia, 1548-51; Juan de Gaona, 1551-2; Juan de San Francisco, 1552-5; Francisco de Bustamante, 1555-7; Francisco de Toral, 1557-60; Luis Rodriguez, 1562-4; Diego de Olarte, 1564-7; Miguel Navarro, 1567-70; Alonso de Escalona, 1570-3; Antonio Roldan, 1573-6; Pedro Oroz, 1576-8; Domingo de Areizaga, 1578-81; Miguel Navarro, 1581-3; Pedro de San Sebastian, 1583-9; Domingo de Areizaga, 1589-92; Rodrigo de Santillan, 1592-5; Juan de Lazcano, 1598-1600; Buenaventura de Paredes, 1600. ''Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 540-3; Torquemada,'' iii. 371-4. The other two provinces, Michoacan and Yucatan, will be treated of in the proper place.

Owing to scarcity of priests from deaths and other causes, the vacancies left having been only partially filled with new accessions from Spain, the Santo Evangelio, between 1564 and 1568, abandoned a number of its more distant houses, on the ground of necessity, and against the advice of the marqués del Valle.