Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/737

Rh exitu Israel de Aegipto." The people, who were devoted to the Franciscans, became greatly excited, and there was fear of trouble. The viceroy felt angry of course, and was disposed to punish Rivera, but was persuaded from it by his friends, who brought the commissary back to the city, and restored the appearance of harmony for a time. But the viceroy wrote the king upon the matter, whereupon the indiscreet friar was at once recalled to Spam. At a later date the tables were turned.

In 1584 Friar Alonso Ponce came to Mexico holding that office. He presented his credentials to the archbishop-viceroy, and entered upon the discharge of his duties. But his mission was destined to hinderance and his person to insult at the hands of the provincial and definidores of the Santo Evangelic and others, who refused to recognize him as their superior. The viceroy and audiencia also treated Ponce with great indignity, disregarding every consideration due his person, office, age, and ill-health, and compelled him to leave Mexico before he had fulfilled his mission. Upon his return from Central America, on his way to Michoacan, he was again subjected to insults, and hindered in performing his duties. It would be an almost endless task to enter into the particulars of this scandalous affair. Suffice it to say that in the end the provincial of the Santo Evangelio was deprived of his office by the superior of the order in Spain, and all the acts of himself and the definidores, subsequent to their insubordination, were rejected by the next general chapter.