Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/755

Rh crucis, and also a royal grant of the San Pablo building to his order, which met with some objection on the part of the ordinary, but the viceroy favored the friars. They were then assisted by friends, and the provincial built a house for the theological college with accommodations for about twenty religious. Thus was the old San Pablo building brought into use. The establishment soon became one of the most notable in Mexico; a fine library was brought from Spain for it by Veracruz. Father Pedro de Agurto was the first rector. The order did not confine its efforts to the archbishopric of Mexico. It had convents in Puebla, Antequera, Zacatecas, and Michoacan, which was one of its great fields. The convents in the last-named bishopric were begun in 1537. The first foundations were those of Tiripitío, Ucareo, and Jacona, which till then had been in charge of the Franciscans. There was for a time some opposition on the part of the bishop, till 1562, when the crown stopped it. After that the Augustinians founded convents in many places within that diocese. Two deserve special notice; that of Charo, where lived and died Father Basalenque, a celebrated writer of the following century, and that of Tiripitio. Father Veracruz, of grave, austere habits, and very learned, obtained from Emperor Charles a cédula to found the university of Tiripitío, which he superintended from 1540 to 1551, when he was prevailed on to transfer it to Mexico. The order had in 1596 seventy-six