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Rh to the provincial in Mexico, to whom, they said, the affair had been submitted. A request to obtain in the interim permission to preach and to confess was denied. Notwithstanding a reiterated injunction, however, on the 8th of March Father Luis Legaspi delivered a sermon, which had been announced for several days. The bishop, now thoroughly roused, ordered a decree to be published, imposing the greater excommunication and ecclesiastical censures on the Jesuits, who were described as transgressors of the tridentine council. At the same time the inhabitants were warned against attending their sacrilegious ministrations.

The Jesuits obeyed the episcopal orders, and during the remainder of lent neither confessed nor preached; but meanwhile they made active preparations in Mexico, to vindicate their cause. At a meeting convoked for that purpose by the provincial, Pedro de Velasco, the appointment of jueces conservadores was resolved upon. The difficulty in finding persons willing to accept such an office, which necessarily would arouse the wrath of the visitador and bishop, was solved by the eagerness of the Dominicans, who somewhat recklessly offered their services. Two prominent members of their order, Juan de Paredes and Agustin Godines, were elected; a memorial in defense of such policy was published, and, if we may credit the Jesuit chroniclers, was received with general approbation by the most influential religious orders. The bishop