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Rh both at Madrid and in Mexico, to procure a delay. Their efforts to secure in Mexico the coöperation of other religious orders, to support their continuous petitions, were only successful to a limited degree. The provincial of the order of Mercy, who had consented to sign them, was strongly rebuked by the vicar-general in Spain, and forbidden again to accede to similar requests.

Meanwhile there had been a bitter controversy between the bishop and the Jesuit provincial, Andrés de Rada, about the formal execution of the papal brief, and this was terminated only by the departure of Palafox for Spain in May 1649. After that event the dispute which for ten years had excited general interest both in Spain and the Indies approached its end; for although it was continued by the vicar-general, Juan de Merlo, whom Palafox had left in charge of his diocese, it never again assumed such serious proportions as before. The trial of the prebendaries was continued, and the demands for the execution of the papal brief were repeated, but the matter dragged along without decisive result till 1650, when Viceroy Alva de Liste ordered the restoration of the prebendaries to their former offices. In Rome the investigation of the dispute was continued till late in 1652, and resulted in the ratification of the former