Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/167

Rh pesos respectively, though duelling was at this time a common practice in New Spain. During the year 1659 he suspended the corregidor and his lieutenant, and imprisoned several of the regidores because they had been bribed to consent to a reduction in weight of the loaf. Personal inquiries at the mills and bakeries had convinced him that there was no reason for making such a change.

The clergy were not exempt from the duke's searching vigilance, and in his excessive zeal for the welfare and dignity of the church he occasionally played a somewhat ridiculous part. Patrolling the streets near the palace one night, as was his wont, he noticed at a late hour two Austin friars in a dilapidated looking, bakery eating fritters. The viceroy was shocked, and at once ordered their arrest; not, he declared, because the act of eating fritters was of itself unclerical, but that, considering the time, the place, and the sacred vestments of the culprits, such an indulgence was scandalous. One of the ecclesiastics took to his heels and escaped, but the other was taken to the palace and sternly reproved and kept in custody till the following day, when he was delivered to the prior of his order. After remonstrating with the latter, the viceroy summoned also the other heads of religious orders, and having expressed his disapproval in general, directed them to exercise in future a better surveillance. This was readily promised, and severe penalties were imposed for similar transgressions. A reformation had indeed become necessary; for the greater part of the friars were no longer the worthy followers of those whose charity, humility, and untiring zeal had made so deep an impression on the native population a century before. In addition to their hypocrisy, some of them were guilty of the worst crimes common to their fellow-men; and it is related that in 1655 two