Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/397

Rh , celebrado en 1771. It contains five books, the first with thirteen titles; the second with sixteen; the third with twenty-four; the fourth with two; and the fifth, with twelve; each title having a large number of decrees and ordinances on ecclesiastic reform and discipline.

The council also prepared fourteen works, all on matters more or less connected with the church, and tending to the improvement of its branches and service, and to the advancement of religion and popular education; one of them concerned the management of hospitals, and another the beatification of Juan de Palafox.

Doctor Francisco Antonio Lorenzana y Butron, of whom mention has been so often made in connection with the above described fourth council, was of illustrious lineage, born in Leon, Spain, on the 22d of September 1722; he studied literature in the college of San Salvador de Oviedo, of the renowned university of Salamanca. His first prominent position was that of canónigo doctoral in the cathedral of Sigüenza. He afterward became successively canon and vicar-general of Toledo, abbot of San Vicente, a dignitary of the cathedral of Toledo, and a member of the royal council. In 1765 he was made bishop of Plasencia, and on the 14th of April of the following year