Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/447

 Rh and in defiance of the pope of Rome. It was during the administration of the marqués de Croix that New Spain, as well as the other dominions of the Spanish crown, was subjected by Cárlos III., their king, to this catastrophe which brought to thousands humiliation and distress.

I have given, with sufficient detail, the origin and progress in Mexico of the society of Jesus to the end of the seventeenth century. The order continued to spread during the next hundred years, and its hold on the country was such that, to all appearances, no power could shake it so long as it pursued its established policy. In 1732 the Jesuits entered the field of Guanajuato, and took initiatory steps toward founding a college in the city of that name. The site was determined, and the appurtenances received in September, but it was not until 1744 that the royal authorization was obtained. The corner-stone was laid in 1747, fifty thousand pesos having been secured, besides four haciendas valued at double that sum. The church of the college was consecrated in 1765. There was at Leon in Guanajuato a beaterio of Jesuit women for the education of girls, the only one in America. In Michoacan the order had a mission in San Juan Puruándiro of the district of Pátzcuaro. The college of San Javier was given to the society by the bishop of Michoacan. In Jalisco, the conversion of the natives of Nayarit was taken in hand by the Jesuits in 1720. They labored in that barren field