Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/467

Rh Indians. Nothing was done, however, till Pius VII., by bull of Augu.st 7, 1814, reinstated the society. Fernando VII. issued his exequatur September 17, 1815, appointing a board to restore, as far as possible, the sequestered property. The royal order was executed in Mexico, the solemn installation of the Jesuits being made May 19, 1819, at the college of San Ildefonso, which was delivered to fathers José María Castañiza, Antonio Barroso, and Pedro Canton, natives of Mexico, and members of the late society. But the persecuted society was not long to enjoy peace. It was again expelled by a decree of the Spanish córtes of 1820, which was carried out in New Spain in January 1821. The disposal made of the society's property and missions will appear in connection with financial and general church affairs, treated of separately in this volume.

 The first attempt to record the labors of the Jesuit order in America was the Historia de la Provincia de la compañia de Jesus de Nueva España, by Francisco de Florencia, one of the society, published in Mexico in 1694. This was a mere beginning, however, for although the author evidently intended to complete the work it was never extended beyond the first volume. The period covered is the decade beginning in 1571, during which the Jesuit establishments at Mexico, Pátzcuaro, and Oajaca were founded. Beyond the facts connected with these establishments, and the lives of the founders and first two provincials of the order in Mexico, the historical data are meagre. The arrangement is faulty, the dates for many important events are wanting, and the style is that common to the monkish chroniclers of the fourteenth century. The most extensive account of Florencia's life is given by Beristain. According to this author he was born in Florida in 1620, studied in the college of San Ildefonso of Mexico, and in 1643 took the Jesuit habit. Having successfully occupied the chairs of philosophy and theology in the Jesuit college of San Pedro y San Pablo, acquiring considerable fame in the capital as a preacher, and having held several important commissions in connection with the inquisition, he was appointed in 1688 procurator of his province at Madrid and Rome. Subsequently he filled for several years the office of procurator-general at Seville of all the provinces in the Indies. He finally returned to Mexico, where he died in his seventy-fifth year.

Of his numerous writings, which are wholly of a religious character, and some of which have passed through several editions, his fame rests chiefly on