Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/476

456 of government, judiciary, and finances, respectively; but was independent in his military position, being clothed with the title of captain-general. The expediency of creating the office of intendente corregidor for the province of Mexico was suggested to the crown by several viceroys.

Soon after the king's government learned of the death of Viceroy Galvez, it sent out a temporary appointment to Doctor Alonso Nunez de Haro y Peralta, a member of the royal council, and archbishop of Mexico, who thus became the fiftieth viceroy. The archbishop was a native of Villagarcía, of the diocese of Cuenca in Spain, born on the 3 1st of October 1729. He began his literary studies in the university of Toledo, and finished them at Bologna, where he subsequently was rector of the college of San Clemente. Later he became professor of theology, and a doctor of divinity of the last named college, and of the university of Avila. This honor he received when only eighteen years of age. Haro was a great linguist, having a thorough knowledge of Hebrew, Chaldean, Greek, and Latin, and being able to converse and write with as much ease and perfection in Italian and French as in his native tongue. When still very young he paid a visit to Rome, and Benedict XIV. was so much pleased with his erudition that he specially recommended him to the royal prince Luis de Borbon, cardinal-archbishop of Toledo, and primate of Spain. In after years Doctor Haro filled several high ecclesiastical positions, acquiring an enviable reputation for learning and pulpit eloquence,