Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/62

42 friars took umbrage because of what they considered an unwarranted meddling of the viceroy in their elections. The Jesuits were aggrieved that their attempt on the doctrinas had met with signal failure, and these restless intriguers immediately addressed themselves to the work of undoing Gelves as they had undermined others.

By far the most formidable of the enemies of the marquis was the archbishop, Juan Perez de la Serna, a man who from the position of canónigo magistral of Zamora had in 1613 been appointed to succeed the deplored prelate-viceroy Guerra as head of the church in New Spain. He proved zealous in extending spiritual administration through curacies and convents, striving to bring into greater veneration sacred places and relics, and to practise charity in a manner that brought him in contact with the poor and assisted to make him popular with the masses. Among the rich and the officials he found less welcome, owing partly to his persevering efforts for episcopal rights, partly to the enforcement of a stricter morality among the higher classes. The unseemly strife between friars and clergy, and the loose conduct of many of them, greatly encouraged an irreligious feeling among those whose means lured them from austerity and strict rules to a life of ease and free indulgence, and to laxity even in sacred matters. Painters, for instance, made efforts to present church ceremonials in a ridiculous