Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/68

48 should have done. During this passage at arms neither of the antagonists had conducted himself with the dignity to be expected from persons of their exalted position. They vied one with another in selecting untimely hours and unusual places for the exchange of their peculiar courtesies.

The appeal to the audiencia, however, was never decided; for while it was pending the judges and other persons excommunicated, seeing the obstinacy of the archbishop, on the 20th of December 1623 appeared before the papal delegate at Puebla. The delegate peremptorily ordered the archbishop to remove the ban, which the prelate refused to do, on the ground that because of the appeal to the audiencia the tribunal at Puebla had no jurisdiction, alleging also that the time for appeal on the part of the excommunicated had gone by. Thereupon, on New Year's day, the delegate issued a compulsory mandate, ordering the archbishop to absolve the excommunicated. The execution of this decree he intrusted to a Dominican friar, as his sub-delegate, who personally removed from the church door the obnoxious notices.

From many of the pulpits of the city the conduct