Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/440

424 in which priests were not found acting as leading officers. Notwithstanding this well established fact, Viceroy Venegas had hitherto abstained from publicly issuing any decree regarding them, though he had circulated orders to the commanders of royal troops to shoot all priests that fell prisoners into their hands. But these orders had rarely been carried out. In the case of Father Hidalgo, we have seen that his execution was pursuant to a regular sentence, after he had been tried and all ecclesiastical formalities observed. Some leaders, however, exasperated at encountering hostile priests everywhere, had disreregarded their cloth, and without ado despatched them to their long home. Others, among them Tovar at San Luis Potosí with respect to Father Zimarripa, had with their reports placed the viceroy under the necessity of decisive action. After consulting the real acuerdo, fourteen of whose fifteen members had expressed the same opinion, at the petition of the crown's counsel and with the concurrence of the military and naval auditores, the viceroy published an edict on the 25th of June, declaring amenable to the military jurisdiction all persons who had made or should thereafter make resistance to the king's troops, whatever might be their rank, status, or condition; and ordering that such offenders should be tried by the ordinary courts-martial composed of officers of the division or detachment that effected the capture, and referring the case with the proceedings had thereon to the viceroy for his final decision. This restriction, if faithfully carried out, would have averted many arbitrary acts; unfortunately it was nullified by the freedom allowed commanders to execute sentences without first obtaining the viceregal sanction, when roads were intercepted or circumstances demanded a prompt example.