abode than two days' journey.[1] All privileges granted to friars for the Indies by preceding pontiffs were confirmed.
Ever since the projected transfer of Córdoba's discoveries to the admiral of Flanders,[2] the Flemings had taken a certain interest in the new region, and with the authorization issued to Franciscans generally to engage in conversion, three friars of that nationality obtained permission to begin the long delayed work.[3] They were Juan de Tecto, guardian of the convent at Ghent, the emperor's confessor, and a most learned man,[4] Juan de Aora, and Pedro de Gante, laybrother, a man of talent and exemplary life, who acquired great respect and influence, the latter chiefly through his relationship to Charles V.[5]
Leaving Spain in May, they reached Villa Rica
- ↑ The permission gave rise to numerous quibbles, and by bull of Feb. 15, 1535, at the request of the Franciscan commissary, this episcopal power was extended to any place, without restriction as to distance, but subject to the consent of the bishop in the diocese concerned. The text of the different bulls is given fully, or in substance, in Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 188-96; Prov. St⁰ Evang., MS., pt. iii. 83; Torquemada, iii. 6, 7; Vazquez, Chron. de Gvat., 18; García, Hist. Bethlem., ii. 13; Beaumont, Crón. Mich., ii. 507.
- ↑ See Hist. Mex., i., this series.
- ↑ Coming solely with the permit of their provincials, 'no con autoridad epostólica . . . ni con mandato del ministro general,' they cannot be recognized as the first Franciscans in New Spain, observes Mendieta. Hist. Ecles., 215.
- ↑ For 14 years professor of theology at Paris. Motolinia, Hist. Ind.,i. 111. As his confessor, the emperor at first hesitated to let him go; but his star called him to perish miserably on the terrible Honduras expedition in 1525, under Cortés. See Gante in Cartas de Indias, 52; also Hist. Cent. Am., i. 548, this series, Bernal Diaz includes Juan el Flamenco among those who were drowned in the vessel sent by Cortés to Mexico on arriving at Honduras. Hist. Verdad., 208. This may refer to Aora, who accompanied Tecto, and died on the same journey, as Gante affirms, Lettre, in Ternaux-Campans, Voy., série i. tom. x. 199-200, for Torquemada, iii. 424-5, declares that Tecto died of starvation and hardship during the march to Honduras. Mendieta on the other hand writes that Aora died while catechising at Tezcuco, soon after his arrival, and that his body was removed to the Franciscan convent at Mexico, after its completion. Hist. Ecles., 607. If so, he was the first missionary who died in New Spain. The name given to Tecto is the Spanish form for Jean de Toit.
- ↑ Beaumont, Crón. Mich., iii. 251. What relationship is not clear, though Alegre says, 'Por la ilustre sangre de los reyes de Escocia,' Hist. Comp. Jesus, i. 180; and Ixtlilochitl, Hor. Crueldades, 60, guesses at cousin, while Prescott, Mex., iii. 256, and Brasseur boldly assert, his 'illegitimate son;' 'brother' would have been a better guess, since Charles was born in 1500, and at Ghent (Gante). His proper name was 'Pierre de Mura, natif de la ville d'Yguen, dans la province de Budarde.' Gand, Lettre, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i. tom. x. 199. Hazart writes Petrus de Muro. Kirchen-Geschichte, ii. 529; Fernandez, Hist. Ecles., 47.
