of a larger company than the first, though sickness and other causes reduced the number to six before he reached Mexico.[1] Installed as vicar-general and inquisitor, he gave an impulse to mission work, reenforced as he was shortly after by a dozen or more friars.[2]
At first they agreed very well with the Franciscans, who surrendered to them several districts already occupied,[3] and joined in opposing many of the iniquitous measures of the audiencia; but soon the old rivalry broke out, creating not only a division on public questions, but internal dissensions, which found vent chiefly on the subject of Indian treatment, and the forcible spread of conversion, the Franciscans favoring the alliance of sword and cross. The larger nuiuber of the latter, and their earlier occupation of the field, gave them precedence among both settlers and natives, and the Dominicans were obliged to exert themselves for a share of influence. Some features of their order gave them an advantage, and they attracted attention by the imposing beauty of their convent.[4]
Among the early missions founded by the order were those of Pánuco, Oajaca, and Guatemala.[5] That of Oajaca was intrusted to Lucero, now a
- ↑ Names in Granados, Tardes, 330-1. Remesal seeks vainly to account for the falling away of the priests. At first it was proposed to take 40, but a number of these were directed to Venezuela, and Santa Maria left with 24. They were given free passage, 1,500 pesos for a convent, 100 pesos for robes and other necessaries. Herrera, dec. iv. lib. vi. cap. ii.
- ↑ 'Entre todos fueron veinte y dos,' before Betanzos went to bring more. Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 364. Several of these attained the dignity of bishops.
- ↑ Notably Tlahuac, Coyuhuacan, Amequemecan, east of the capital, and other sections. Vetancvrt, Chron., 26.
- ↑ 'Che è vno dei grandi & forti edificij & buoni che sia in Spagna.' Rel. Gentilihvmo, in Ramusio, iii. 309. It was founded in September 1526 on the street named in consequence Santo Domingo, Libro de Cabildo, September 17, 1526; but according to a writer in Monumentos Domin. Esp., MS., 329, it was occupied only in 1530. It was afterward surrendered to the inquisition office, which again has given place to a medical school. The convent was removed to the site now occupied, and dedicated in 1575. Torquemada, iii. 40; Iglesias y Conventos de Mex., 62-4.
- ↑ Convents were also erected at Puebla, Vera Cruz, Goazacoalco, in the towns transferred by the Franciscans, and notably among the Miztecs and Zapotecs. Fernandez, Hist. Ecles., 75; Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii. 210.
