decided in their favor in 1595.[1] To show his high appreciation of the society and its labors the pope donated for the Colegio Maximo of San Pedro y San Pablo a large number of sacred relics of saints, taken out of the closed graves, and which arrived in Mexico, a portion in 1576 and the rest in 1578. All were placed in the church in their college with unequalled pomp and religious ceremony.[2]
In 1576 there arrived an accession of priests and brothers of the society;[3] and the ranks were further recruited both from colonists and natives. Among those admitted were several churchmen, all persons of high position and recognized talents, one of whom was a descendant of the kings of Tezcuco.
A further increase of Jesuits came in 1579, several of whom played distinguished parts in the country.[4] Father Pedro Diaz, who had charge of this last company, also brought out the commission as visitador to Doctor Juan de la Plaza, who was instructed to relieve Doctor Pedro Sanchez, as he had petitioned for a life
- ↑ Ramirez, Not. Mex., in Monum. Dom. Esp., MS., 336.
- ↑ The relics were: 11 of apostles; 57 of martyrs; 14 of doctors of the church, and among these one bone of Saint Thomas Aquinus; 24 of holy confessors; 27 of other saints; and the rest of saints who were unknown in this world. Besides the above, the pope made a gift to the college of two bones, one of Saint Peter and one of Saint Paul; a good-sized piece of the holy lignum crucis; one thorn from the redeemer's crown; two relics of Saint Anne, mother of the virgin Mary; and one bone of the patron saint of Mexico, Saint Hippolytus. Some of these relics had been shipped in 1575, in a vessel wrecked on the coast of Vera Cruz, and after some delay were recovered from the sailors, who had appropriated them. Florencia, Hist. Prov. Jesvs, 32849, 359; Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, i. 127, 137-45; Gonzalez Dávila, Teatro, Ecles., i. 38-40.
- ↑ Fathers, Alonso Ruiz, superior, Pedro de Hortigosa, Antonio Rubio, Doctor Pedro de Morales, Alonso Guillen, Francisco Vaez, Diego de Herrera, and Juan de Mendoza. Brothers, Marcos García, Hernando de la Palma, Gregorio Montes, and Alonso Perez. Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, i. 114-15.
- ↑ Fathers Pedro Diaz, Antonio de Torres, Bernardino de Acosta, Martin Fernandez, Juan Diaz, Andrés de Carried, Francisco Ramirez, Juan Ferro, and Alonso Sanchez. The last named became rector of San Pedro y San Pablo; later, vice-president of the Philippines; from thence some years afterward he visited China, and went inland about 70 leagues. He was also in Macao, and exercised much influence over the Portuguese to reconcile them to the annexation of Portugal to Spain. He sailed for Japan, was wrecked on the coast of Formosa, and, finally, with great difficulty returned to the Philippines. His career ended in Alcalá some time after he made in Rome the profession of fourth vow. He was a very austere man. Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, i. 154-9.
