of abandoning in 1582, owing to invidious remarks. It was said that while pretending to accept no compensation, they took it secretly. The institute would have been broken up but for Bishop Romano, who stifled such hostile manifestations. The college soon after became prosperous.[1] Missionaries were sent from it to the valley of Atlixco and to Orizaba.
In 1578 the society founded a house at Vera Cruz, where fathers Alonso Guillen and Juan Roger preached daily, Guillen to the Spaniards and Roger to the mulattoes and negroes. The next year they obtained permission and money to found a hospital on the spot where the city was finally established in later years. The first member of the order to visit the diocese of Michoacan was Brother Juan Curiel; he went there in 1573, was kindly received, and ordained as a priest by Bishop Morales. After the translation of Morales to Puebla, and the death of Bishop Chavez, the chapter at Patzcuaro asked the provincial to establish his order there on a permanent footing. The provincial went there in person, when the chapter tendered him the sum of eight hundred pesos yearly, the church which till then had been the cathedral, and a good site for a college, together with a large fruit orchard. These offers were accepted, and soon after the provincial's return to Mexico he took steps to effect the foundation at Patzucaro, with Father Juan Curiel as rector, Father Juan Sanchez as superior of the college, and two brothers. This was when Medina Rincon had become the diocesan. The subsequent removal of the see to Valladolid proved a detriment to the society, as it had to establish another residence there with chairs of grammar and Latin, under Father Juan Sanchez, supporting it out of the small means from Patzcuaro.[2] The diocese
- ↑ The patron, Melchor de Covarrubias, died in 1592; he had once presented the crown with 10,000 pesos for the Catholics of France. The king commended him to the viceroy. He gave, besides, 38,000 pesos to two convents. Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, i. 252-4.
- ↑ The bishop added 400 pesos more. The church at Patzcuaro was repaired
