that no member of the order should be present at the election of officials in Indian towns, or in any way interfere with those officials in the discharge of their duties, or assume a right to inflict corporal punishment on or demand pecuniary penalties from Indians. Marriage cases of an objectionable or doubtful nature were to be referred to the diocesan. The religious were to win the natives by kindness, "con amorosas y graciosas palabras," not preaching words to amuse, but sound doctrine to fructify their souls. The Indians were not to be charged for the administration of the sacraments, ringing of bells, or other service, but their gifts might be accepted. The penalties for violations of the rules passed by the chapter were quite severe.[1] If they grew careless there was an eye upon them; the king had to remind the Dominicans, and with them the Austin friars, on the 18th of July, 1562, that they were mendicants.[2]
The Dominican community founded in Mexico in 1526 was ruled from this time to 1535 by a vicario general;[3] from 1535 to 1568, by a provincial whose term was of three years; from and after 1568, of four years.[4] The first to hold the office was Domingo de Betanzos,[5]
- ↑ Actas Prov., MS., 1-178. The Actas Provinciales de la Provincia de Santiago de Mexico del Orden de Predicadores, a manuscript of my collection, are the original minutes from 1549 to 1589 of the chapters held by the Dominican province of Mexico, furnishing lists of its members at different periods, where they were stationed, and other information touching that order.
- ↑ Mex. Col. Leyes (1861), Introd. xlvii. Nine members of the order were honored with the office of father confessor of the ruling viceroy. Of those who had passed some portion of their lives in Mexico, four became archbishops; fifteen obtained bishoprics; five were appointed bishops and declined to accept the office; two were governors of the archdiocese of Mexico; and several others were professors of the university. Dávila, Continuacion, MS., 310-11.
- ↑ 1. Thomas Ortiz, who afterward became bishop of Santa Marta; 2. Vicente de Santa María; 3. Domingo de Betanzos; 4. Francisco de San Miguel, who came from La Española; he later called himself provincial of Mexico under an election made of him in 1534. But his claim to the office is denied on the plea that the electoral rules had not been observed. Dávila, Continuacion, MS., 284-5.
- ↑ Pope Julius II. regarded the reasons for the change as good, and ordered the provincial's term to be quadriennial; and the intermediate chapters to be held every two years instead of every year as formerly. The general, Father Vicente Justiniano, by his patent of May 12, 1560, ordered it carried out, and 'el oficio de Prouincial dure quatro años.' Remesal, Hist. Chyapa, 57.
- ↑ His successors were, in the order given: Pedro Delgado, 1538; Domingo
