as its patron saint. At about the same time preliminary steps were taken for the establishment of a college in Querétaro, but it was not founded till some years later.[1]
On a more extensive scale were the Jesuit labors in Michoacan. In their colleges at Patzcuaro and Valladolid new converts were educated and made familiar with the native tongues of that region. Thus practically all the religious work of the bishopric was in the hands of the society. This success was due as well to their zeal as to the veneration in which some of the fathers were held, among them Francisco Ramirez and Juan Ferro.[2]
While thus the society was gaining ground in the central and northern regions, it was less successful in the south-east. In Oajaca the missions of the Jesuits were in a poor condition,[3] and in Yucatan where a college had been founded under the most promising auspices,[4] they could never attain the same influence as elsewhere.
This failure, however, was more than compensated for in Mexico and its neighborhood, where their establishments were more flourishing than ever before; and costly structures, the number of which was constantly increasing, gave evidence of their wide-spread influence. In 1603 was consecrated the church of the Colegio Máximo in Mexico,[5] at that time not surpassed in magnificence by any church edifice in New Spain. The highest dignitaries often officiated there; among others Archbishop García Guerra, who held
- ↑ Pedro de Egurrola is mentioned as the first rector. Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, ii. 205. The same author gives many, though uninteresting, details connected with the foundation.
- ↑ The former labored for 60 years among the Tarascos, and at the colleges of Pátzcuaro and Valladolid. Ferro was famous as an excellent linguist, having confessed persons in five or six difierent languages.
- ↑ The Dominicans, who predominated in this province, though otherwise stanch friends of the Jesuits, labored energetically to maintain their own superiority.
- ↑ On May 19, 1618. Later the privileges of a university were also granted. Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 215-16, 449.
- ↑ 'El mas suntuoso que habia entónces en Mexico.' Alegre, Hist. Comp. Jesus, i. 408.
