quitting the ex-viceroy of all the charges preferred against him.[1]
Four months later, on the 29th of June, he took leave of his flock in the cathedral, and the following day left Mexico. The viceroy, at whose right side he was seated, the audiencia, and the tribunals accompanied him to Guadalupe; the ringing of the bells gave notice to the entire population of the departure of their beloved prelate, and fervent prayers were offered in all the churches for his safe return to Spain.[2]
On reaching Puerto Real in Spain, he resigned the two high positions to which the king had recently promoted him, and retired to the convent of Santa María del Risco. Still leading a pious, humble life, he received while there further marks of favor from a grateful sovereign. The king granted him a yearly rental of four thousand ducats, to be defrayed by the royal treasury of Mexico, and the pope gave him the privilege of entering any church of Spain dressed in the archiepiscopal garb. On the 8th of April 1684 he breathed his last,[3] and when the news of his decease reached Mexico, imposing funeral services were held in several of the churches to honor the memory of one whose name was deeply graven on the hearts of the people.[4]
- ↑ This decision was formally ratified by the India Council on the 23d of December of the same year. The same body recommended Rivera as worthy of the king's further protection. 'Declaró assimismo ser digno, y merecedor de que su Magestad empleasse su persona. . . en aqucllos y otros mayores puestos, condignos á su ajustado obrar.' The tenor of the sentence is given in Ribera, Sentencia, 1-4.
- ↑ ’Limes 30, dia triste para Méjico, se fué el Illmo y Exmo señor maestro D. Fr. Payo Enriquez de Rivera,' says Robles, Diario, i. 324. C. M. Bustamante in the Diario Curioso of Rivera, 18, makes the blunder of stating that Rivera ruled 17 years as viceroy, from 1663 till 1680.
- ↑ Lorenzana, in Concilios Prov., 1555-65, 222, 291-2, says in one place 1684, in another 1685; the latter date has erroneously been adopted by Juarros, Guat., 284.
- ↑ For fuller and additional references to authorities bearing on the preceding chapters see Torquemada, iii. 596-7; Alegre, Hist. Comp, de Jesus., i. 43-05, 201-3; ii. 64, passim; iii. 6-108, 165-72, 224-6, 251-2, 299; Cortés, Hist. N. Esp., 22-6; Pinelo, Relacion, 4; Calle, Mem. y Not., 46, 54-8, 66, 73, 81-7, 122; Seriano, Prólogo, MS., 7-9; Villa-Señor y Sanchez, Theatro Mex., i. 17-18; Robles, Vida del Arzbpo. Cuevas, 148, passim; Gonzalez Dávila, Teatro Ecles., i. 65 et seq.; ii. 34, 91-2; Ribas, Hist. Trivmphos, 735-44, Arricivita, Crón. Seráfica, 158-206, 517-18; Carriedo, Estudios Hist., 115; Concilios
