and in October 1699 the appointment of Montañez as his successor arrived in Mexico. In March 1700 he took formal possession of his see, and on the 2d of January 1702 was invested with the pallium which had been received with the pope's bull confirming his appointment in the previous November. On the 15th of January the new archbishop gave the customary banquet in celebration of the ceremony. The guests, who were members of the chapter and the audiencia, were regaled with every luxury that the country could produce, no less than thirty dishes of different kinds of fish, meats, game, poultry, and confectionery being placed in succession upon the table.[1] Public pageantry succeeded religious ceremonies and private feasting. On the 29th of the same month the archbishop made his public entry into the capital with a solemnity and splendor rarely witnessed.[2]
The ecclesiastical administration of Montañez was marked by severity; and his measures of reform were carried out. His integrity was unimpeachable, and it was on this account that the king appointed him a second time viceroy. The zeal which he displayed in furthering the completion of the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe prompted him personally to solicit alms in the streets of Mexico for that purpose. His advanced age—for he was seventy years old when he assumed the archbishopric—prevented him from visiting his diocese, but his duties were faithfully performed to the last. The date of his decease is uncertain,[3] but
- ↑ 'Otros dicen que hubo cincuenta de diversas viandas, así de pezcados esquisitos, como de carnes y aves diferentes.' Robles, Diario, ii. 361-2. The banquet lasted from 12 m. till 2:30 p. m.
- ↑ A full account of the ceremonial will be found in Id., 365-72.
- ↑ In Concil. Prov., 1, 2, 292, it is stated that he died in 1704; Juarros says in 1710. Sosa, Episcop. Mex., 168, makes this remark: 'no hay la menor contradiccion en los autores que señalan el año de 1708 como el de la muerte del Sr Ortega y Montañés.' Cabrera, Escudo de Armas, 367 et seq.
asylum for insane females, and laid the first stone of the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe on March 26, 1695. Concil. Prov., 1, 2, 222-3, 329-30; Rivera, Diario, 19; Dávila, Mem. Hist., pt. i. 28. In 1721 his remains were removed from the place where they had been interred and deposited in a sepulchre on the right side of the chapel of San Felipe de Jesus. Doc. Hist. Mex., 2a. serie iv. 268.
