Note XXXVII‑33 — Chapter XXXVII · GUATEMALA AND CHIAPAS. 1701-1800.

Up to 1730 the tithes collected in the bishopric had never exceeded 3,000 pesos; but from that time they increased, until in 1750 they amounted to 30,000, and ten years after they were estimated at 60,000 pesos. Escamilla, Not. Cur. de Guat., 78. Pedro Pardo de Figueroa, seventeenth bishop and first archbishop of Guatemala, was born in Lima of noble parentage. He assumed the religious habit of the Franciscans at the age of sixteen. Having filled the chairs of philosophy and theology, he was sent by his order to the courts of Madrid and Rome, occupying the position of secretary-general of his order. He was elected bishop of Guatemala in 1735, and on the 13th of September of the same year was consecrated by the archiepiscopal viceroy of New Spain, Juan Antonio de Vizarron y Eguiarreta. In these dates the Concil. Prov., 1-2, 297, is followed according to Juarros, Guat., i. 291. Figueroa was consecrated on September 8, 1736, and on Nov. 18th Manuel Falla, precentor of the cathedral, took possession of it in his name. On the 22d of September 1737 the bishop made his public entry into the cathedral. Escamilla, Not. Cur. de Guat., 16, confirms Juarros.