Note 572 — Chapter VI · MEXICO. (continued 3)

Juan de la Concepcion, V, 276, 278. Puigblanch (La Inquisicion sin Mascara, Cádiz, 1811, p. 402) is in error in attributing the persecution of Archbishop Guerrero to the Inquisition and has misapprehended Palafox’s allusion to it. In both cases it was the Jesuits acting through jueces conservadores, who, by a monstrous abuse, assumed to exercise full papal powers, but in Mexico the Inquisition was with them and in Manila it was against them.

The ecclesiastics had full revenge on Governor Corcuera when, in 1644, he was succeeded by Diego Fajardo. In fortifying Manila against an expected attack by the Dutch, his lines ran through an Augustinian convent. He offered the frailes another house, but they refused to move and he tore down the building about their ears. When out of office they prosecuted him and obtained a verdict of 25,000 pesos. He must have been a rarely honest governor, for he was unable to pay it and they kept him in harsh gaol for five years. On his liberation, Philip IV appointed him Governor of the Canaries.—Concepcion, VI, 185-93.