Note 6 — The Pardo Controversy

At this time the ecclesiastical cabildo presented themselves in recourse to the royal Audiencia, with a paper signed by their dean,6 the dignitaries, the canons, and the other prebends, imploring the royal aid against the archbishop on account of the acts of fuerza and violence which were suffered by the cabildo, its members, and all the clergy.7 They declared that the worst of these were due to the fact that the said archbishop had at his side a religious of the Order of St. Dominic, named Fray Raymundo Verart;8 that the archbishop had retained him, ever since he came from Spain, under the title of counselor [asesor] and director; that he had gained such influence that he directed all the actions of the said archbishop; and that his decisions were so extraordinary that he kept all minds in a state of notable disquiet—to such a degree that he even refused recourse from the acts of fuerza, endeavoring to render the jurisdiction of the archbishop absolute, and to exclude his Majesty (as represented in the Audiencia) from his highest prerogative, that of aid to his oppressed ecclesiastical vassals. They represented that the archbishop acted as an advocate in the very suits in which he was judge; that he lived outside the city, in a hospital of Sangleys9 which is in charge of the religious of St. Dominic, from which resulted injury and delay in the despatch of business; that he could think of nothing but his friars, and behaved as one of them—for on the day of election of provincial he had rendered obedience to the father who was elected, and in the procession he walked in the fifth rank—regarding himself as first of all a friar, although he was archbishop-elect; and that he treated the cabildo and its members ill, showing aversion to them.