Note 38 — The Pardo Controversy

Diaz states (ut supra) that the archbishop’s provisor, Juan Gonzalez, took refuge in the Dominican convent, which was soon surrounded with armed soldiers. At the advice of friends, Gonzalez gave himself up, and was kept a close prisoner in his own house—“guards being placed there at his cost; and penalty was imposed of major excommunication and 500 pesos, if he should talk with any person outside.” As soon as Santo Domingo was blockaded, a decree of the Audiencia was made known to all the convents that they must not ring the bells for an interdict. To prevent this being done at Santo Domingo, “they scaled the convent through the hall of the Inquisition, which is above the main entrance, and ten soldiers went up to the bell-tower.” Next day, the friars rang a small bell to call the people to mass, but the guards would not allow any person to enter the church.