Note 80 — Chapter XIX

The see being declared vacant, the cabildo assumed its government; and they could have ruled with great peace if they themselves had not hunted up discord where they had thought to find greater peace. The vacant see was ruled by Master Juan González de Guzmán, who was now dean on account of the absence of Don Miguel Ortiz, and at the same time was provisor and vicar-general of the cabildo; and as it seemed to them that it would be expedient, for the greater authority of the diocese, to cede the government to the bishop of Troya, Don Fray Ginés Barrientos, they named him as its head. From this ensued great dissensions, for the bishop-governor thought that he was superior to the cabildo, and that they had transferred their authority to him, leaving themselves entirely stripped of it; this is contrary to all the teachings of the sacred canons, which in one precept of law declare: Privilegio, quod habes propter me, non potes uti contra me; and the established principle which states: Propter quod unumquodque tale, illud magis.80 They tried to persuade him, by very learned manifestoes, that the cabildo alone could have constituted him its vicar-general, with authority removable at the pleasure of the same cabildo; and that they could therefore revoke the appointment which they had conferred upon him, whenever they pleased. But the bishop of Troya resolved not to yield, but to act as superior to and independent of the cabildo. There were bitter disputes, proceeding from both sides, so much so that, in order to avoid greater scandals, two members of the cabildo—the dean, Master Juan González de Guzmán, and the cantor, Don Estebán de Olmedo Gabaldón, a native of Campo de Crítana in La Mancha—took refuge in our convent of San Pablo at Manila, from which the bishop of Troya would have taken them, if the prudent governor, Don Alonso de Abella Fuertes, had not refused to give him the aid which he asked for that exploit.