The bishop, for the sake of peace, after he had kept your royal officials excommunicated many days, refusing to obey or fulfil the ordinances of your royal Audiencia, issued a decree in which he gave up the decision of the cause to his Holiness and to your Majesty.  He protested that he would proceed with the case when he saw fit.  Although I stated in petition that the bishop had not complied with the ordinances of the Audiencia, and that thereby he had incurred the penalties provided—­which I begged to have executed—­everything was passed over, and it was not deemed proper to exact the penalties.  In this wise, whenever any dispute over jurisdiction occurs, the bishop displays like obstinacy, as he has done in other cases which are being added to the principal one.  If a penalty should once be imposed that would hurt him, he would obey and comply with the ordinances of the Audiencia.  But he says publicly that nothing can be done which will restrain him, and this is what he desires.  Because of this case the prebendaries and bishop abandoned the cathedral church and did not enter it, or celebrate the divine offices therein from the fourth of February until the twenty-second of March—­when, as it was holy week, they returned.  During this time only the cura came to the church, to say mass; and thereby great complaint, scandal, and discontent were caused among all the people.  I beseech your Majesty to be pleased to order this case to be summarily settled.  The bishop declares that he will use the right, which he claims to own, when he sees fit to do so; and it should be decided if it is right to suffer this thing.  Also, because I as fiscal attend to the defense of your royal jurisdiction, should the bishop have license to declare in writing that I had made a proposition touching the Holy Inquisition?  It was not only this, but that the statement went from one pulpit to another, by his command, that to say that the bishop was not judge of that cause was a heresy.  These and other words of which the Audiencia will give information caused no little scandal in this city.  Likewise he refuses to obey the ordinances of the Audiencia, making light of and disputing over them, for which he may be restrained and condemned in temporal matters.

It is quite common for controversies to arise between your governor and the bishop as to which of them is to assign the salary to be given to the ecclesiastics who administer instruction, both in the encomiendas of your royal crown and in those of private individuals.  Since the salaries in the encomiendas of the crown are paid from your royal exchequer, it is but just that your governor assign them, or at least that they do so jointly.  In this way your royal patronage will be better guarded, and it will be known for whom the bishop is providing.  I beg your Majesty to be pleased to have suitable orders given in this matter, and that it be done shortly, for every day more and more difficulties arise.