THE ARCHBISHOP EXCOMMUNICATES MEXIA, HIS AGENT. 189 



to compare notes, and suddenly discovered that corn was no where 

 to be procured, save from the granaries of Mexia. " The poor 

 began to murmur, the rich began to complain ; and the tariff of 

 fourteen reales was demanded from the viceroy. " But he, the 

 secret accomplice of Mexia, decided, that as the crops had been 

 plentiful during the year, it could not be regarded as one of 

 scarcity according to the evident intention of the law, so that it 

 would be unfair to reduce the price of grain to that of famine. 

 And thus the people, balked in their effort to obtain justice from 

 their ruler, though suffering from extreme imposition, resolved to 

 bear the oppression, rather than resort to violence for redress. 



After awhile, however, the intimacy between Gelves and Mexia 

 became more apparent as the confederates supposed they had less 

 cause for concealment ; and the poor, again, besought the viceroy 

 for justice and the legal tariff. But the temptation was too great 

 for the avaricious representative of the king. He again denied 

 their petition ; and, then, as a last hope, they resorted to a higher 

 power, which, in such conflicts with their rulers, had usually 

 been successful. 



In those days, Don Alonzo de la Serna, a man of lofty character 

 and intrepid spirit, was archbishop of Mexico, and perceiving the 

 avaricious trick of the viceroy and his pimp, threw himself on the 

 popular side and promptly excommunicated Mexia. But the 

 sturdy merchant, protected by viceroyal authority, was not to be 

 conquered by so immaterial a thing as a prelate's curse placarded 

 on the door of a cathedral. He remained quietly ensconced in his 

 house, despatched orders to his agents, and even raised the price 

 of his extravagant bread stuffs. For a moment, perhaps, De la 

 Serna was confounded by this rebellious son of the church, yet the 

 act convinced him, if indeed, he entertained any doubt on the 

 subject, that Mexia was backed by the viceroy, and, consequently, 

 that any further attempts would bring him in direct conflict with 

 the government. Nevertheless, a man like him was not to be 

 easily alarmed or forced to retreat so quickly. The church, 

 supreme in spiritual power, would never yield, especially in a 

 matter of popular and vital concern, and the archbishop, therefore, 

 determined to adopt the severest method at once, and by an order of 

 cessatio divinis, to stop, immediately, all religious worship through- 

 out the colony. This was a direful interdict, the potency of which 

 can only be imagined by those who have lived in Catholic 

 countries whose piety is not periodically regulated upon the 

 principle of a seven day clock, but where worship is celebrated 



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