190 QUARREL BETWEEN GELVES AND THE ARCHBISHOP. 



from hour to hour in the churches. The doors of chapels, cathe- 

 drals and religious buildings were firmly closed. A death-like 

 silence prevailed over the land. No familiar bells sounded for ma- 

 tins or vespers. The people, usually warned by them of their hours 

 of labor or repose, had now no means of measuring time. The 

 priests went from house to house, lamenting the grievous affliction 

 with which the country was visited and sympathizing cordially 

 with the people. The church mourned for the unnatural pains her 

 rebellious son had brought upon her patient children. But still 

 the contumacious Mexia sold his corn and exacted his price ! 



At length, however, popular discontent became so clamorous, 

 that even among this orderly and enduring people, the life of the 

 viceroy's agent was no longer safe. He retreated therefore from his 

 own dwelling to the palace, which was strongly guarded, and de- 

 manded protection from Gelves. The viceroy admitted him and 

 took issue with the archbishop. He immediately sent orders to 

 the priests and curates of the several parishes, to cause the orders 

 of interdict and excommunication to be torn from the church walls, 

 and all the chapels to be thrown open for service. But the resolute 

 clergy, firm in their adherence to the prelate, would receive no 

 command from the viceroy. Finding the churches still closed, 

 and the people still more clamorous and angry, Gelves commanded 

 De la Serna to revoke his censures ; but the archbishop answered, 

 that " what he had done was but an act of divine justice against a 

 cruel oppressor of the poor, whose cries had moved him to com- 

 passion, and that the offender's contempt for his excommunication 

 had deserved the rigor of both of his censures, neither of which he 

 would recal until Don Pedro de Mexia submitted himself reverently 

 to the church, received public absolution, and threw up the uncon- 

 scionable monopoly wherewith he had wronged the common- 

 wealth." "But, "says the chronicle of the day, "the viceroy, 

 not brooking the saucy answer of a churchman, nor permitting him 

 to imitate the spirit of the holy Ambrose against the Emperor Theo- 

 dosius," forthwith sent orders to arrest De la Serna, and to carry 

 him to Vera Cruz, where he was to be confined in the castle of San 

 Juan de Ulua until he could be despatched to Spain. The arch- 

 bishop, however, followed by a long train of his prebends, priests, 

 and curates, immediately retired from the capital to the neighboring 

 village of Guadalupe, but left a sentence of excommunication on 

 the cathedral door against the viceroy himself! This was too 

 much for the haughty representative of the Spanish king to bear 

 without resentment, and left no means open for conciliation between 



