PROVINCIAL COUNCILS. 



157 



which, in imitation of the councils of Toledo, certain bishops 

 being united to the magistrates of the capital, such provisions 

 as were then required by the critical conjun6lure in which the 

 kingdom was placed, were made, both in spiritual and tem- 

 poral affairs. 



Loaysa continued in the discreet governance of the church, 

 and having understood that the council of Trent, by which 

 it was enadled that provincial councils should be holden every 

 three years, had been concluded, confirmed, and published in 

 Spain, he convened one, which may be considered as the se- 

 cond, and which was celebrated in 1567. The fathers of the 

 church who were present at it are not named ; but it is pre- 

 sumable that they were the same as on the preceding occasion, 

 in conjundlion with the bishop of Chile. This council having 

 completed its deliberations, the a6ls were published through- 

 out the kingdom, and their observance recommended ; but 

 having been transmitted to Spain, and thence to Rome, it was 

 not deemed expedient to confirm them, and, still less, to allow 

 them to be printed. Santo Toribio has left us, however, a 

 compendium of them, by which the motive of their not having 

 been confirmed is explained. It appears that certain things 

 were ordained which were without doubt rendered necessary 

 by the circumstances of those times, but which were not in 

 the province of the fathers, whose zeal, in the corredlion of 

 abuses, had led them, nevertheless, to stamp these a6ls with 

 the seal of their authority. In reality, both the order and ex- 

 ecution, in cases of such a nature, then belonged, as they now 

 do, to a power distinct from the spiritual. Laying aside this 

 consideration, the above assembly of prelates is well deserving 

 of our respedt, as well on account of the earnestness which was 



displayed 



