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A group of three scarce publications relating to the acrimonious conflict between Juan Palafox y Mendoza, Bishop of Puebla, and the Jesuits in New Spain. Juan Palafox y Mendoza (1600-59) was born in Navarre, educated at Salamanca, and appointed a member of the Council of the Indies. He later became a priest and in 1639 was made Bishop of Puebla de los Angeles. Palafox arrived in Mexico in 1640 and soon butted heads with the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians, whose many exemptions and privileges he looked upon as encroachments on his jurisdiction. In 1642 he was made Archbishop of New Spain, and for a brief time that same year he was acting Viceroy, during which he instituted financial reforms and made a push for indigenous conversion. Despite (or perhaps thanks to) that push, Palafox distinguished himself as bishop in his efforts to protect the Native Americans from Spanish cruelty, forbidding any methods of conversion other than persuasion. He was also a patron of the arts: under his tenure Puebla became the music center of New Spain, and he established the Biblioteca Palafoxiana, which continues to this day. Palafox's fortunes turned when he came into major conflict with the Jesuits over ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the mid-1640s. The legendary feud between Palafox and the Society of Jesus was fierce, extended, and rich in legal filings. The main point of contention between the opposing parties was the failure of the Society to submit to the authority of the bishops and archbishop of Mexico, particularly in their refusal to pay tithes. The Jesuits found their strongest ally in the new viceroy, García Sarmiento de Sotomayor, and Palafox was eventually undermined by both the Vatican and the Spanish crown. He was ultimately recalled to Spain (after fleeing Puebla to evade arrest at the hands of the Viceroy), and assigned to the minor diocese of Osma in Old Castile. After his death there was a movement to make him a saint, but a decade was far too short to cool ecclesiastical tempers, and his canonization was blocked by Jesuit opposition. In a very late vindication, Palafox's writings were several times republished in the following century, and played a significant role in the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain in 1767. The three works offered here are as follow: 1) Testimonio de una Provision del Rey Nuestro Señor, en que Se Imparte Plenamente el Real Auxilio, a la Legitima Jurisdiccion Apostolica de los Muy RR. PP. Iuezes Delegados Conservadores de la Compañia de Iesus [caption title]. Puebla. June 9, 1647. Folio. [1],7 leaves, one seven-line woodcut historiated initial. Gathered signatures, unstitched. Light foxing and tanning, scattered worming mostly to margins but skimming a few letters on most leaves. The earliest of these three documents is also the shortest and the rarest. The Testimonio de una provision del rey nuestro señor. presents testimony delivered to Philip IV from a number of sources (including the Viceroy), mostly regarding opposition to Palafox's March 1647 decree that, under pain of excommunication, Jesuits must be licensed by the Bishop in order to preach or hear confession. Though technically valid under canon law, the Jesuits of course took issue (perceiving that Palafox meant to refuse to grant them said licenses due to their feud), and the present document describes the conflict and presents their argument against him. They accuse Palafox and his advisor, Juan de Merlo, of sedition against the church for prohibiting the excommunicated from hearing mass and for publicly posting lists of those thus excommunicated. After relaying the reports, the king promises his support for the Jesuits in their suit against Palafox. The Iberian Books project warns that "there is a heightened possibility that this work could be a bibliographical ghost," as they located "no known exemplars." We note only a single copy in auction records, and OCLC records a lone copy, at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, though it.
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