The first act of open rebellion came from the Dean, who administered the communion during Holy Week to various persons who not only continued to hold their Indians in spite of the Bishop’s remonstrances and admonitions, but were notoriously engaged at that very time in buying and selling slaves. The disobedience of his subordinate could not be left unnoticed and the bishop resolved to reprimand him, but paternally, in presence of the other clergy, as an example. This intention was more easily formed than executed, for the Dean refused to appear, although the first summons came in the form of an invitation to dinner: three times was the summons repeated but each time, on one pretext or another, it was evaded, until there only remained to summon him officially and to censure his violation of his Bishop’s instructions and his refusal to appear before him. As even this severe measure left him unmoved, Las Casas ordered his arrest and sent his alguacil and some of the clergy to bring the recalcitrant Dean before him. The news of what was passing had spread through the town and when the diocesan authorities went to make the arrest, quite a crowd of people had collected to see the outcome of the ecclesiastical duel. The appearance of the Dean, being conducted by force to answer to the Bishop for disobedience that had been prompted by his compliance to the Spaniards’ desires, provoked a demonstration in his favour. He, seeing his opportunity, began to call for help, crying: “Help me to get free, gentlemen, and I’ll confess everybody! Get me free and I’ll absolve all of you!” A great hubbub ensued; men armed themselves to attack the Bishop’s alguacil; some barricaded the Dominicans in their convent to prevent their coming to the assistance of the arresting party, others freed the Dean from his captors, and thus, with great uproar and shouts for the King and his justice against the Bishop, the mob arrived at the latter’s house, into which a crowd forced its way with clamorous disorder. A gentleman named Rodriguez de Villafuerte, who was in the ante-chamber in company with Fray Domingo de Medinilla, managed to somewhat calm the turbulence of the people. The leaders of the mob burst into the room beyond, where Fray Domingo had insisted that the Bishop should remain, instead of coming out to face the rioters as he wished, insulting him in the coarsest language and even threatening to kill him. The storm of popular fury broke itself against the imperturbable serenity and inflexible determination with which Las Casas met and dominated it. Though the crowd dispersed, cowed and sullen, to their houses, the murmuring continued, and the friars dared not leave their convents, for fear of provoking a fresh outbreak. The Bishop cancelled the ecclesiastical faculties of his Dean and excommunicated him.