The Audiencia had ended by agreeing to send an auditor to Ciudad Real to see that the New Laws were executed, and a gentleman of Santiago de Nicaragua wrote the news of this decision to the Council saying, “The Bishop is returning to this country to complete the destruction of this unhappy city, bringing with him an auditor to still further tax the country. We don’t know how it is that your lordships do not remedy such great evils.” An open council was held on December 15, 1545, which was attended by all the householders of the town, and upon opening the sitting, the secretary called attention to the fact that the Bishop had been exercising his episcopal authority without having shown the required papal bulls or royal cedulas to the Council; moreover he had introduced novel doctrines, reserving certain cases for absolution, concerning which, the Emperor’s final decision had not yet been received in reply to the petition addressed to His Majesty; as it was evident to them all that the Bishop’s ideas, if acceded to by the colonists would result in the total ruin of them all and a general rebellion of the Indians, it was incumbent upon them to notify the Bishop that he must follow the example of other bishops in the colonies, abandoning his novelties until the return of the procurator, who had been sent to Spain to present the colonists’ appeal on these matters, when the Emperor’s decision would be made known; any disturbances which might arise from the present unsettled state of feeling must be laid to the Bishop’s charge. These sentiments encountered general approval, and it was unanimously decided that should Las Casas refuse to acquiesce in them, they would refuse to receive him as their lawful bishop and would suppress his tithes. This last decision was published and a fine of one hundred castellanos imposed on any one violating it. Fray Tomas de la Torre learned of these decisions and sent from Cinacatlan, where he then was, to warn a lay brother, Fray Pedro Martin, and a servant of the Bishop who were in Cuidad Real, and to advise them to put the Bishop’s books and household goods in a place of safety, for he feared that in the excitement, popular resentment might burst all bounds and everything belonging to Las Casas might be destroyed. His warning was not unwarranted, for the two men were obliged to fortify themselves as best they could in the sacristy of the church, where they were attacked at midnight by a body of men, who were determined to expel them from the town. After besieging them in vain for some time, the attacking party left, intending to return by daylight, but the besieged took advantage of their absence to escape and managed to reach Cinacatlan barefoot, where their account of the state of things in the town greatly increased the anxiety of the friars.