The grandiloquent style that prevailed in Spanish literature and in Spanish preaching incited the Franciscan friar Martín Velasco, to write his treatise on Rhetoric under the title, _Arte de sermones_, printed in Cadiz in 1675. Little is known of Velasco’s life beyond the fact that he was born in Bogotá, and lived in the Franciscan monastery of that city. The key to his doctrine appears to be contained in these two sentences: “Words are smoke and noise which do not go beyond their sense; and in serving for what they are, it is not they but the truth they utter that produces the effect. One should try, therefore, to utter much truth in few words after the manner of the Laconians, and not many words and little substance.”[144] If the teaching of the inconspicuous friar had had its merited influence much good might have come to Spanish speech even out of America. IV [Sidenote: Fernández Piedrahita] [Sidenote: Piedrahita vicar general] [Sidenote: _Historia de Granada_] In the last half of the seventeenth century an historian of considerable merit appeared in the person of Bishop Lucas Fernández Piedrahita, who was born in Bogotá on March 6, 1624. Through his mother, Catalina Collantes, he held by birth a more or less distant relationship to a member of the family of the Incas in Peru. He studied in the Jesuit college of San Bartolomé, and received the degree of doctor from the University of Santo Tomás. The literary ambition of his youth manifested itself in the writing of a number of dramas that are not known to exist. He was appointed treasurer of the cathedral of Popayán, but before he entered upon the duties of that office he was made a prebendary of the metropolitan church in 1654. He was subsequently promoted to various offices in that church and after the death of Archbishop Torres he was elected vicar general and governor of the archbishopric; and he continued to hold the office of vicar general after the arrival of Arguinao, in 1661, the successor of Archbishop Torres. Piedrahita became the favourite preacher of the city, and through his influence and friendly relation with the president Dionisio Pérez Manrique, harmony was established between the ecclesiastical and civil officials. But the arrival of Cornejo as visitador introduced an element of discord into the community. Soon after the accession of Arguinao, Piedrahita was called to Spain to defend himself before the Council of the Indies against charges preferred by the visitador. His defence was so complete that the Council not only absolved him from fault, but also offered him the office of bishop of Santa Marta, and this appointment was immediately confirmed by the Pope. He remained six years in Spain, from 1663 to 1669, and during this period he wrote his _Historia general del nuevo reino de Granada_. [Sidenote: Bishop of Santa Marta and of Panama]