These publications gave evidence of his spirit and his learning; they made an impression on influential persons at the court; and García de Haro, after he had heard him preach, became his enthusiastic champion. Moreover, the court and other persons of distinction conceived an especially favourable opinion of Villarroel; he was frequently called to preach before the king and the Council of the Indies; the fashionable applauded him; and the poetasters wrote verses in his honour. The practical result of all this for Villarroel was his presentation in 1637, after a residence of eight years in Madrid, as the bishop of Santiago. He was consecrated the next year in his monastery in Lima. [Sidenote: Villarroel’s pastoral influence] In its isolation the limited society of Santiago, like other colonial communities, was afflicted with social antagonisms. There was rivalry between the civil and ecclesiastical officials, and the task that devolved upon Bishop Villarroel was to establish and preserve a just balance between the conflicting parties. This task he appears to have performed with marked success. Herrera, the historian of Ecuadorian literature, affirms that “he made himself not only notable among the bishops of America for his wisdom, but also for his eminent virtues and for his indefatigable zeal in the exercise of his pastoral functions.”[179] Villarroel’s benevolence and charity found ample opportunity for exercise in the afflicted community of Santiago after the earthquake of May 13, 1647, when the earth is said to have trembled and fluctuated like the sea. The shock caused a terrifying noise, threw down the houses and churches, and killed six hundred persons in the ruins. [Sidenote: _Gobierno eclesiástico pacífico_] _Gobierno eclesiástico pacífico_, Villarroel’s most important work, was written during his incumbency as bishop of Santiago. It was originally published in 1656-7, and in 1737 Padre Francisco Vásquez de Sandoval caused a new edition to be issued. This book treats of the prerogatives and duties of holders of ecclesiastical and civil office. In it the author makes manifest his desire for harmony and conciliation, and shows that no opposition exists between the legitimate designs of the church and the state. It is not possible to describe this treatise in terms applicable to a modern work on government. It has the character of a voluminous mediæval book, containing much that is relevant to the general subject and much more that from the modern point of view is irrelevant. It is interspersed with numerous and extensive quotations, and is crowded with references to both pagan and Christian authors. According to tradition, these two massive volumes were written within a period of six months, but they were not published until ten years later than the date assigned as that of their completion, and there are various reasons for believing that the work of composition occupied at least some part of these intervening years.[180]