the judge-conservator, he appeared before the royal Audiencia with a plea of fuerza. And if Don Andres Xiron incurred excommunication for having thus presented himself, the archbishop likewise incurred it when he appeared there. But no consideration was given to this, and the point of fuerza is a stale one in Espana, and consequently it was not discussed. The archbishop was notified of a royal provision issued by Don Phelipe, by which he was ordered to absolve the auditor Marcos Zapata. The archbishop obeyed it, and that afternoon he sent Master Juan Velez to absolve him. That was done _ad cautelam_; for in truth he did not consider himself as excommunicated, nor did the learned jurists so consider him. Not only was the master Don Andres Xiron not absolved, but new acts were passed against him and new penalties imposed on him. All this was to prevent his presentation, that the governor had made, for the post of archdeacon of this metropolitan church, because of the resignation of the said post by Don Francisco de Baldes. The archbishop refused to accept the said master Don Andres Xiron, as he asserted that he was his mortal enemy, and for that purpose he threw out all the rest [of the governor's nominations]. He had the prebendaries of the cathedral notified not to accept Don Andres, under penalty of excommunication, and notified Don Francisco de Baldes to assist in the choir as before, since he was the archdeacon--telling him that his resignation had been invalid, as it had been made through the governor and not through the ordinary, before whom the resignation of any ecclesiastical benefice must be made; but the good man did not heed the archbishop and those who were aiding him. Although it is true, and a matter that has been settled by law, that the resignation from an ecclesiastical benefice in which the incumbent has been canonically installed must be presented only through the ordinary, yet Don Francisco de Baldes did not hold the post of archdeacon _in titulum_, but only in charge, and until his Majesty should appoint another. Therefore, the resignation from it was governed by the same rule as the resignation from other chaplaincies of the king, who was the one to appoint other incumbents to them. It is not necessary that those who hold these should make their resignation before the ordinary; and this, it seems, is the practice. For the same object of preventing that presentation, the archbishop exiled Don Andres Xiron, and announced that he was excommunicated. But his Majesty likewise orders in a royal decree that, when the governors should present any persons as prebendaries, the archbishops should accept them, unless they had some objection to offer to them; but that if any exception were made, then such were not to be accepted--with the proviso that the exception must be proved, and, if it should not be proved, then they must pay damages to the one presented. Therefore, the archbishop came forward for this purpose,