In Servitio Dei: Fray Diego de Landa, the Franciscan Order, and the Return of the Extirpattion of Idolatry in the Colonial Diocese of Yucatán, 1573–1579*
“My dear spiritual brothers and fathers, you whose relationship to me is closer than that of my own blood. . . . Even though my present position as Bishop might appear to separate me from you, I swear that it cannot divide me from you, because I have and always will be a son of our Father Saint Francis. . . . Now that I have returned, I come to you not as bishop, but rather as a son of this holy province into whose brotherhood I once again seek to incorporate myself. . . .” —Fray Diego de Landa, October 1573 (Spoken before the Franciscan congregation of friars in Mérida upon his arrival as the second bishop of Yucatán) “And of the idolatries that there were, I say that those who have procured to discover these idolatries and expose them and with great zeal for the honor of God those who look for idolatry and denounce it to the judges so that they can be punished, they are none other than the same religious friars of the order of Saint Francis . . .” —Bishop of Yucatán, Diego Vazquez de Mercado, 1603 On the afternoon of June 15, 1574, the conflict between the Franciscan Order and the local governor of the province of Yucatán intensified. A heated controversy had emerged between the recently appointed bishop of Yucatán, Fray Diego de Landa, and the provincial governor, Francisco Velázquez de Gijón. On that afternoon, the dean of the cathedral of Mérida, Licenciado Cristobal de Miranda, went to the home of the provincial governor with a message from the bishop. The governor had recently received an order of excommunication issued by the bishop for his actions against several Franciscan friars.