Such language in open council, addressed by the presiding officer to a bishop, sounds incredible, and considering the great influence of religion on all Spaniards of that time, it is not wonderful that after such insolence, this petty official was regarded by the entire community as excommunicated; a half-hearted apology, ungraciously made, sufficed however to avoid an open scandal.
Las Casas had already assured his friars in Ciudad Real that he neither felt insults nor feared threats, so the vulgar abuse of Maldonado did not touch him; he drew up and presented a wordy memorial to the Audiencia, divided into seven articles. The first article affirmed that the Bishop was hindered in the exercise of his ecclesiastical jurisdiction, by the opposition of the officers of justice. The second asks for the aid of the secular arm to punish those guilty of disobedience and sacrilege. The third asks that the Indians may be relieved from tyrannous oppression, particularly from the excessive taxes and forced labour exacted from them. The fourth article solicits the transfer of all causes affecting the Indians from the civil to the ecclesiastical courts. The fifth begs the Audiencia to forbid all wars, conquests, invasions of territory, and the establishment of Spanish haciendas in Yucatan. The sixth article petitions orders for the good treatment of the few Indians still held by the Crown in Yucatan, and the seventh asks that the officials of the Audiencia transfer to the Crown, all Indians and all villages affected by the royal ordinances already published. The answer of the Audiencia was brief and amounted to a denial of the Bishop's allegations. (60) Foreseeing, doubtless, the rupture which must inevitably follow the presentation of his memorial, Las Casas had already written to Prince Philip, regent during the Emperor's absence from Spain.
On the 25th of October, a letter signed by the Bishops of Chiapa and Nicaragua was despatched to Prince Philip complaining of the conduct of the Audiencia towards the churches, and declaring that since the New Laws were ignored and left in abeyance, the cruel treatment of the Indians had increased. It was alleged that the President, Maldonado, and his associates possessed more than 60,000 Indians and that he encouraged his governors in every kind of tyranny and robbery of the natives for all of which the too compliant Audiencia neglected to provide any remedy. The destitute and helpless condition of the bishops and clergy was set forth, and they were described as the only faithful subjects whom the sovereign had in those regions, for all the other royal officials were solely occupied with their own interests and in opposing the clergy in the discharge of their pastoral duties. The two bishops urged upon the Prince to liberate all the Indians absolutely and immediately, as the only means to stop the growing evil. The more to impress the Prince with the independent spirit of the colonial officials in ignoring royal orders and violating the express provisions of the New Laws, the bishops affirmed that most of them--with but few exceptions--were even inclined to independence and were secretly as much rebels as those in Peru. An increase in the number of bishops was asked of the Prince, with new dioceses in Yucatan and Chiapa, which were too extensive for one bishop to govern. It plainly appears in this letter that the writers were aware that the Audiencia had written, asking that a metropolitan judge should be sent out with superior powers of jurisdiction to hold them in check, but far from opposing this project, they agreed to it, suggesting, however, that he should be a papal legate and that meanwhile, until such a one could arrive, some one of the bishops should be deputed to hear appeals and decide cases with arch-episcopal powers.