ABSTRACT
On January 12, 1624, after a long and protracted confrontation between the viceroy of New Spain, the marquis of Gelves, and the archbishop of Mexico, Juan Pérez de la Serna, the audiencia issued an unprecedented writ ordering the archbishop's expulsion from the kingdom of New Spain. That same day, Pérez de la Serna was placed in a carriage and escorted by troops to Veracruz, but, defying the viceroy's orders, the cortege stopped at San Juan de Teotihuacán, a mere 20 miles or so from Mexico City. On the morning of January 14, Lorenzo de Terrones, alcalde del crimen of the audiencia of Mexico, who was in Teotihuacán, received orders from the viceroy to force the archbishop to continue his journey to Veracruz. In order to execute the viceroy's orders, the magistrate, accompanied by the chief constable of the audiencia, a notary, and several soldiers, went to the convent of San Francisco where he had been informed he would be able to find the prelate. That morning, Pérez de la Serna had declared that because he had no intention of leaving Teotihuacán, he would have to be dragged out of town. The alcalde and his party found the archbishop in the church of the convent. He was standing by the high altar, "covered with a cape embroidered in gold and with the monstrance of the Holy Sacrament uncovered." On seeing them, the archbishop took one Host in his hands and showed it to the newcomers. Faced with this gesture, the alcalde begged the archbishop not to consume the consecrated Host. The prelate answered that he would not, but when the alcalde ordered the soldiers to take the archbishop to the carriage that was awaiting him, he again took the Host in his hands, forcing the soldiers to stop dead. According to the account of the notary, the archbishop then sat on a chair that was next to the altar "and with great sorrow and shedding tears, he begged everyone to consider the state this affair had reached, pondering in Latin and Romance how His Excellency the said viceroy, the marquis of Gelves, without justification, had forced the oidores to issue the writ that banned him from the kingdom. And among other reasons, he asserted that the said marquis of Gelves was the greatest tyrant in the world." Faced with the archbishop's determination to utilize the Sacred Host as weapon and shield to prevent his deportation, the alcalde had no alternative other than to send the notary back to the capital to inform the viceroy of what had happened. The following day, a riot would break out in Mexico City that would end with the overthrow of the viceroy, an occurrence, likewise, without precedent in the history of New Spain. 1
