UBILLA, Andres (oo-beel'-yah), Mexican R. C.
bishop, born in Guipuzcoa, Spain, about 1540; died in Chiapa, Mexico, in 1601.
He went in his youth with his parents to Mexico, where he entered the Dominican
order in 1559, and was graduated in law and theology in 1568. He became
professor of theology in the University of Mexico, superior of the convents of
Mexico and Oaxaca, rector of the College of San Luis de la Puebla, and
provincial of his order in 1582.
In 1589 he went to Spain to complain against the
viceroy, the Marquis of Villamanrique, who was oppressing the Indians, and by
his dispute with the audiencia of Guadalajara threatened to precipitate a civil
war. Ubilla was well received by King Philip II, obtaining the removal of
Villamanrique and the appointment of Luis de Velasco.
Shortly after his return to Mexico, Ubilla was appointed
bishop of Chiapa and consecrated in 1592. He founded during his government a
convent for the nuns of the Incarnation, extended his cathedral, and added to
his diocese the province of Soconusco, which had belonged to Guatemala. In 1600
he was named bishop of Michoacan, but he died before receiving the papal bull of
confirmation.
Besides many Latin works on ecclesiastical law which are
in the Dominican convent of Oaxaca, he wrote "El Sitio y Destrucción de
Jerusalem por Tito y Vespasiano," a manuscript in the Aztec language, which
formerly was in the Franciscan convent of Texcoco, but is now preserved in the
National library of Mexico.
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia by John Looby, Copyright © 2001 StanKlos.comTM
