work on organizing a national congress. On July 20, 1808, Diego Leño of the Ayuntamiento of Jalapa, called for a congress of representatives from throughout New Spain. The Criollo party continued to agitate, asking for the formation of a junta, as in Spain, and the convening of a congress. Once again the Audiencia was opposed, arguing that New Spain was a colony, and not permitted to take this kind of decision. On August 9, 1808, at a meeting of Notables, the lawyer Primo Verdad y Ramos spoke in favor of popular sovereignty. Some of the oidores (judges on the Audiencia) spoke in rebuttal, declaring the proposal seditious and subversive. Inquisitor Bernardo Prado y Ovejero declared it heresy and anathema. The Notables adopted an intermediate position — New Spain would recognize no authority above the king of Spain. On August 31, 1808 the crisis took a sharper turn with the arrival of Juan Gabriel Jabat, representative of the Junta of Seville, and a message from the Junta of Asturias. Both juntas requested recognition as the legitimate government of Spain by New Spain, thus providing evidence of the lack of any legitimate government in the country. On September 1, 1808, Melchor de Talamantes, a Peruvian priest and the intellectual leader of the Criollo party, delivered two tracts to the Cabildo, in favor of separation from Spain and of the convoking of a Mexican congress. His premises were that all ties to Spain had now been broken; that regional laws had to be made, independently of the mother country; that the Audiencia could not speak in behalf of the king; and that the king having disappeared, sovereignty was now vested in the people. It looked as if open fighting would break out between the mostly Peninsular partisans of the Audiencia and the Criollo ones of the Cabildo. A further meeting on September 9 was tumultuous. Coup deposing the viceroy Iturrigaray was strongly inclined towards the party of the Criollos and held in great suspicion by the Spanish party. He had received Criollo petitions for a congress and disrecognition of the Spanish junta. He had ordered 40,000 pesos sent to the Consulado of Veracruz, notoriously liberal in outlook. He had nominated Criollos to high positions in the administration. And most importantly, he had mobilized the regiment of dragoons from Aguascalientes, stationed in Jalapa. This regiment was under the command of Colonel Ignacio Obregón, an